From the Efficiency of Nature to Parametric Design. A Holistic Approach for Sustainable Building Renovation in Seismic Regions

Sebastiano D’Urso and Bruno Cicero
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Sebastiano D’Urso: Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture, University of Catania, Via Santa Sofia 64, 95123 Catania, Italy
Bruno Cicero: Architect-engineer, Via Mariannina Schininà 177b, 97100 Ragusa, Italy

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 5, 1-20

Abstract: Cities are growing dramatically. At the same time, we are witnessing the obsolescence of the existing building stock due to its low performance in terms of structural stability, energy efficiency and, last but not least, beauty. Especially in Italy, a highly seismic country, most of the buildings erected between the 1950s and the 1980s are not only earthquake-prone but also aesthetically unpleasant. In this perspective, the urgency of improving the existing building stock in terms of seismic vulnerability opens up the opportunity to also work on its architectural image. This article draws from the assumption that the search for beauty represents an important and often neglected dimension of the search for sustainability. In particular, the presented study suggests and combines the use of parametric design and the structural shape of steel exoskeletons to renovate a typical earthquake-prone apartment block from the 1960s in Italy. The results show that the proposed parametric approach can provide and select different effective renovation solutions.

Keywords: sustainability and aesthetics; architectural image; parametric design; exoskeleton; seismic renovation; apartment blocks (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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