A large part of the stock of Italian educational buildings have undertaken energy retrofit interventions, thanks to European funds allocated by complex technical-administrative calls. In these projects, the suggested retrofit strategies are often selected based on the common best practices (considering average energy savings) but are not supported by proper energy investigations. In this paper, Italian school buildings' stock was analyzed by cluster analysis with the aim of providing a methodology able to identify the best energy retrofit interventions from the perspective of cost-benefit, and to correlate them with the specific characteristics of the educational buildings. This research is based on the analysis of about 80 school buildings located in central Italy and characterized by different features and construction technologies. The refurbished buildings were classified in homogeneous clusters and, for each of them, the most representative building was identified. Furthermore, for each representative building a validating procedure based on dynamic simulations and a comparison with actual energy use was performed. The two buildings thus singled out provide a model that could be developed into a useful tool for Public Administrations to suggest priorities in the planning of new energy retrofits of existing school building stocks.

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In order to ensure that Italian building regulations comply with the Kyoto Protocol, we aim to propose a classification method for building materials. Actually, we aren't able to choose materials comparing their energy and environmental value. A database of building materials based on the LCA system is not yet available (national research "Genius loci"), but the rules about low energy building are mostly completed; we omit the rules and methods concerning how to choose materials in low energy buildings. Using a national LCA based database we aim to classify building materials into several classes and to define the possibility of choosing materials, balancing the environmental class and their weighting in the building. In this way we will provide the possibility for choosing materials based on their contribution to the environmental impact of the building as a whole. The idea is not to force designers, architects or engineers to choose all materials for a building which belong to the best class, but to force them to balance materials to guarantee that all of them together will produce a low environmental impact. To do this, each material has to be weighted on its LCA results and on its quantity. This method will agree with the spirit of the Italian law about low energy design and give to the designer the right flexibility in choosing materials, respecting a global environmental evaluation of building. It will also be a possible item for the implementation of the D. Lgs 192/05 that apply to EU Directive 2002/91/CE on the energy performance of buildings.

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This paper presents the results of a three-year research project aimed at addressing the issue of water shortage and retention/collection in drought-affected rural areas of Sub-Saharan Africa. The project consisted in the design, construction, and the upgrade of existing barrages near Kita, the regional capital of Kayes in Mali. The effort was led by the Department of Architecture of Roma Tre University in partnership with the Onlus Gente d’Africa (who handled the on-the-ground logistics), the Department of Architecture of the University of Florence and the École Supérieure d’Ingénierie, d’Architecture et d’Urbanisme of Bamako, Mali. The practical realization of the project was made possible by Romagna Acque Società delle Fonti Ltd., a water utility supplying drinking water in the Emilia-Romagna region (Italy) that provided the financing as well as the operational contribution of AES Architettura Emergenza Sviluppo, a nonprofit association operating in the depressed areas of the world. The completion of the research project resulted in the replenishment of reservoirs and renewed presence of water in the subsoil of the surrounding areas. Several economic activities such as fishing and rice cultivation have spawned from the availability of water. The monitoring of these results is still ongoing; however, it is already possible to assess some critical issues highlighted, especially with the progress of the COVID-19 pandemic in the research areas.