The Energy Efficiency of Building Components. The Case of Historical Masonry Through a Multidisciplinary Approach

In the Italian context, about 65% of the buildings were built prior to the first law which introduced criteria for energy saving. According to Istat data, of the entire stock of historic inhabited buildings, almost two out of ten were built before 1919. This was the historical moment of the progressive abandonment of traditional construction techniques. In general, therefore, there are more than 2.1 million inhabited historic buildings. From a quantitative point of view, these buildings have a consistent “weight” in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal 7 set by the 2030 Agenda. For this reason, a question to be answered concerns the search for compatible methods, techniques and intervention strategies to implement the energy efficiency of historic buildings, with the aim of responding to the sustainability demands of the international community. Many scholars have dedicated time and research to the topic of energy efficiency in buildings, but the study of the state of the art has highlighted the presence of numerous research gaps to be overcome. In light of the arguments, multidisciplinary research was developed to define strategies and methodologies to promote the energy efficiency of traditional masonry. This is a very complex issue, therefore it was faced from three main points of view or topics: the lack of information regarding the thermal performance of the historic masonry; problems relating to the compatibility of design interventions; analysis of the sustainability of design solutions from an environmental, energy, social and economic point of view.