Nearly Zero Energy in Existing Buildings: a socio-economical evaluation of possible retrofitting strategies.

The paper aims at presenting alternative ways of investigating, planning and managing sustainable urban environments, by exploring the possibility to use energy retrofitting options as a socio-economical leverage towards nearly Zero Energy Buildings (nZEBs). In particular, by using selected case studies, the research work here presented has performed the technical-economical evaluation on different hypothetical scenarios, demonstrating that energy efficiency in the residential urban complex can be considered as an extraordinary opportunity to restore environmental, social and urban quality. The techno-economical feasibility assessment, the proper identification of the types of intervention and their combination in possible scenarios must be investigated and estimated on a case-by-case basis, with an effective and interdisciplinary design approach integrating into a whole system the socio-technical aspects into the feasibility study of economical and architectural issues. In this context, a renewed role of architects and planners is what is needed for a real shift in the building practice. In fact, instead of trying to structure the informal through the architectural production based on authorship, architects should consider the users’ perspective and their need for self-organized processes of negotiation. This strategy can help in engaging a real shift from the current practice towards a social sustainable process where inhabitants and designers work together to find effective and real solutions to social and technical questions. The urban and technological strategies here presented suggest a multi-fold approach that could stimulate the process of energy renewal according to a socio-oriented use of architectural tools in urban environments.