Historic Preservation VS Innovative Design. The Role of Urban Morphology in the Urban Retrofitting Processes

Abandoned urban areas often consist of a large number of critical issues concerning building types and technology, open spaces and natural residual areas, therefore they concentrate all the components of a whole city in one section. Focusing on a real case study in Bologna, the dismissed military area SANI CASARALTA, in the north sector of the city, the paper discusses about the search for an “interpretative analysis”, a reading procedure consisting of data requirements to be used as design tools in the planning process. By means of specific comparison between local characters and existing building techniques, the paper suggests a design procedure based on the use of new technologies as possible interaction between “intentionality” in urban planning and evolution of historical urban forms. The potential of selected passive techniques focusing on energy saving demand and respecting the existing buildings’ characters -with a specific reference to the energy constraints- is discussed. The buildings’ retrofitting design combines passive tools with solar and wind energy micro-generation, resulting in a comprehensive plan for “Zero local CO2 emission and Zero Energy balance” urban re-development. Results show that integration of active and passive techniques in urban and building types can lead to feasible, energy-efficient and low-cost solutions where the respect of tradition may translate into high quality performing urban areas within recognizable urban environments. In the search for a reasonable co-habitation between innovation and historic preservation, it is therefore evident that innovation –if specifically integrated within built landscapes and new building types- can even be enhanced by the critical reading of context and the awareness of existing environmental resources.