From Patented Prefabricated Panels to Energy Requalification Strategies. The Case of Nursery Schools in Emilia Romagna Region

Since the 1960s, prefabrication has become an increasingly popular technique for building construction. Prefabricated building components are preferred because they can save costs, expedite construction schedules, increase quality control, and provide safer working environments. Despite the initial extensive use of prefabricated buildings for residential purposes, the acknowledged advantages were also applied to the construction of new schools. The urgent need to quickly establish a network of new schools at all levels led the main manufacturers of prefabricated components to file numerous patents for prefabricated panels and floors. These were widely used in all regions until the early 1980s. Today, most of these buildings, constructed using compositional schemes that involved the assembly of prefabricated cells, require energy and functional retrofit interventions. Understanding the patents and technologies used is essential for optimizing the redevelopment intervention in terms of costs and fully leveraging the replicability of the project to be applied to schools of the same historical era and prefabrication type. Regarding prefabricated school buildings, particularly nursery schools, there are several opportunities to support energy and environmental retrofit projects and optimize the inherent opportunities in prefabricated panels. The paper aims to present a retrofit project workflow for single-story prefab nursery schools. The case studies are in Carpi, in northern Italy.