Projects

The renewal of the building stock makes a significant contribution to the challenging target of acarbon neutral society. In this context, the present Proposal aims to assess innovative solutions forimproving the energy efficiency of existing buildings while enhancing the structural safety. MostItalian buildings require deep renovation; the investigation of new materials and technologies for acombined structural and energy retrofitting may significantly concur to environmental, economicand social benefits, as reduction of energy consumption and greenhouse emissions, resilience toclimate change and environmental disasters, mitigation of energy poverty, improvement of livingconditions. A wealth of solutions has been recently developed, concerning technical methods,business models and financing schemes for eco-renovation practices. On the other hand, structuralinterventions have been largely addressed since our dated building stock generally manifests highvulnerability to natural and anthropic actions. However, one of the main barriers remains the inertiaof the market on reacting to innovations due to the complexity of the interventions, often related toseparate solutions in solving the energy or structural weaknesses. In the last years, the interest innovel materials and techniques for the combined retrofitting has steadily grown aiming to effectivelycontribute to the goal of safe, resilient and sustainable cities. In addition, the re-use of wastematerial should be also considered and challenged in order to support the Circular Economy Plan .In this scenario, the suitability of alternatives to cementitious-based systems was recentlyinvestigated. In the Project, new composite systems (cement-free and corrosion-free) will bedeveloped by considering both mechanical and thermal properties in a revolutionary holisticsolution. The goal is to provide responses for climate mitigation and adaptation through a deeprenovation of one of the most polluting sources: buildings. At the same time, the improvement ofstructural safety is also addressed to prevent disaster and loss of lives. At this scope, anexperimental program is herein proposed focusing on infilled RC-buildings and masonry structureswith curved diaphragm. The tests aim to evaluate both the mechanical and thermal capacityimprovement, also in comparison with available techniques and those most used within theinvestigated territory. In addition, some representative cases of study will be identified to validatethe obtained results in practical applications. Finally, the impact of the proposed solutions will beassessed considering environmental, social and economic issues; at this aim a measure ofimproved buildings sustainability will be proposed, by defining a renovation index that includes improvement in terms of energy efficiency, structural safety, durability, recycling of waste materialsand cost with respect to the current targets and possible future scenarios