In recent decades, a new generation of “green indoor” spaces has fulfilled the latest regulations and guidelines for a carbon-neutral society. Their targets are reachable through certifications embracing sets of measures and the adverse effects on occupants. Notwithstanding this, it has constituted a significant step forward in building design. However, the challenges given by climate change and the ecological crises lead to the need for new disruptive approaches to indoor design and function, enhancing human health and adopting regenerative design” at the forefront of buildings’ conception. Besides the positive energy-performance attributes, the creation of a Regenerative Indoor Environment utilizes appropriate construction technologies and systems, to reinforce human health, and enhance users’ experience. This regenerative paradigm shift foresees putting ecosystems at the centre and the users’ psycho-physiological wellbeing, thus magnifying their collaboration. Despite regenerative design gaining some attention, a framework towards its implementation promoting the actual performances of the indoor environment is still missing, and designers do navigate among guidelines with no apparent performance indicators to be achieved, technologies to be implemented, or methodologies for post-occupancy evaluations. These three levels, constituting a stepwise methodology, are addressed by the authors within the sections of this paper, and validated as an example of the office buildings’ typology. i) What characterizes a Regenerative Indoor Environment? ii) What technical solutions underpin the realization of a Regenerative Indoor Environment? iii) What methods or standards are crucial for its evaluation? With these premises, the paper contributes to supporting the creation of a regenerative indoor’ design, by sampling and outlining regenerative indoor performances to be obtained, describing the adequate tools to implement them, as well as by displaying approaches and solutions for their final verification.@en

Although the influence of urban form on microclimate and building thermal processes has been acknowledged, few studies have addressed the influence of overheating mechanisms on heterogeneous urban fabrics for existing historical cities. This study investigates the impact of changing urban climate on indoor temperatures by focusing on three Venice morphological patterns. Through microclimate modelling techniques, outdoor and indoor temperatures are simulated in 2020 and 2050 scenarios. Results show that the compactness of the urban fabric contributes to reducing indoor building temperatures. The analysis suggests that the increased density of shadow areas can mitigate the outdoor temperature values and reduce direct radiation on façades. When comparing the two climate scenarios 2020 and 2050, average indoor temperatures increase in the latter. However, the analysis highlights that the absence of insulation and the relatively high thermal mass of typical Venetian envelopes plays a crucial role in the building thermal processes preserving indoor comfort in a warmer climate future.

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Venice is known for its urban heritage fragility. The city is experiencing an increase in yearly average temperatures affecting outdoor–indoor comfort and average energy expenditure. Owing to existing literature demonstrating how local microclimate depends on urban density, form, and materials, this investigation studies the influence of the changing local climate on Venetian vernacular open spaces, known as Campi. Based on the comparison of contemporary weather and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) future predictions for the 2050 scenario, this investigation highlights how Campi’s open spaces and the surrounding buildings, canals, and green public areas contribute to building climate resilience. By employing advanced modelling, the study analyses microclimate and outdoor comfort with respect to users’ perception of Physiological Equivalent Temperature (PET). The ENVI-met tool is used to simulate the thermal behaviour of two representative Campi: SS. Giovanni e Paolo and S. Polo. Despite significant temperature growths, Venetian urban fabric characteristics seem to play a crucial role in strengthening the climate resilience of open spaces, thus preserving outdoor comfort quality in a warmer future. The analysis shows how the historical matrix of open spaces and buildings cooperate. Thus, this study offers a contribution to how built heritage should be considered in light of climate change@en

Venice is known for its history and beauty and its fragility and potential demise. The city is experiencing an increase in yearly average temperatures affecting outdoor - indoor comfort and average energy expenditure. Owing to existing literature demonstrating how local microclimate depends on urban density, shape, and orientation of buildings and materials, the work studies the influence of changing Venice temperatures by targeting such issues, focusing on an urban fabric typical form, known as Campi. Based on IPCC's future weather predictions for 2050 scenario A1B, the work highlights how the urban fabric configuration affects the local microclimate and outdoor conditions to define how buildings will mitigate and adapt to environmental transitions. The method couples microclimate and outdoor comfort users' perception of Physiological Equivalent Temperature (PET), via ENVI-met. Preliminary results show that the compactness of the urban fabric in Venetian Campi significantly reduces outdoor temperatures due to the increased density of shadow areas in the courtyard or in narrow Venice streets. The role of water is also simulated via ENVI-met, as buildings' materials and indoor energy consumption are assumed as invariant to evaluate the historic urban fabric climate resilience. The results constitute a first step towards understanding to what extent a particular urban fabric type is thermally resilient.

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