Architectural Design and Sustainability of a New Rural Renewable Energy Community

The paper investigates the role that architectural and urban regeneration - supported by wise use of energy, both in terms of the sustainability of demand from buildings and in of the renewable energy resources exploitation - can have in revitalizing agricultural centers. It is proposed a study for a new rural and renewable energy community. The site of interest is a poorly used area close to a rural village, in the backcountry of Southern Italy. In accordance with the established urban planning, an architectural regeneration intervention is proposed through the creation of new infrastructures, for public and private use, through the design of public spaces, residences and by recovering an existing ruin as a space to be re-functionalized for a new biomass power plant, based on vegetable and wood wastes, available on site. Using a mix of traditional and innovative building structural and envelope technologies (e.g., steel, stone, and laminated wood), zero-energy buildings are designed, including a library, collective spaces, and single-family residences which also integrate bioclimatic elements, such as winter gardens and greenhouses. The combustible vegetable biomass conversion plant allows the almost complete satisfaction of thermal (i.e., heating and cooling) needs and electrical uses of buildings, with a surplus energy intended to support the surrounding buildings, outside the community. The result is a new centrality for the village, both from a social and functional point of view and as an example of energy and environmental sustainability.