Towards a Sustainable Architecture.The raise of the smart grid network

Housing has represented one of the most ancient aspects in the social life of humankind. The need of a shelter has developed through millennia from the basic forms of dolmen to the current deconstructivist and emotional architectures that contribute to the identification of cities, countries and cultures. Although the new architectural styles have deeply developed from their basic solutions, they still respond to the same needs of housing, social aggregator and icons. Nonetheless, the transformation the architecture has encountered in the centuries can be divided in four main groups, depending on features like architectural composition, material use and energy requirements. These groups can be defined as sustainable primitive solutions, technology dependent architectures,passive architectures and finally the active architectures that have arisen in the last years. The thesis research analyzes the development of these four groups through the investigation of those forces and principles that have contributed and enforced the development of the peculiarities of the built forms of the respective period. In particular, the research focuses on the development of active housing in regard to the current economical and energetic crises, highlighting the transformation of housing from a pure architectonic process to a wider concept of sustainable energy producer. On a further stage, the research underlines the opportunities that active architectures offer in terms of energy production while overtaking the “NYMBism” that is often correlated with energy facilities. Finally, it analyses the development of smart grids, water management and biogas production as important tools for the development of a network of architectures that become diffuse small energy facilities and sustainable resource consumers