Active to be passive. A reasoned development of the Passivhaus standard for two different climates.

In the era of “everything at once” the main objective seems to look for a standard, an adaptable prototype compliant with requirements on each situation. The architectural designing process has been affected by this phenomenon too, with the purpose of reaching the new european guidelines of high energy-efficient buildings, reducing energetic consumption and CO2 emissions and not taking into account the most important guideline ever: the environmental context. With this background, where even nature is under these rules, architects and designers should try to deconstruct the concept of standard itself, finding different solutions considering both the energetic and environmental issue, for specific locations. In order to fulfill this objective, the ancient teachings about solar energy and orientation have become the first steps to follow in the design process of a sustainable building. The aim of this study is to plan a scholastic building that respects EU limits in two different European countries, Italy and Germany, that present distinct climate conditions, history, formal solutions and aesthetic values, and to show how to compare its design if envisioned in the south of Italy or in Germany, both complying with the same energetic standard. Passivhaus, the German voluntary energetic protocol chosen, is characterized by strict requirements, achieved through a reasoned diversification in technological solutions, materials and plant design, all declined to the needs of the location where it is applied. This way, it is possible to develop further guidelines, within the standard, which make “creative” and suitable to every climate the entire process. Starting from considerations about orientation and shape, following Vitruvio’s statements, the building envelope becomes then the complex multi-functional filter between internal and external environment, and responds to structural and performance targets but also to energy efficiency. This way, the Passivhaus building, wherever conceived, is developed as a “producer” of energy and not just as a “consumer” anymore, in order to be active in the leading process to sustainability.