Learning from the past toward energy resilient strategies in historic districts. A case study in Apulia Region (Italy)

Abstract

The high exposure of future changes in temperature trends in the southern part of Mediterranean area encouraged scientific community in defining strategies aiming at the reduction of cooling needs as short and long-term goals. Furthermore, local urban properties and their transformation contribute in altering microclimate at the micro-scale. Focus on a specific part of urban built stock, historic districts represent an exception in managing processes of recovery and energy retrofit strategies due to their landscape values; moreover, these districts show their recent transformations caused by the previous abandonment phase and, often, consequent loss of blocks. In that context, the paper shows the representative case study of historic district of Molfetta, in Apulia region (Italy): here, the energy assessment takes into account the effect of the abandonment of the district during 60s on the in use residential built stock in a temporal-climate prediction. As it was well demonstrated in previous experiences, strategies for the energy retrofit of residential buildings in historic district should allow to identify their inherent bioclimatic behaviours according with the genius loci evidences; furthermore, recognize and correct previous failures represent the opportunity to “learn from the past” in the “resilient thinking” process, above all after traumatic events.