Energy retrofit and indoor environmental requalification of existing school buildings. Method and tools for operating procedures

Within the existing building stock, schools occupy a large segment of public real estate but are rarely involved in widespread retrofit investment plans. For example, according to Italian statistics, two thirds of existing schools are hosted in buildings constructed between 1940 and 1990, many of which have not undergone substantial changes and transformations over time. Verifications made by Public Administrations and users demonstrate that these structures have many building problems related to the consumption of resources, the wellbeing and security of users and, not least, the management by local government units. Operating substantially and in a scheduled way on existing school buildings, by adapting the physical environment and optimizing the use of resources, would, on the one hand, increase the quality of construction and conditions of use (and then last but not least the effectiveness of the educational system) and, on the other hand, improve the economic management of resources by local government units. The paper describes the achievements of a study concerning the definition of a methodological framework for the diagnosis and retrofit of the existing schools, considered as a critical issue for the Italian and international building stock. Considering the lack of information about existing school buildings’ technological features at a national level, the study takes advantage from the direct investigation on 232 case studies for the definition of the state-of-the-art and it is developed with a multi-disciplinary approach, where both energy and environmental improvements are the objectives to be achieved