Retrofitting with vegetation recent building heritage applying a design tool—the case study of a school building

Several researchesshowtheenvironmentalandmicroclimaticbenefits oftheintegrationof vegetation inarchitecture;howeverthepotentialitiesofverticalandhorizontalgreening systems toretrofit buildingsarestillnotmuchinvestigated.Theretrofitting projectofthe Barsanti InstituteofCamogli(Genoa,Italy)ispresented,abuildingdatedbacktothesixties with seriousarchitecturalandefficiency problems,locatedinaconsiderablelandscapearea. The developmentandapplicationofadesigntool(processtree),forhorizontalandvertical greened surfaces,allowstoevaluatethepotentialitiesofvegetationtoretrofit andtorelate the encounteredefficiency problemsandtheclimatecharacteristicswiththechoiceofplant species, system,andtechnologymoresuitableforthespecific situation(ofwhichenviron- mental andeconomicimpactarealsoevaluated)andtodefine adesignapproachforthe systematic considerationofthemanyparametersinvolved.