Bioclimatic and green building for the enhancement of rural architecture. Rehabilitate the Masseria Nicotera to

After almost a century of investigation on the architectural value of rural buildings in all its connections with landscape, the recovery approach has not overcome the phase of ethic imperative. The effective possibilities to rehabilitation existing structures are left to the project that, through its interdisciplinarity, should specify the modalities, from the technical point of view as well as from the environmental, social, and economic advantages one.This paper aims to re-inhabit the rural buildings closer to urban centers. The methodological approach is based on a bioclimatic project integrated with green building, which had been tested in a rural house of the seventeenth century: Masseria Nicotera to Marigliano, in the province of Naples. Indeed, the bioclimatic matrix of rural architecture has been recovered and reintroduced, after being improved by the passive system and integrated by natural material. The project has been supported also by the assessment of the economic benefit and the estimation contributions that are not good for themselves but constitutes the beginning of a database available at the national level for the recovery of rural architecture.


INTRODUCTION
Ten years of constant growth of "green" conscience, both in private and public entrepreneurial mindset, are the outcome of the report "Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2019" edited by the "UN Environment Programme" (UNEP) and issued specially for the Global Climate Action Summit held on September 23 rd 2019.
The report greatly points out the result of ten years of After almost a century of investigation on the architectural value of rural buildings in all its connections with landscape, the recovery approach has not overcome the phase of ethic imperative.The effective possibilities to rehabilitation existing structures are left to the project that, through its interdisciplinarity, should specify the modalities, from the technical point of view as well as from the environmental, social, and economic advantages one.This paper aims to re-inhabit the rural buildings closer to urban centers.The methodological approach is based on a bioclimatic project integrated with green building, which had been tested in a rural house of the seventeenth century: Masseria Nicotera to Marigliano, in the province of Naples.Indeed, the bioclimatic matrix of rural architecture has been recovered and reintroduced, after being improved by the passive system and integrated by natural material.The project has been supported also by the assessment of the economic benefit and the estimation contributions that are not good for themselves but constitutes the beginning of a database available at the national level for the recovery of rural architecture.
Abstract investments (2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015)(2016)(2017)(2018)(2019) in the field of renewable energy sources, as well as in the investigation on energy sustainability and use of environmentally friendly and biocompatible materials, both in public and private sector.Also, the cyclonic effect of Greta Thunberg and Federica Gasbarro will not be lost, because it is the result of a new environmental conscience, greatly appreciated specially by the younger generations.Besides, the above-said report underlines that, apart from the Community incentives, the reduction of the production costs of renewable energy and the use of increasingly cheaper materials and construction techniques have contributed to the relentless development of the green wave.
Furthermore, both building companies and electricity producers have always shared the same purpose: making highly sustainable and profitable investments in the future.
This awareness has increasingly affected the approach to building.In addition to this, the assessment of green building integrates well with bioclimatic, as drawing from natural resources the construction obtained a virtuous energetically with contributions free of charge.
In our case study (Fig. 1), this model of design is applied to experiment a recovery on a rural house with an approach based on the integration of green solutions and bioclimatic systems.

REHABILITATE THE RURAL HOUSE
The rural house embodies a culture of living being peculiar to the places and represents the basic element of landscape anthropization.It arises from the purely functional purpose of improving agricultural output with no particular dogmas or constraints.In fact, it represents a building method linked to tradition and optimized according to the local material resources.Indeed, it represents a free and spontaneous architecture, whose recognition has been often associated to Bernard Rudofsky's famous book Architecture without Architects (Rudofsky 1964), whose natural development is the book The Prodigious Builders (1978), in which Bernard Rudofsky defines spontaneous architecture as «lacking in pedigree» and gives it a value that goes beyond the technical and aesthetic one (Rudofsky, 1977).
Actually, in 1936, Giuseppe Pagano, leader of the Modern Movement, had already investigated the minor building heritage (Daniel and Pagano, 1936), almost completely excluded by artistic historiography (Zevi, 1996), in order to show the aesthetic value of its function.But, above all, the famous architectural historian, Roberto Pane, recognized the architectural value of rural buildings of Campania heritage in a book entitled "Architettura Rurale Campana (Pane, 1936), in which those houses are defined as charming in relation to the perception of outstanding works of architecture.Moreover, ahead of their time, Pane acknowledged landscape value through the characterization induced by those houses that, according to him, resembled a fruit of the earth (Pane, 1936).
By the end of the twentieth century, there were studies and researches focused on landscape interpretation as well as typological classifications of rural buildings that recognized a value already stated and, although targeted to the recovery of that architectural heritage, provided only a survey and a systematization.At present, how to govern the approach to rural built environment is an easy question to answer.Indeed, the target of conservation, enhancement and safeguard of architecture and rural landscape should start from the identity values of local building heritage and culture, which are to be seen and conceived as resources and potentials to be transformed in development opportunities.At present, rural heritage can promote an important laboratory of strategic and design planning for all the rural buildings which outline the outskirts, being sometimes well characterized and sometimes more anonymous.So, what better way to document and recover the way living in rural culture than reintroducing it today, in response to the need to live sustainably in a broader environment?This goal represents the essential prerequisite which all the intervention of economic and territorial balance should be based on, in order to make each example trigger sustainable development.Indeed, it is a reinterpretation with methodological value and help combine awareness of cultural and environmental issues and new residential models based on more sustainable behaviours.The economic effects at territorial scale let us look well beyond conservation and safeguard for its own sake.Besides, they are buildings that have always been in synergy with climate before the bioclimatic issues were recognized as science (Olgyay, 1963).In fact, they show technical solutions that, with minimal energy and resources consumption, help protect against adverse climatic events.In their historical-building definition, rural houses follow bioclimatic logics that are a real engineering contribution that integrates the architectural component.But today, the bioclimatic matrices of the old rural house are not only documents, but also potential to be increased and integrated.The consequence is the advantage of a virtuous behaviour from energy point of view and this sustainable approach represents an important added value that looks to the past, present and future in responsible way.These new purposes of rehabilitation and recovery are more far-seeing and tend to combine the target of re-inhabiting in an energy-efficient model with the need to live sustainably (Fig. 2).
Therefore, the target consists in reducing the use of resources and regenerating values, economy and knowledge in accordance with landscape enhancement logics (Fusco and Gravagnuolo 2017).At present, the destiny of rural houses is the abandonment, at the most the demolition and reconstruction, but the project to reinhabit/re-habilitate could combine memory, building quality and environmental quality continuously.The target of conservation mainly consists in taking this heritage away from neglection and loss of its memory, but it can be improved only by a project that is attentive to quality and performance but, discreet and minimally invasive.

RESTARTING FROM CLIMATE. RENEWED METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH
The need to define a sustainable recovery method strengthens the aim to conservation of rural architecture.Without a method to rationalize the approach to rural heritage, there is the risk of working out messy, hasty and careless projects, at the expense of a careful conservation, with the risk of distorting the cultural value of landscape and historical architecture.
Indeed, a close examination of the Italian regulations shows the need to prevent farmland abandonment as well as wild re-use of building heritage.Besides, it points out also the lack of tools to achieve rural building recovery (Finocchiaro and Lobaccaro, 2017), reconfirming that in the last century recovery was meant only as an ethical imperative.By investigating the features of rural house, it emerged that the attention to climate and the use of natural resources had been crucial elements for design.Orientation, light colour of the facades, thick walls, openings and various typologies of roofing, typical elements of those architectural works, meet the present bioclimatic principles, in order to provide the maximum living comfort through natural resources.Besides, the bioclimatic matrix, through which the rural house has always adapted to the local specific climate, shows an ante-litteram bioclimatic approach from which to re-start.
Apart from being the basic architectural and compositional element, it produces a virtuous energypassive behaviour.Bioclimatic architecture exploits natural resources such as sun, water and vegetation in order to reduce building energy consumption.Entire territorial areas, which were dedicated to agriculture, are characterized by rural houses all uniformly oriented towards the south.Indeed, building orientation is crucial, not only for most of the existing rural heritage but also for bioclimatic architecture.South facing windows help achieve building passive heating (Manzano Agugliaro, 2015) and, consequently, the openings "can allow the entry of radiation during times when it is needed and prevent this radiation from escaping the building through the use of, for example, carpentry and appropriate glass windows" (Finocchiaro and Lobaccaro, 2017).In winter, solar radiation is encouraged on walls and windows to heat the rooms inside the building, thus aiming at the thermal insulation of the casing in order to avoid the dispersion of thermal energy; contrary, In summer, in response to the need for shade, solutions such as the pergola and the trees with wide foliage were preferred, in addition to the natural ventilation inside the building.
Even the stone walls of rural houses, with their mass, air conditioning in summer thanks to thermal inertia.The main rules relating to the exhibition share the rural house model of many regions and make it an example of bioclimatic architecture experienced in the agricultural landscape that has tested a way of building over time.
From these premises arises the hypothesis underlying the design methodology of enhancing existing bioclimatic solutions through integration with new devices.These are the basic technological assumptions of the present approach, which aims at integrating new bioclimatic solutions targeted to enhance the building passive behavior in order to reduce energy consumption and improve comfort.
Therefore, in the first stages of the recovery project it is important to investigate the climatic problems of the area, by analysing the prevailing wind direction, solar altitudes and azimuth angle, as well as annual rainfall percentage and temperature average (Vissilia 2009).These data are collected in a graphic elaboration to inventory available and potential natural resources and make a balance between new and previous bioclimatic solutions.The careful comparison between climatic data and comfort requirements are the basis of the decision-making processes regarding building form and construction (Finocchiaro and Lobaccaro, 2017).It is obvious that the same dynamics affects the approach to a restoration, which should produce a passive energy response in line with the current need.In this regard, Victor Olgyay speaks of Bioclimatic Design, meant as regional-based approach to architectural design, grounded on the use of quantitative data classified as climatic data and urban comfort requirements (Olgyay, 1963).
At present, the use of passive solar systems allows to make journal valori e valutazioni No. 26 -2020 a building be air-conditioned in natural way, without overloading facilities equipment.Indeed, they control the thermal exchange dynamics between outside and inside, exploiting solar radiation as free energy source.This is the best strategy to achieve sustainable development and has been always fostered by international regulations (Olgyay, 1963).Being natural not only for its shape and connection with landscape, the rural house has always based its construction on the use of both natural material and local ones, known as zero-km material today.Besides, those peculiar characteristics of rural traditional building represent fundamental choices, which anticipate the concepts of green building and consider environmental sustainability according to linear logics of ethics and economy.Then, learning from the past is still a methodology to recover and implement.
The programme of re-inhabiting in order to re-habilitating consists in an integrated project between bioclimatic architecture and green building, according to synergies in line with the original construction.At present, green building, by using eco-friendly and eco-sustainable material, helps achieve new and existing buildings with low environmental impact and, simultaneously, provides healthy indoor environments and good thermo hygrometric well-being.
Through the above-said methodological approach, comfort and healthiness are two crucial goals at a time when energy saving does not allow for negligence, waives and renewable energy-based installations which, however, are not maintenance-free.Being intrinsically sustainable by definition, the rural house can look ahead and combine modernity and respect for traditions.Conservation, which is a difficult goal to guarantee in interventions on the existing, meets real and concrete possibilities of being maximized in bioclimatic and green building.

ECOLOGICAL AND ECO-SUSTAINABLE RECOVERY MODEL OF RURAL HOUSE: MASSERIA NICOTERA
The principles of bioclimatic architecture combined with green building ones have been implemented in the recovery of an old rural farmhouse, "Masseria Nicotera", placed in the countryside of Vesuvian area, in Marigliano in the province of Naples.
The old building, built in the mid-17th century and owed to noble family Nicotera, even if it is not bound, it shows itself as a cultural asset candidate for abandonment, and therefore to be safeguarded as a built heritage and landscape, although completely abandoned, shows clearly its main characteristics, such as Neapolitan yellow tuff stone load-bearing masonry, simply façades and almost square rooms.It is peculiar the presence of a cloister vault roofing in one of the rooms at the ground floor as well as a barrel vault covering the stairs of beaten lapillus.The functional distribution in the planimetry (Fig. 3) outlines a compact and quite schematic distribution, on two floors, with rooms intended for dwelling and rustic areas below (Ausiello 2000).
After having examined space and material characteristics of the above-shown building and the respective state of conservation, an analysis has also been made on the local climatic context, in order to point out the quality elements and reduce the critical ones.In this way, it was possible to access the project, by making the building interact with the surrounding environment.The original building bio- journal valori e valutazioni No. 26 -2020  climatic approach has been investigated, in order to assess all the possible improvements.Several climatic parameters were considered such as: temperature, wind, relative humidity, sunshine and rainfalls (Fig. 4, 5, 6,7).
Among the various natural resources, undoubtedly, the exploitation has been carried out of solar energy, which acts on south side of the building, of northern winds to provide -in summer -natural ventilation, of vegetation and rainwater, for which a collection system has been provided for garden irrigation (fig.8).The above-shown natural resources have allowed to carry out a design using passive solar systems for summer and winter airconditioning, among which: solar greenhouse, roof-pond, natural ventilation chimneys.
journal valori e valutazioni No. 26 -2020 77     The solar greenhouse has been chosen in order to collect solar energy and to transfer it inside the rooms to heat them.As regard the design, few main features have been considered such as orientation and exposure, materials, openings and shadowing systems.Many openings have been planned in order to provide natural ventilation, according to the needs, as well as a system a mobile shielding system to be used in summer, for shadowing rooms and reduce heating.The greenhouse does not only act as passive system, but it also leads to the upstairs functional rooms, through a staircase placed inside it (fig.9).
For the climate control of the rooms located on the upper floor, the roof-pond was chosen, namely an indirect solar gain system, characterized by the presence of water on the building roof, "which modulates the interior temperature" (Zhongting and Wei, 2017).
The Roof-pond is a system capable of absorbing and releasing heat through the presence of water, as an element known for its transmission and heat release capabilities.The thermal mass is placed horizontally above the ceiling of the building in containers or plastic bags, usually dark and thin polyethylene, type water mattress with a thickness between 10 and 40 mm, covering a part or all of the roof slab."Moveable insulation panels are usually made of 2" polyurethane foam reinforced with fiberglass strands and sandwiched between aluminum skins" (Spanaki, 2007).In this way, water is heated by solar radiation and the thermal energy is transmitted by convection through the floor and then inside the rooms by radiation (Zhongting and Wei, 2017).
To achieve this passive solar system, it is necessary to take into account the average climatic conditions of the place, in order to establish the right balance between solar radiation input and evaporation, which ensures the optimal functioning of this technological solution.It is therefore clear that the roof-pond system brings many improvements in the energy field, especially in this case where the climate is temperate with temperatures neither too rigid nor too hot.In addition, the water load has its own weight, to be assessed in the structural field until any consolidation.
The operation is different for summer and winter and for day and night.In summer, the water cushion on the foot is covered during the day by mobile insulating panels that prevent the solar radiation to create overheating.During the night, instead, the panels are removed to cool the water that, cooled, will be ready to subtract the heat accumulated during the warmer hours.In the winter season instead, during the day the water cushion is discovered to accumulate the heat of the sun.At night, the insulating panels are placed on the cushion so that the heat accumulated by the water during the day is transmitted inside through the attic.The above-described solution in the investigated farmhouse is useful especially during night in summer (Fig. 10) to cool indoor environments, and in winter in the morning to heat them (fig.11) Natural ventilation is the basis of passive bioclimatic solutions that make interior spaces be air-conditioned and reduce the use of installations.To improve the summer air conditioning of the south wall of the upper floor it is assumed to exploit the wind resource that offers a free contribution, like the sun.(HuanQian at al., 2007).The solution exploits north winds that, through the crawl spaces in the south-facing wall, cool during the day in summer, thanks to chimney effect (fig.12).Cool air, which is heavier, naturally descends through outlets placed on the lower part of the room (fig.13), while warm air rises   Bioclimatic and green building for the enhancement of rural architecture.
Rehabilitate the Masseria Nicotera to Marigliano and flows out through parallel pipelines placed in the same crawl spaces, by means of outlets placed in the upper part (fig.13).This solution provides air-conditioning by means of natural ventilation of rooms as well as an optimal thermo-hygrometric wellbeing.The construction of the cavities can be done without physically altering the continuity of the stone masonry but simply by fixing to the existing wall a corrugated sheet and a plaster panel.Simulation programmes may be used for the provision of the necessary pipelines to determine the number of pipelines and their sections.
To improve the above-said bioclimatic solutions, there is also the choice of highly sustainable insulation material according to the bioclimatic principles, which ensure rural house conservation without invasive interventions.
As regards thermal insulation, the choice fell on cellulose fibre insulation material, obtained by thinly cutting newspapers, which are shredded to produce a sort of soft duvet.The cellulose fibre panel has been dry laid inside the rooms to create a cladding thermal insulation.That choice is in line with the hypothesis of characterizing the external surface with the exposed yellow tuff stone.The good conservation of tuff shows the original building process.Besides, to prevent its decay, a thin layer of nanolime should be laid for superficial consolidation (Fig. 14).
The plaster cornices that decorate the openings can be restored with lime mortar, in order to preserve the outside characterization and light diffusion.
The completion of the inner surface is expected to be carried out by gypsum boards in PMC to be dry laid.This type of facade increases the mass of the load-bearing wall in Neapolitan yellow tuff and improves air-conditioning, thanks to the high phase shift of thermal wave.The indoor layer of insulation optimizes the damping value.The combination of these two values guarantee good comfort conditions in summer and in winter (fig.15).
The design of this solution has been developed through a thermal behaviour simulation program.
In the elaboration of the final solution, high phase lag values characterize an indoor environment at a constant temperature, independent of external climatic conditions.In order to achieve the transmissions within the limits of the energy-saving standards in force (D.M. 15/7/2015), two fibre insulation material panels of thickness 2.5 cm are required.The transmittance of 0.39 W/m 2 k corresponds to a low thermal wave damping value of 0.0037 (Tab.1).

RECOVERY AND ECONOMIC CONVENIENCE
The modern "concept" of inhabitation has evolved and has not be only targeted to building security, but also to the wellbeing and comfort it offers to more ecologicalsensitive users.At present, the professionals in building sector fully recognize the importance of finding architectural and engineering solutions that are conscious and protective of living and working environments.Indeed, in the energy companies, the green challenge has been achieving the highest level of excellence.
Therefore, alongside the percentages of energy production from clean and renewable sources, building industry has been moving forward with the significant breakthrough represented by increasingly bioclimatic architectural designs, in order to construct thermally efficient buildings, capable of meeting thermal comfort needs in the most self-sufficient and cost-efficient way.
All this applies for both new and existing buildings and particular attention has been paid to the application of two important aspects of real estate valuation: 1) cost effectiveness as regards the functional recovery of a rural building; 2) the added value of bioclimatic technologies.
Before drawing reader's attention to the three abovementioned technical-economic issues, it is essential to point out a fundamental question that can be summarised in the innovation required in approaching high quality conservative recovery of rural buildings.
Clearly the basic theme consists in reducing the impacts of classic recovery, by choosing engineering solutions that exploit local natural elements -sun, water, land and vegetation -and aim at eliminating gas and CO 2 emissions (resulting mainly from heating and cooling systems).
This specific approach, used in the bioclimatic-based project of reuse, is targeted to restore a balance between environment and structure, by means of interdisciplinary knowledge such as architecture, engineering, bioclimatic technologies, economy and real estate valuation.
As it can be seen, to carry out these projects, it is necessary to have the contribution of experts in various disciplines, who can gradually integrate their knowledge, in order to maximise the project outcome, cannot be simply defined as "building recovery".
The exact definition, on the contrary, can be "smart recovery", an expression that only in English includes what in Italian would be "functional recovery through costeffective building biotechnologies".
Indeed, the project, its method and, even before, its origin has been broadly shown in the previous paragraphs.
On the contrary, this paragraph describes the importance of cost-effectiveness assessment in applying a design concept and the future estimates that would be of great importance if they were the starting point for implementing a database at national level.
As regards the choice of intervening on Masseria Nicotera, in primis, two different hypotheses had to be considered: 1) to demolish the old building and build it according to bioclimatic solutions (Tab.2); 2) to recover the walls and the entire system of the building always providing bioclimatic solutions (Tab.3).
The cost data presented in the tables are obtained from public and private databases and have been reelaborate on the basis of the different dimensions and volumes of the case in question by speciialized personnel of the Orefice studio.
About the passive systems proposed, these are data extrapolated from rare constructive experiences in the field of bioclimatic architecture.
These two options cannot and must not be evaluated only from an economic point of view, but also from a technical and executive point of view, because every constructive choice arises from functional reasons, and determines impacts on the environment in which costs and options are matched.which govern the activation and modulation of implementation schemes and processes.
The above-shown options don't have to and cannot be considered only from the economic view -and here interdisciplinary approach should be applied -but also and above all from a technical point of view.
In fact, the first option (demolition and rebuilding) could produce an important increase in costs, due not only to the demolition of the whole building, but also of its underground foundations to the depth of 3-4 mt, and to the rubble disposal, which would greatly increase the sum of costs (Tab.2).
journal valori e valutazioni No. 26 -2020 Bioclimatic and green building for the enhancement of rural architecture.
Rehabilitate the Masseria Nicotera to Marigliano Indeed, demolitions are too often meant as a clean slate, but in building field pulling down in order to build again always involves assessment of cost-effectiveness based on the following different factors: • type of building; • type of foundations to be demolished; • surrounding urban context; • cost for the type of demolition (crane with crushers, jackhammers or steel cylinders); • cost of building material transportation to the disposal station and eventual disposal of special waste.
In the specific case of Masseria Nicotera, the above-said calculation of technical and economic convenience was made, in which the state of conservation of the property is not irrelevant, characterized by general fair static conditions and a good legibility of the architectural system.
Building according to the principles of bioclimatic architecture and green building also diversifies costs, both in the case of design from scratch and the recovery of old buildings.
The environmental benefits that this type of design approach entails are very significant, although some types of technologies and components for green building are not always usable in the recovery of the existing.
Instead, there are those like the Italian architect Pierluigi Bonomo who have applied the aforementioned ecofriendly reconstruction techniques to a building damaged by the earthquake in L'Aquila in 2009; he has, in fact, clad in C.L.T. (cross laminated timber) an old masonry artifact that was finally equipped with all the plant engineering devices to reduce water and electrical waste with a significant improvement in living comfort: • better thermal behavior; • better quality of life through natural solutions; • with low environmental impact; • safeguarding of natural resources through energy inputs from renewable sources.
The environmental, social, educational and, last but not least, economic advantages in the proposed case study are predictable and, quite relevant, based on the behavior induced by the specifications and the minimum impact that follows.Bioclimatic solutions lead to increases in terms of cost, as per Tabb. 2 and 3, which do not conduct energy expenditure and which therefore are to be read in terms of depreciation only in the long run return.Furthermore, the lack of use of air conditioning systems over time is a further not negligible economic saving.As Piero Angela said in 1987 "the most abundant source of energy that exists, the least polluting, least expensive, most immediately available: energy saving".
Healthiness is a quality of the space built by green building that cannot be quantified economically, which gives greater sense to the need for sustainability that grows in the consciousness of many, more and more and spontaneously.
The proposed project for the Nicotera Masseria, with its solutions, can contribute to the implementation of a database that collects all the Italian experiences in the field of rural building recovery.This archive can help future designers to use ad hoc solutions in this field and maximize expected performance, or more simply build a catalog of already bioclimatically functioning and tested solutions.

CONCLUSION
The proposal of Masseria Nicotera has introduced a sustainable and innovative method based on the integration between bioclimatic architecture and green building.Thanks to its reusability, it can provide the following opportunities: • Conservation of rural architecture; • Re-habilitation of high architectural quality rural houses placed near the urban area; • Rehabilitation through passive solutions in order to reduce mechanic installations and enhance heat exchanges in natural convection; • Generalization of economic convenience judgement as methodological tool supporting the single project; Validation of estimation contributions and implementation of a database usable at national level.
A series of guidelines, good practices and tools have been developed, which effectively look up to the recovery of old farmhouse with a green view to be extended to the whole national rural heritage.

Figure 3 -
Figure 3 -Masseria Nicotera.From left to right: ground floor, first floor and second floor.

Figure 6 -
Figure 6 -Minimum and maximum temperatures, City of Marigliano.

Figure 8 -
Figure 8 -Bioclimatic section of the project.

Figure 9 -
Figure 9 -Project plan with solar greenhouse.

Figure 15 -
Figure 15 -Section with displacement and attenuation graph.

Table 1 -
Boundary conditions and thermal inertia Segue Table 1 -Boundary conditions and thermal inertiaCondizioni al contorno

80 Segue Table 1 -
Boundary conditions and thermal inertia

Table 2 -
Analysis of demolition and reconstruction costs