Historical analysis and refurbishment proposal of the “Red schools” in Viterbo

¹ Department of Planning, Design and Technology of Architecture, Sapienza University of Rome, Via Flaminia 72, 00196 Rome, Italy
² Interdepartmental Centre for Landscape, Building, Conservation, Environment (CITERA), Sapienza University of Rome, Via A. Gramsci, 53-00197 Rome, Italy;

Abstract

To hinder climate change, EU legislation requires that by 2020 each European state achieves the objectives set by the 2020 Climate and Energy Package. Particular attention is paid not only to new constructed buildings, the so-called Near Zero Energy Buildings, but also to the existing building stock: in Italy in fact, in addition to the National Action Plan to increase the NZEB buildings (PANZEB), the Strategy for Energy Renewal of the National Real Estate Park (STERPIN) is planned. The aim of the thesis work is a primary school built in 1938 within the historical centre of Viterbo. The work touched on three different areas of design: the design of the internal and external spaces, annexed to the school building, finding solutions for a flexible and functional distribution in line with the theories of modern pedagogy, moving from a school of homologation to a school of diversity enhancement.

This was joined by a study concerning the original elevations and constructive features, bearers of historical and aesthetic values, which resulted in the proposal for conservative restoration of the Terranova plaster and the original iron-window profiles.

Finally, attention was paid to energy upgrading and efficiency, in line with regulatory provisions.

The interventions did not only concern the building envelope (through a thermal upgrading of the original iron-windows, the insulation of the flat roof and the indoor thermal coat of the perimeter walls), but also the system (through the replacement of the boiler with a heat pump, integrated with the photovoltaic system placed on the roof, the inclusion of thermostatic valves and lighting design with the replacement of fluorescent lamps with LED ones).