The attic and its effect on the energy performance of historic buildings

This paper aims to investigate the problem of attics conservation or dismantling from historic buildings. The attic, unconsciously inherited and planned with the traditional building techniques, constitutes a precious architectural heritage in the field of historic housing in the whole European patrimony. In many cases, the peculiarities of the type of techniques and the use of traditional local materials are the reasons why attics constitute an evidence of an active culture of know-how that has to be preserved. Furthermore, the attic-mediated heat transfer between indoor and outdoor environments, contributes to the saving of building heat loss. Nevertheless, the practice of eliminating attics is particularly diffused, and building owner or architects, preferring to dismantle their structure, compensate this loss by using insulating boards to constitute the final roofing section.