During this studio, students will acquire: - the capacity to learn and apply the design abilities deriving from the interaction between form and technique, in relationship with the context, and to make a complete building project; - the capacity to represent and communicate the design subject; - a method to apply a climate-responsive design approach to building design; - knowledge of the main climate factors affecting indoor thermal comfort; - skills in making proper design choices for an optimal use of climate sources for thermal comfort and energy saving; - competences in applying analytical and digital methods to assess climate response performance of buildings; - practical skills in construction and testing of physical/virtual models; - an autonomous capability to deal with settlement forms, urban morphology and typology, layouts, techniques and building materials; - the capacity to develop/conceive building coherent design choice, including the knowledge of building elements, technologies and processes, architectural characters, functions, etc.

- Knowledge of the performance-based theory for building analyses. - Ability to understand and represent building’s components and relevant functional characteristics. - Knowledge of graphical representation rules at various scales.

This Studio aims at supplying basic knowledge, methods and tools for designing a climate-responsive building. Theoretical aspects will be dealt with by supplying basic concepts and simplified methods for allowing students to understand and be aware of the interrelationships between climate, indoor comfort, technological and design characteristics of buildings. Through a building design case study, students will be able to apply the above mentioned concepts and methods to a practical design experience. Main topics are: - Bioclimatic archetypes – precedents of constructions with strong building-climate interrelationships; - Site-climate analyses – methods to evaluate access to/protection from solar radiation and wind, for a building to be designed in a given location (microclimate matrix); - Climate-responsive building Programming – analysis of user needs, space and technological requirements with focus on indoor thermal comfort; - Climate-responsive pre-design – aggregation and location of space units based on optimisation of indoor thermal comfort conditions in relation to outdoor climate characteristics; - Climate-responsive design development – design of the building envelope to optimise the use of climate resources for indoor comfort control and energy savings (e.g. solar radiation, natural ventilation, daylighting).

- Lectures on theoretical concepts; - Learning by doing through applications including space unit aggregation approaches in a given climate context and site; - Critical analysis of best-practice case studies; - Team exercises; - Individual and collective student work revision activity; - Laboratory testing on case study design maquettes /or virtual models/ checking environmental design aspects (e.g. shadowing dynamics).

As theoretical references the following publications are suggested: 1) Olgyay (1963) Design with climate. Bioclimatic approach to architectural regionalism, Princeton Un., Princeton. 2) Brown, G.Z. and DeKay, M. (2001). Sun, Wind & Light: Architectural Design Strategies, Second Edition, 282 pages. John Wiley & Sons Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey, USA. 3) Chiesa, G. (Ed.) (2021). Bioclimatic approaches in urban and building design, Springer, Cham. 4) Cook J (ed) (1989) Passive Cooling, Mit Press, Cambridge. 5) Grosso, M. (2017). Il raffrescamento passivo degli edifici in zone a clima temperato, 4th Edition, 450 pages. Maggioli, Sant’Arcangelo di Romagna. 6) Chiesa G, Kolokotroni M, Heiselberg P (Eds) (2021) Innovation in Ventilative Cooling, Springer, Cham. 7) Sayigh, A. (2019) Sustainable Vernaculal Architecture, 438 pages. Springer, Cham, Switzerland. In addition, support documentation for the exercise activity – such as guidelines, EXCEL files, and calculation programmes – will be made available through the course web-site together with specific scientific references.

Exam: Written test; Compulsory oral exam; Group graphic design project;

Students’ learning performance will be carried by assessing and grading: a. delivered building design solutions on the case-study project by students’ teams (intermediate evaluation without scoring to assess the learning process of each students’ team); b. final synthesis of results from the whole case-study building design process by students’ teams (60% of the final score – delivered one week before the date of the final exam) - plates and booklet; c. discussion with each students team on the case-study project (20% of the final score); d. and an individual oral on theoretical topics described during the course (20% of the final score - written or oral). Scoring will be defined based on the maximum score of 30. In the case of a failure to reach the minimum score, the final exam can be held at the next call by presenting an up-graded version of the building design case-study project and/or redoing the individual oral. The weighting system shall be communicated to the students at the beginning of the course.

In addition to the message sent by the online system, students with disabilities or Specific Learning Disorders (SLD) are invited to directly inform the professor in charge of the course about the special arrangements for the exam that have been agreed with the Special Needs Unit. The professor has to be informed at least one week before the beginning of the examination session in order to provide students with the most suitable arrangements for each specific type of exam.