S p o n t a n e o u s A r c h i t e c t u r e a n d E n e r g e t i c S u s t a i n a b i l i t y
357
SPONTANEOUS ARCHITECTURE AND ENERGETIC
SUSTAINABILITY: THE AEOLIAN HOUSES OF FILICUDI ISLE
Vincenzo Sapienza
Department of Architecture of Catania University, Italy
Abstract
The energetic sustainability is a design criteria quite recent, in fact, as you know, it was
introduced in ’70 years in consequence of the petroleum crisis. Its application in building
sector was successive and, for some aspects, it is still no near a solution. Nowadays the
design methods that lay more attention to that problem are imposed by the laws on the
matter or by the demands of the building market. Nevertheless when the architecture
develops away from the conditioning of urban environments or formal requirements, it is
able to reach unexpected results.
One of the place that confirm this hypothesis is the archipelagos of Eolie Islands. The
climate condition of the site, and in particular the hot, dry summers, and the necessity to
use local building materials, for the exorbitant transportation charges, have promoted to
the born of a specific building type: the Aeolian Home. They are formed by square,
simple volumes, built with rough castings of lava rock masonries, finished with lime’s
plaster. They have a flat roof, to channel the rain-water in the underground cistern. They
have a terrace in front of, covered by a cane’s roofing, placed only during the summer
season. They have a double opening system: windows to have illumination and holes
(squared or circular) to have ventilation. All elements have been modelled from the time
and from the builders’s intelligence but appear imposed by law (see Dir. 2002/91/CE).
The result is really interesting if you consider that this houses today are chose by VIPs
and
Archistars
(from the late Ettore Sottsas to Massimiliano Fuxas) to spent their
holiday.
In the Filicudi isle, small and very far from the cost, the described characteristics are
more diffuse and accentuated. For this reason the author would like to illustrate some
local houses, selected as study case.
Keywords:
energy sustainability,
spontaneous architecture, Aeolian House, Filicudi isles,
Mediterranean constructive building
.
Introduction
In our age it is not still necessary to spend words, time and energy to show and to
demonstrate the weight, indeed the necessity, to undertake a life style more sustainable
from an energy point of view. In particular the professionals of the building sector should
be sensible enough to understand this argument, in fact it is known that a large part of
energy consumption is due to the construction and the maintenance of buildings
(Margani 2010).
The sustainability of energy for our future is strongly linked with the capacity to imagine
and design more energy efficient buildings than the current ones; in fact they must be
able to assure similar internal comfort conditions with a lower energy cost, in respect to
the newly designed buildings. The European legislative body is working on this aim, with
continuity; they have enacted, in the time, a corpus of directives to which the Member
States have conformed to.
The laws on the energy saving arose during the energy crisis of ’70s and so they were
drawn up with the aim to reduce the petrol consumption for indoor heating, during the
winter. The efficiency of the actions that were enacted, has caused a remarkable
reduction of consumption. However, inspite of the lower consumption of fossil fuels, over
