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extended to cover also the formal aspects, thus constituting an expressive topic towards
which to direct the architectural choices. In essence, the students were called upon to
identify a technical strategy and at the same time an expressive intentionality as they
had consequently to choose and coordinate the energy engineering systems in order to
achieve both objectives.
Operationally speaking, an area of the city of Rome was identified and a layout selected
involving four residential buildings having exactly the same size and functional
characteristics but which were necessarily based on the “four fundamental elements”: air,
water, earth and fire. The students were divided into groups and assigned to the four
projects, each with its own tutor. Each student group was asked to develop a residential
design to be included in an energy efficient building that was formally linked to one of the
four elements.
The bioclimatic sunspaces were applied by many students in all four buildings, of course
with different formal outcomes.
The following images concisely illustrate several of the more interesting ideas which offer
possible practical expressions of the bioclimatic sunspace with each example respecting
the technical compatibility of the sunspace itself in terms of energy efficiency. For the
sake of conciseness, the projects have been presented solely in the form of images
illustrating the fundamental features of each example.
Figure 5: “Sunflower housing”. Students: Valentina Cerone, Daniela Corrado, Daniele Del
Rosario, Nicola Vassalli.
