DESIGN FOR WELL-LIVING

Human behaviour, dictated by activities, culture, society and attitudes, influences the different responses to social environment onto both the individual and collective plane and the resilient liveability is a most important point of force for innovative housing architecture. The city we need is socially inclusive and regenerative; it is designed to be resilient by being energy efficient, low carbon, but also it recognizes culture as key to human dignity and well-being. Unlike a "traditional" approach to design, the architectural advice is the identification of performing solutions aimed at the twin objectives of improving energy performance and to present itself as an opportunity for redevelopment of the urban habitat: it is, therefore, to interpret a "engineering data plant" using its technical content in order to obtain formal autonomy as an element able to dialogue with urban landscape. Primary objective is the centrality of the user and his tangible and intangible needs. The challenge is to transform technological solutions into wellness tools. This paper focuses particularly to natural ventilation systems in Mediterranean area, not merely satisfied by shielding the transparent envelope; the need for a sun-screening cannot be an non- integrated addition, but it could be designed as a double skin (in the case of existing buildings) or a corrugation of the facade (in the case of new buildings). The alternating wise protrusion of solid with voids selectively determines its own shadows (if the projections were sized according to the solar geometry) which satisfy the requirement of shade in the summer and they are not an obstacle to direct solar radiation in the winter season, constituting free gains of heat and light. This design approach has the added value to confer design harmony to the facade and to have respected the metabolism of the building system. Maintaining a state of well-being and comfort inside a building, the influential thermal loads in two seasons (summer and winter), generated within the building or passed through the envelope, and the air quality (health , humidity and speed) must be checked in heating, cooling and ventilation (the action of humidification and dehumidification and correlates them). The evaluation of the heat load of each room to be conditioned are the starting point not only for the correct dimensioning of air conditioning units, but especially for efficient technological envelope design that, if effectively fulfilling its role, minimizes the use the plants and related energy and environmental costs.