Resilience is the ability to withstand shocks without breaking, it is not just a property of matter, which should be used in seismic areas. Resilience is above all a fundamental human capacity, the only one that allows non-devastating consequences from traumas.
It requires personal qualities, but above all capacity and possibility of sharing: no one can deal with the trauma alone. Trauma in ancient Greek, means ‘pierce’, ‘damage’, ‘destroy’, ‘ruin’: it is both a wound and the effects of the wound itself over time. If these effects are not countered they become even more devastating.
Resilient architecture is one of the main responses to climate change and its effects and many projects in recent years also take care of many aspects related to bio-architecture.
The resilient building, in which the three bioclimatic, ecological and energetic paradigms must concentrate, is a building capable of dispersing minimum quantities of heat when it is very cold.
It is able to capture solar energy during the daytime hours, especially during the winter months, store it and use it when needed. it is capable of repelling solar radiation in the hottest periods, in which, on the other hand, it should yield heat to the outside in a considerable way.
The bioclimatic and resilient approach therefore tends to entrust the building structure, its orientation and the surrounding climate context with the task of obtaining conditions of safety and internal comfort, for example, by capturing or rejecting solar energy contributions outside or using expertly the local microclimate.
For example, the rational use of renewable environmental resources (solar radiation for space heating and natural lighting, wind, evaporation of water or heat exchange with the ground for summer cooling, etc.) can help to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels.
An attitude of greater attention towards energy-conscious designs requires the designer greater technical competence. This is necessary to integrate the building and the air-conditioning systems from the beginning of the design activity.
Today, higher levels of interior comfort are also required compared to the past. For example, in addition to the traditional thermo-hygrometric comfort, aspects of comfort related to sound and light sensations, hygrometry and air quality have now taken on importance.
Therefore, the building will have to tend to have an energy-saving technological system in its location, shape, functions and use of materials, which ensures the most complete interior comfort possible.
Obviously, this approach presupposes a design approach that considers the plants as an integral part of the building and not just a complement to be added later.
