Small energy production plants in ancient settlements: the case study of Camogli

You only have to take a look around to understand how slow is the process through which the building trade meets the transformation of human demands. This happens maybe due to its close relation with primary and unchanged needs, such as resting, feeding, and in general carrying on life’s basic activities into a controlled environment. But despite this, or probably because of it, our houses don’t seem so far from our ancestors’ dwellings. And still our lifestyle is extremely different from their lifestyle, as well as different are the services available for our personal comfort. Many of the several elements that characterize contemporary age (heating systems, plumbing, building materials, etc.) have been introduced somehow secretly, have been hidden, or have been camouflaged with ancient or traditional shapes. The inclusion in the consolidated built environment of new elements belonging to different worlds, as in the case of micro systems for energy production, has always been difficult. The comparison between pre-existing objects and new "unknown" elements has always posed the question of whether and how to accomplish an integration. Although both the protection policies and the economical support policies for local production of energy are defined at national level, as defined by European directives, it is at local level that inconsistency between different objectives emerge. These objectives sometimes are difficult to harmonize, for different sensitivity of the area (in terms of r.e.s. availability, architectural and landscape character, cultural sensitivity of public opinion). The problem of the introduction in the historical building landscape of the new devices for thermal and electrical energy production (as it happened with the satellite dishes and air conditioners) - particularly solar thermal, photovoltaics and micro-wind systems - is widely debated but it's hard to find an approach widely recognized and shared in Italy. The market is still making several efforts in responding to the issue of integration of plant devices in the architecture, but always in the direction of mimesis, clearly failing, in our opinion. Would not it be better a "honest" comparison, while maintaining individuality and recognition, giving the right value to both technical and aesthetical solutions in the existing buildings as well as in the new additions? This paper discusses this issue thanks to a research under development