A First Look at Italian Cloisters Resilience to a Changing Climate

Urban environments have been facing increasing average temperatures and more frequent heat waves due to climate change. This represents an even greater challenge for historical cities, courtyards, and cloisters, where restrictions due to conservation call for calibrated thermal resiliency strategies based on thorough assessment. In this study, the resilience of the San Sepolcro cloister (a form of enclosed courtyard used in monasterial architecture) in Parma is assessed in response to future climatic conditions. Using the software ENVI-met, a microclimatic model is created, and microclimate is simulated for the present (2020) and a future scenario (2080) for the hottest day of summer, to investigate overheating mechanisms in the context of a historical urban district. Finally, results are analysed and possible strategies to address overheating in the future, in the building and urban scale, are sketched.