Retrofitting of Company Towns’ residential buildings: from international best practices to local implementations in Friuli Venezia Giulia region (NE Italy)

[EN] The paper illustrates the retrofit of company towns’ heritage, focusing on energy efficiency strategies for residential buildings with the aim to highlight the best practices, the solutions and methodologies to be implemented for the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region in NE Italy. The starting point is a comprehensive analysis of company town’s retrofit strategies featuring a comparison among relevant examples from Europe and Italy. Unesco industrial sites, sites by the Modern Movement, and Italian well-known workers’ villages are included in the analysis. The evaluation of the retrofit solutions takes into consideration aspects of protection and valorisation, functional renovation, and environmental sustainability upgrade. As a result, common strategies for the energy retrofit of company towns’ residential heritage are identified and summarised as the first step for their application at local level. In this sense, the study highlights that industrial villages are still inhabited and they re Research grant “Knowledge and development of the Torviscosa settlement” funded by the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region ex art. 5, c. 29-33 of LR 34/2015 Santi, MV.; Laiola, GS. (2019). Retrofitting of Company Towns’ residential buildings: from international best practices to local implementations in Friuli Venezia Giulia region (NE Italy). VITRUVIO - International Journal of Architectural Technology and Sustainability. 4(2):13-29. https://doi.org/10.4995/vitruvio-ijats.2019.11158 AA.VV. (1981) Villaggi operai in Italia: La Val Padana e Crespi d'Adda. Einaudi, Torino. Auclair, E. and Fairclough, G. (eds.) (2015) Theory and Practice in Heritage and Sustainability: Between past and future. Routledge, London. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315771618 Baiani, S. and Pascucci, M. (2018) Old and Innovative Materials Towards a Compatible Conservation. In: C. Inglese, A. Ippolito(eds.), Analysis, Conservation, and Restoration of Tangible and Intangible Cultural Heritage. IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-6936-7.ch008 Battisti, A. (2016). Guidelines for energy efficiency in the cultural heritage. TECHNE - Journal of Technology for Architecture and Environment, 12, 65-73. doi:10.13128/Techne-19336. Berens, C. (2010) Redeveloping industrial sites: a guide for architects, planners, and developers. John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken. Birkeland, I. (2008). Cultural Sustainability: Industrialism, Placelessness and the Re-animation of Place. Ethics, Place & Environment, 11, 283-297. https: