It is important to make evident that these buildings are in different climatic zones: characteristics vary from building to building, passing from a climatic zone B (Agrigento, Catania, Messina, Palermo, Trapani, Siracusa) to a E (Enna), that means moving from a warm to a cold climate, with just few examples in halfway zones (buildings that are in Ragusa – zone C –or Caltanissetta – zone D).
This variability has been seen as an advantage, because it allows to validate the procedure on different climates, and, in the future, to extend the procedure to a larger urban area, taking in consideration conveniently constructive and typological differences.
The main phases of the building stock analysis are (see Figure 7):
- Building inventory: the first step in the process of categorising a building stock is to identify and collect available data on buildings. Data were those given by the Sicily Region Energy Office (energy reports; energy flux diagram; energy bills; drawings, etc.);
- Definition of needed data: for each case study a recognition of other data has been done, providing knowledge on the state of preservation, the indoor climate conditions and requirements for preventive conservation strategies [31]. Other documents on legal constraints, restoration works, etc. have been found from regional and national archives;
- Building stock categorisation: within this scheme each building is classified according to the following categories: church, museum, office and library. For buildings that would not fit into the given categories, the classification 'multiple use' was introduced. These five categories reflect common associations with the use, protection needs, technical equipment (saving some case which is without plants), as well as the building volume (except for museums, which have different dimensions and are classified in museum – the bigger ones- and house-museum – the smaller);
- Building selection: a group of 15 buildings have been selected between the five categories, considering as minimum two examples for each, one in zone B – the most frequent among the case studies - and one in another climate zone. The criteria of selection where mainly two: the building includes all needed data and it is representative of the category. Some cases have been selected also because allowing to test the procedure with particular conditions (e.g. no plants, courtyard with gardens, degradation problems, mix between new building and ancient building).