Bioclimatic approach in urban open space retrofit intervention: the case of Prati area in Rome

Modern climatic comfort needs and technologies aimed at energy self-production impose a wide perspective in the management of urban space and existing building fabric in Italy; this perspective should address energy efficiency, environmental, social and financial sustainability on a medium/long term period in relation to the built environment and in between spaces, in other words, in relation to urban reservoirs. In light of these considerations the main objective of this research was to evaluate and compare how the air temperature variations in relation to fluid-dynamic phenomenon in urban contexts can influence energy consumption related to climate construction in the Mediterranean. By means of an open confrontation on the solutions that are undergoing experimentation in Italy and in the rest of the Mediterranean countries, a research on the Prati area in Rome was developed, with an interdisciplinary group that tackled the complex relationship between potentiality and limitations of the current Mediterranean urban form model, following an innovative approach aimed at defining action scenarios that ought to be implemented acting on building’s façades, outdoor paving systems, green in between spaces and ventilation. In order to accomplish the above mentioned objective we used a series of numeric and calculus simulations that took into account urban morphology, identified and evaluated in each case, in order to deliver an optimal understanding of urban form implications, with reference to building’s height and densities, surrounding vegetation height and density and paving systems’ characteristics.