Pierluigi De Berardinis

Renewable Energy Sources in Minor Historical Centers. New Scenarios of Sustainable Development of the Territory

The integration of building systems that exploit renewable energy sources in urban rehabilitation projects has shown interesting technological possibilities of intervention in different areas and with varying degrees of success, defining scenarios of high architectural acceptability even in sensitive contexts. Any recovery project aiming at the integration of systems exploiting renewable energy sources in historical contexts, typically characterized by a pre-modern material culture that forms their main testimonial value, requires an accurate process to verify the integrability, variable case by-case, that needs to be articulated at different scales: from the single building elements to the urban dimension of the village (roads, open spaces, urban spaces …). The attention placed on the historic villages stems from the desire to achieve an ambitious goal, namely the revival and revitalization of the territory in order to increase the overall level of quality and technological innovation, to avert the risk of depopulation and abandonment of human settlements. Moreover the promotion of the reuse of existing buildings or structures could avoid the construction of new building complexes that would cause, inevitably, a further use of the land. Finally, the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources would allow a significant reduction in consumption levels. The variety of topics presented entails important issues in relation to the integration of these systems, but the effort made is undoubtedly an important “step” along the way towards environmental sustainability and energy self-sufficiency.

BIPV in the Refurbishment of Minor Historical Centres： The Project of Integrability between Standard and Customized Technology

The proposed research is aimed to define some BIPV (building integrated photovoltaics) paradigms for the refurbishment of historical contexts, by defining strategic criteria related to linguistic-architectural and technological-constructive aspects of solar systems (including case-studies in specific application contexts). This research could, once perfected and shared, be used within operative tools (guidelines, case studies, etc.) really applicable to common scale, e.g., in today’s post-earthquake reconstruction in L’Aquila, for defining possible solar implementation possibilities in sensitive areas according to an innovative and sustainable method of intervention.

The Cycle route of the upper Aterno valley: between ecotourism and sustainable mobility

Nell’ottica della promozione della mobilita sostenibile e del rilancio e valorizzazione di territori ed alla luce del crescente interesse verso la specifica tematica, la Regione Abruzzo ha avviato uno studio di fattibilita per la realizzazione di una pista polifunzionale nell’Alta Valle dell’Aterno. Il contributo che si intende proporre ha come obiettivo quello di illustrare il percorso decisionale e i risultati che sono stati raggiunti gia in tale studio che ha previsto la realizzazione di una dorsale principale e di un sistema di reti, a scopo sia turistico che amatoriale, oltre che come servizio alla mobilita locale. La finalita della ricerca e stata quella di individuare una strategia progettuale facilmente replicabile e di dotare le amministrazioni di uno strumento di programmazione.

The compatibility of off-grid technologies in the rehabilitation of energy network of minor historical centres

The research links the issue of recovery of the small Italian historic centres to the environmental issue, proposing the sustainable recovery as opportunity to carry out a virtuous action in the territory. The study of these territories, particularly the inner area of Abruzzo Region affected by the earthquake of April 6, 2009, offers the opportunity to carry out a research that aims to redevelop a heritage abandoned for year, now further compromised by the earthquake. An operational methodology aimed at energetic rehabilitation of the minor centres has been drawn up, which starts from an in-depth knowledge of the investigation area, identifying its peculiarity. Then we analyzed the intervention area and highlighted the applicable technologies through a careful “process of compatibility” (Zordan et al., 2002) with the context. In the present study there is an interest in the topic of energy networks, in their state of use and deterioration and possibility of renewable energy sources integration. In particular, we examine/analyze the off-grid technological systems potentiality and criticality, identifying the possibility of their application in the minor centres.