AI-Driven Morphological Classification of the Italian School Building Stock: Towards a Deep Energy Renovation Roadmap

Giacomo Caccia, Matteo Cavaglià, Fulvio Re Cecconi, Andrea Giovanni Mainini (), Marta Maria Sesana and Elisa Di Giuseppe
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Giacomo Caccia: Department of Architecture, Built Environment and Construction Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Via Ponzio 31, 20133 Milan, Italy
Matteo Cavaglià: Department of Architecture, Built Environment and Construction Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Via Ponzio 31, 20133 Milan, Italy
Fulvio Re Cecconi: Department of Architecture, Built Environment and Construction Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Via Ponzio 31, 20133 Milan, Italy
Andrea Giovanni Mainini: Department of Architecture, Built Environment and Construction Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Via Ponzio 31, 20133 Milan, Italy
Marta Maria Sesana: Department of Civil, Environmental, Architectural Engineering and Mathematics, University of Brescia, 25123 Brescia, Italy
Elisa Di Giuseppe: Department of Construction, Civil Engineering and Architecture (DICEA), Università Politecnica delle Marche, 60131 Ancona, Italy

Energies, 2025, vol. 18, issue 18, 1-29

Abstract: The Italian school building stock is largely outdated, with structural and technological inadequacies leading to low comfort and high energy consumption. Addressing this challenge requires large-scale renovation supported by an integrated, data-driven approach. This study conducted a nationwide analysis of over 40,000 school buildings. After incomplete or inconsistent records were filtered out, a refined subset was selected. Building forms were reconstructed by cross-referencing GIS data with multiple open data sources. Using supervised machine learning, the research identifies and classifies recurring morphological patterns to define a set of 3D school building archetypes. These archetypes are enriched with spatial configurations and physical characteristics aligned with national educational standards. The result is a macrotypological classification based on form, conceived as part of an operational tool to support policymakers, designers, and public administrations in selecting effective retrofit strategies. This contributes to the creation of large-scale national renovation strategies, as well as Renovation Roadmaps and Digital Building Logbooks in line with the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD IV), specifically tailored to the Italian context. The novelty of this work lies in its unprecedented scale and the use of AI to enable fast, replicable assessments of retrofit potential, thereby supporting informed decisions in energy-efficient renovation planning.

Keywords: energy performance; schools and educational buildings; GIS; synthetic images; data augmentation; cluster analysis; k -nearest neighbors (kNN); architectural engineering; form factor; building renovation passport (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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