SUSTAINABLE ARCHITECTURE AND INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGIES FOR DEEP RENOVATION OF SCHOOL BUILDINGS: THE DESIGN EXPERIENCE IN THE ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN COURSE OF THE ARCHITECTURE SCHOOL AT THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORENCE

This paper presents teaching methodology and results of a didactic experience developed in a University course of Florence Architecture School, a Laboratory on Environmental Design focused on deep renovation of School Buildings. These educational buildings represent, in fact, 17% of the European stock of buildings and approximately 12% of average, non-residential, energy consumption in Europe. Furthermore, Europe’s school building stock is relatively old and has poor energy performances. The European Energy Efficiency Directive provides that, from 1 January 2014, 3% of public buildings, included schools and kindergartens, should be refurbished every year with a high standard of energy efficiency. However many barriers hamper the implementation of this prevision, in particular the lack of knowledge of new generation of architects, on environmental aspects and innovative technologies, to use in design process to achieve the nZEB targets. To overcoming this gap, the methodological approach of the design experimentation developed during the course “Environmental Design” by the students, was focused on following main points: 1) Improvement the building’s envelope to avoid energy losses in wintertime and improve its performance; 2) Improvement of the indoor environment quality regarding to ventilation and passive cooling, daylight, to upgrade the classrooms requirements; 3) Improvement of energy generation on site by using active renewable energy sources, beside the passive gains integrated in the school buildings. This teaching approach has allowed to the students to find new sustainable design solutions that are able to decrease the energy consumptions of school buildings how required from EU legislation and, in the same time, has contributed to shaping a “Thriving Future”, by facilitating transfer of knowledge and skills from the market requirements into the design professions, how required from contemporary environmental and societal challenges.