Guidelines for the retrofit of the school building stock for sustainable urban regeneration of the city of Rome

The City of Rome is trying to come into line, culturally and strategically, with European standards of environmental health and energy savings. This study is designed as a roadmap for the retrofit of existing building stock, through the analysis of case studies of major significance in terms of building characteristics and period of construction. The recognition of the consistency of the existing school building stock and the subsequent selection of the buildings that are representative of general conditions allowed us to compare results and draw from them intervention guidelines that are applicable to almost all of the school building stock. The guidelines developed by the authors take into account the optimisation of the building envelope and plant system, as well as the pay-back period of each case. The interventions, with their low investment costs, have significant benefits in terms of energy efficiency, with a subsequent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, and in terms of indoor and outdoor environmental quality, and propose a systemic approach to the retrofit of Mediterranean cities, which often have ancient and monumental historic centres that need to be protected and enhanced, as well as in the established suburbs, defined as those that appeared up to the 1970s-1980s. For these buildings, characterised by great potential for transformation and often with poor architectural and technological quality, the energy retrofit is also an opportunity to redesign and redefine the levels-objectives of indoor comfort. The reduction of energy consumption in school buildings, estimated at about 40% for the envelope and 20% for the plant, other than the evident environmental benefits to the territory, also has a significant impact on the education of the individual awareness of the users. Widespread retrofit of public structures at the disposal of young students, other than having a powerful impact in the reduction of greenhouse gases, constitutes a fundamental element in education on environmental issues and quality of the built, creating an unquantifiable extra value for sustainable development in the City of Rome and for the construction of more liveable and civilised cities. © 2012 WIT Press.