Energy Efficiency and Heritage Conservation in Contemporary Architecture

9-10 July 2026

Valletta Puggia University Complex
Via Dodecaneso 31, Genoa, Italy

Organized by DAD | University of Genoa in collaboration with DOCOMOMO International 

The Department of Architecture and Design (DAD) at the University of Genoa, in collaboration with DOCOMOMO International, invites students to an intensive 2-day international workshop exploring the tension between energy efficiency and the conservation of contemporary architecture. Participants will work directly within Valletta Puggia, a large university complex designed by Tomaso Badano and Lionello Calza in 1974 and built between 1983 and 1994, which currently houses the School of Mathematical, Physical and Natural Sciences. They will investigate its building envelope - metal and plastic cladding panels, aluminum windows, and steel structure - through the lenses of Performance, Permanence, and Practice.

Valletta Puggia University Complex 

Tomaso Badano & Lionello Calza, 1974-1994

The complex sits on a hillside descending from Forte San Martino toward the sea in eastern Genoa. Designed during the University of Genoa's restructuring in the late 1960s and 1970s, it was conceived as a new hub for the science and technology faculties, planned in close collaboration with the academic staff. The building is a massive steel-framed structure that settles onto the sloping terrain in stepped floor plates, with cantilevered volumes, projections, and quasi-industrial forms that evoke the high-tech architecture of its time.
The plan is organized into three horizontal bands - faculty offices at the top, teaching spaces in the middle, and research facilities at the base - while each department occupies a vertical slice, served by stairwells and inclined lifts that punctuate the predominantly horizontal elevation. A covered internal street on the fifth floor offers panoramic views of the landscape between the Apennine ridges and the sea, serving as a space for collective life and as an urban connector between the upper city and the valley below. This dual role, architectural and urban, draws explicitly on Genoa's modern tradition, from Luigi Carlo Daneri's "Biscione" at Forte Quezzi to Ludovico Quaroni's Sacra Famiglia church.
The envelope - metal and plastic cladding panels, aluminum-framed windows - is a clear reference to contemporary high-tech aesthetics and a key element of the building's architectural identity. The complex is listed in the Ministry of Culture's Census of Italian Architecture from 1945 to the Present and recognized for its innovative interpretation of the university building type, its experimental materiality, and its contribution to the urban landscape. It is this envelope, industrially produced, architecturally significant, and thermally underperforming, that sits at the center of the workshop's inquiry.

Participants will have direct access to the building throughout the workshop, with opportunities to explore its spaces, examine its envelope, and engage with students and staff who use it daily.

Guiding Questions

Rather than prescribing a specific intervention strategy, the workshop asks each team to develop its own position in response to the following questions:

• Which elements of the building envelope hold heritage value, and which represent performance criticalities?
• To what extent can energy performance be improved without altering the building's architectural character?
• Are the original climatic and constructive solutions still functional, or have they become part of the problem?
• What intervention strategy best balances conservation and energy upgrading, and what trade-offs does it require?

Each team will address these questions through three thematic lenses:

• Performance: envelope, comfort, energy behavior
• Permanence: architectural values, materiality, identity
• Practice: spatial experience, everyday use, inhabitants' needs 

Program

Thursday 9 July | Exploration & Diagnosis

14:00 Registration and welcome - Chemistry, 7th floor, classrooms 4 & 5
14:30 Presentation of Valletta Puggia - Valter Scelsi 
15:15 Guided exploration of the building in groups, supported by a structured observation sheet - Marta Casanova, Federica Pompejano, Valter Scelsi, Antonio Caggiano
17:30 Collective sharing of first observations and expert response to Day 1 observations 
18:00 Close of Day 1

Friday 10 July | Design & Restitution

09:00 Operative briefing and teamwork begin
11:30 Final restitution: team presentations and comparative closing discussion
13:00 Close of the Workshop

Workshop participants are invited to attend the EeTAC International Conference on Friday afternoon at the DAD Department, Stradone di Sant’Agostino 37, featuring EeTAC project results and keynote lectures by Wido Quist and Uta Pottgiesser.

Expected Output

Each team will produce a synthesis poster in A1 format, based on a shared template. The poster will include:

• diagnosis of the existing envelope, identifying criticalities and values observed on site;
• proposed intervention strategy, with an explicit statement of priorities;
• evaluation according to shared criteria: conservation of values, energy performance, reversibility, feasibility, and comfort;
• conflicts and trade-offs, explaining what was accepted, what was refused, and why.

Each team will give its scenario a concise title that captures its core position and will present the work during the final restitution session through an 8-minute presentation followed by a 5-minute discussion.

Participation

The workshop is open to 20 students, organized in 4 teams of 5 participants. 

Eligibility
Students enrolled in architecture, architectural engineering, heritage conservation, or related programs.

Students enrolled in the Master’s Degree in Architecture and Master's Degree in Architectural Composition at the University of Genoa may request recognition of 1 CFU as Altre Attività Formative, subject to the procedures of their degree program.

PhD candidates may register as tutors or assistants by contacting the organizers.

Working languages
English / Italian

How to Apply
Applications must be submitted by 19 June 2026 via the Google Form available at the following link:
https://forms.gle/1QvTGk53syUVUs37A

Scientific Committee

Marta Casanova, University of Genoa, DAD 
Federica Pompejano University of Genoa, DAD 
Valter Scelsi, University of Genoa, DAD
Antonio Caggiano, University of Genoa, DICCA
Wido Quist, TU Delft / DOCOMOMO International 
Uta Pottgiesser, TU Delft / DOCOMOMO International 
Stefano Francesco Musso, University of Genoa, DAD
Giovanna Franco, University of Genoa, DAD
Rita Vecchiattini, University of Genoa, DAD
Daniela Pittaluga, University of Genoa, DAD

Organizing Committee

Simonetta Acacia
Elena Geria 
Trayana Kovacheva
Sara Mauri