Historic microclimate vs modern standards from pre-plan indoors microclimate performances to modern performances in historic buildings

The paper originates from the research on the subject of the specific microclimate of some historical buildings, as this is an important element to understand the processes of decay of traditional building materials used to erect them. The research is conducted by Marco Pretelli, professor of heritage buildings restoration, and Kristian Fabbri, professor of applied physics in the same Dipartimento. The paper is based on the architectonical and microclimatic surveys performed in the Malatestiana Library in Cesena, Italy, in 2013. Now we are working to extend this program to some historical buildings in Italy and Belgium. The thesis argued in this paper is that historical buildings show in many cases the intrinsic capacity to achieve the highest performance standards in the absence of the main contemporary tool, thanks to criteria of design, planning and implementation, at least for what concerns the microclimatic standards, HVAC systems. This has to push the contemporary architect on how important knowledge of the context, of the objectives and of the tools are needed on the one hand, and on the other to explore the extent to which excessive specialization of the technicians involved and the absence of dialogue penalize results.