In order to cope with the modern environmental, economic and social issues, urban densification appears as one of the possible solutions to limit land consumption, infrastructure and transport costs, to increase quality of life and to promote a more efficient use of energy in metropolitan areas. Since ancient times the addition of new volumes to the existing building has been adopted as an ordinary practice to respond to the changing needs of the inhabitants. Today rooftop architecture can be used to intensify the existing metropolitan areas, inject them with new vitality and diversify the mono-functionality of a neighbourhood. Besides, it represents an opportunity for the energy upgrading of the built environment since the exploitation of rooftop space as open available area where to erect new structures not only allows for land consumption control but also it often entails the requalification of the roofing construction. Moreover the addition of new inhabitable spaces can be part of a governmental or municipal energy incentive policy to trigger private initiatives towards refurbishment and requalification projects aimed at improving the overall energy efficiency of the ‘supporting’ existing buildings. This paper describes the results of an ongoing multidisciplinary government funded research project focusing on the development and prototyping of an energy efficient flexible and adaptable modular prefabricated system for residential rooftop additions exploiting Xlam laminated timber panels. In particular this work presents the meta-design concept of the prefabricated system as the final outcome of a specific methodological process which through preliminary targets definition, users requirements assessment and the exploration and evaluation of different techno-typological solutions has been conceived in order to provide the maximum adaptability and spatial and combination flexibility as well as the highest energy efficiency (passive and active systems) to the modules.
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