Abstract:

The paper describes teaching methodology and results of an international workshop “Sustainable Schools for Med Area” within a cooperation agreement between the University of Florence and the University of Bojaca (Colombia).

Educational buildings represent, in fact, 17% of the European stock of buildings and approximately 12% of average, non-residential, energy consumption in Europe. Furthermore, Europe’s school building stock is relatively old and has poor energy performances. The European Energy Efficiency Directive provides that, from 1 January 2018, all new public buildings, included schools and kindergartens, should be built to achieve high standard of energy efficiency, reducing their energy consumption to zero. However many barriers hamper the implementation of this prevision, in particular the lack of knowledge of new generation of architects, on environmental aspects and innovative technologies, to use in design process to achieve the nZEB targets.

To overcoming this gap, the methodological approach of the design experimentation developed during the international workshop “Sustainable School for Med Area” by the students, was focused on following main points:
1) Improvement the building’s envelope (opaque and transparent) to avoid energy losses in wintertime and improve its performance in summer, with solar shading and ventilation components dedicated;
2) Improvement of the indoor environment quality regarding to ventilation and passive cooling, daylight, to upgrade the classrooms requirements;
3) Improvement of energy generation on site by using active renewable energy sources, beside the passive gains integrated in the school buildings.

This teaching approach has allowed the Italian and Colombian students to find new sustainable design solutions that are able to decrease the energy consumption of school buildings as required from EU legislation and, in the same time, has contributed to shaping a “Thriving Future”, by facilitating transfer of knowledge and skills from the market requirements into the design professions, as required from contemporary environmental and societal challenges.

Keywords:

Sustainable design education, energy efficiency, School Buildings, design studio.