Building in Historical Areas: Identity Values and Energy Performance of Innovative Massive Stone Envelopes with Reference to Traditional Building Solutions

Abstract

Abstract:The intrinsic nature of local rocks shaped the features of built heritage in historical centers. The resulting building culture is part of the cultural heritage itself, and must be considered when building in such areas, while it is essential to solve the issues related to traditional constructions' weaknesses. Nonetheless, the potentialities of massive stone envelopes, particularly the importance of thermal inertia, have contributed to redefining the language of contemporary architectural culture. Nowadays, although the trend of employing thin stone cladding panels is prevalent, thick stone envelopes are gaining a renewed importance. Previous literature demonstrated that mixed building technologies or massive stone envelopes coupled with load-bearing framed structures are able to meet comfort and safety requirements and to guarantee the integration of new constructions in the consolidated urban landscape, avoiding historicist approaches. This research, through the analysis of case studies, aims to describe innovative building solutions developed by contemporary architectural culture, comparing them with traditional stone masonry walls. Moreover, thermal energy performance of such building solutions is assessed through dynamic yearly simulations. Results show that these solutions are technically and architecturally suitable to build in historical centers, because they can express urban cultural identity and guarantee good energy performance and users' comfort.

Guidelines for Natural Stone Products in Connection with European Standards

“…Each element is a flat fragment of natural stone less than 12 mm thick [58]. Thin natural stone pieces are more sensitive to the external environment and degradation than thick natural stone pieces [4,16]. These stone products are highly prone to external degradation factors.…”

“…Natural stones have been widely used for architecture and construction purposes since ancient times [1][2][3]. In many regions of Europe, they have characterised traditional buildings and historical monuments [4]. Considering historical and cultural aspects, natural stones represent geographical diversity and preserve stone-built heritage [5].…”

A Numerical Investigation of the Thermal Performance of a Gabion Building Envelope in Cold Regions with a Mountainous Climate

“…In terms of thermal comfort, traditional single-layer rock envelope cannot meet human demand with HVAC system; with regard to safety, it is prone to collapse owing to non-uniformity. Due to rock's good ecological expression and architectural value, gabion architecture was first introduced by designers to further overcome shortcoming of traditional rock envelope [14].…”

Simulación de estrategias bioclimáticas concretas con el objetivo de poner en valor los diseños de la arquitectura tradicional. Caso de estudio: la inercia térmica en El Valle

“…In this way one of the most widely used strategy is thermal inertia, dependent on the thermal storage capacity of local materials (18)(19)(20). Among solid sensible heat storage materials of traditional buildings (21) are rocks or massive stones in heavy walls (22), (23,24), clay walls (25) in timber buildings (26), sand and gravel (21), and further the ground effect (27,28).…”