245
focus on the issue of mitigation considering it a driver of urban sustainability.
Better planning, better design of spaces and urban forms, should be able to
both mitigate climate change, and ensure a gradual process of adaptation to
reduce the direct and indirect impacts of climate change on cities.
The approach to mitigation carried out so far to reduce GHG emissions, has
been focused primarily on the production of energy from renewable sources,
energy savings of buildings, “green” technologies for industrial production,
alternative fuels with a higher efficiency for vehicles, and an increase in public
transport. It has focused less on the study of urban form and the role it plays in
an energy strategy for the conservation and efficient use of this resource.
The globalization of the construction industry and the total delegation of
the indoor systems and plants has in fact determined, in the last century, an
increasingly pervasive realization of approved buildings and urban structures
barely related to their climatic context, cultural material. “The same buildings
can be found from Stockholm to Nairobi, from Shanghai to Sao Paulo, with
age-old design principles simply eliminated” (Butera 2004): a challenge for
nature set by man, to prove that he can live indifferently in any context and in
any climate.
If we take a broader view, which embraces and considers the territory as a
geometric area of energy consumption (Olgyay 1951), we must consider that
urban planning aimed at energy saving and sustainability must be sensitive to
local conditions and able to exploit the resources that the environment provides. The end result of this approach is expressed naturally in architectural
forms and urban structures, contextualized by morphology, type, use of materials. This does not necessarily mean that they should be vernacular or traditional, given that typological, morphological and technical-constructive
solutions evolve over time as new requirements emerge and new materials and
new building systems are introduced. We must also take into account on the
fact that the use (and waste) of energy does not only depend on the use of the
individual buildings and their systems, but often on the way in which these
have been designed and arranged in relation to each other. For example, the
layout of a building on the land, its position in relation to the prevailing winds,
the path of the sun and the reciprocal relationship with other surrounding
buildings can prevent the sunlight needed from reaching it, creating barriers
to hot winds and vice versa channelling the cold winds, leading to an inefficient use of energy. It is very rare that building regulations or urban-building
standards for the implementation of planning regulations contain directives
aimed at ensuring environmental conditions which are conducive to energy
saving for temperature regulations.
Therefore, urban planning policies that are sensitive to reducing energy
consumption and comfort, related to the use of the spaces within a city,
must be based on a bioclimatic approach, which aims to simultaneously
control three interconnected levels: environmental-climatic, typological and
(continued)
8 Mitigation of and Adaptation to UHI Phenomena: The Padua Case Study
focus on the issue of mitigation considering it a driver of urban sustainability.
Better planning, better design of spaces and urban forms, should be able to
both mitigate climate change, and ensure a gradual process of adaptation to
reduce the direct and indirect impacts of climate change on cities.
The approach to mitigation carried out so far to reduce GHG emissions, has
been focused primarily on the production of energy from renewable sources,
energy savings of buildings, “green” technologies for industrial production,
alternative fuels with a higher efficiency for vehicles, and an increase in public
transport. It has focused less on the study of urban form and the role it plays in
an energy strategy for the conservation and efficient use of this resource.
The globalization of the construction industry and the total delegation of
the indoor systems and plants has in fact determined, in the last century, an
increasingly pervasive realization of approved buildings and urban structures
barely related to their climatic context, cultural material. “The same buildings
can be found from Stockholm to Nairobi, from Shanghai to Sao Paulo, with
age-old design principles simply eliminated” (Butera 2004): a challenge for
nature set by man, to prove that he can live indifferently in any context and in
any climate.
If we take a broader view, which embraces and considers the territory as a
geometric area of energy consumption (Olgyay 1951), we must consider that
urban planning aimed at energy saving and sustainability must be sensitive to
local conditions and able to exploit the resources that the environment provides. The end result of this approach is expressed naturally in architectural
forms and urban structures, contextualized by morphology, type, use of materials. This does not necessarily mean that they should be vernacular or traditional, given that typological, morphological and technical-constructive
solutions evolve over time as new requirements emerge and new materials and
new building systems are introduced. We must also take into account on the
fact that the use (and waste) of energy does not only depend on the use of the
individual buildings and their systems, but often on the way in which these
have been designed and arranged in relation to each other. For example, the
layout of a building on the land, its position in relation to the prevailing winds,
the path of the sun and the reciprocal relationship with other surrounding
buildings can prevent the sunlight needed from reaching it, creating barriers
to hot winds and vice versa channelling the cold winds, leading to an inefficient use of energy. It is very rare that building regulations or urban-building
standards for the implementation of planning regulations contain directives
aimed at ensuring environmental conditions which are conducive to energy
saving for temperature regulations.
Therefore, urban planning policies that are sensitive to reducing energy
consumption and comfort, related to the use of the spaces within a city,
must be based on a bioclimatic approach, which aims to simultaneously
control three interconnected levels: environmental-climatic, typological and
(continued)
8 Mitigation of and Adaptation to UHI Phenomena: The Padua Case Study