An integrated design approach for the retrofit of existing RC school buildings

Most of the Italian existing reinforced concrete (RC) school buildings are, to date, in a severe state of obsolescence, making their safety and energy management difficult and expensive. In fact, many of them require a deep renovation in order to achieve improved performances in terms of overall comfort, structural safety and energy efficiency. In the past few years, many economic resources have been invested in this last aspect, focusing mainly on the improvement of facilities, services and general decor, while neglecting structural safety. Recent Italian seismic events showed the high seismic vulnerability of the existing school buildings, which exhibited severe damage or collapse, thus yielding significant social and economic losses (also related to single retrofitted systems). Therefore, an effective renovation design cannot neglect to consider, simultaneously, both structural and energy aspects. The present work focuses on the development of an integrated retrofit design methodology for the structural and energy improvement of existing school buildings; the methodology implements proper strategies characterized by the achievement of increasing levels of building performances. In order to validate the proposed retrofit design approach and quantify the relevant costs and benefits, a case study of a typical Italian existing RC school building is investigated. An in-depth discussion on the definition of the combined design solutions and related technologies used to achieve incremental improved performances is reported.