The Modern Movement heritage: proto-bioclimatic solutions and building elements

Before the publication of the book Design with climate: a bioclimatic approach to architectural regionalism (1963), which established its author, V. Olgyay, as an international figure in the bioclimatic design, several works of the Modern Movement (hereafter MoMo) had already revealed a variety of passive thermal solutions/elements. Le Corbusier’s brise-soleil has spread throughout the world the concern of merging arté and teknê in the design of shading elements increasingly adaptable to control changes in light radiation since the 1920s. Natural ventilation building solutions are integral parts of the iconic architectures designed by F.L. Wright, masterfully revealing some paradigms of climatic sustainability into the material heritage of the MoMo. Forward-thinking Italian architects have started testing an impressive combination of new thermo-insulation autarkic materials (e.g., Eraclit, Populit, Faesite) design performative climate-responsive building envelopes suitable for colonial buildings. By considering the ‘anatomy’ of the building, our study focuses on identifying, analyzing, and categorizing proto-bioclimatic building solutions conceived by the architects of the MoMo to achieve both the clime adaptability of building elements and adaptation of the International Style to diverse climatic conditions. Our critical survey goes beyond a single discipline as it results from an integrated process of interpretation of the history of architecture, building design, and construction history. This process has assumed a reductionist paradigm to highlight those systems seeking to reduce the building's negative impact through its passive thermal efficiency. Looking under the lens of thermal sustainability the building solutions of the MoMo legacy, our study aims to foster further progress in improving the resilience to climate change in design practices devoted to both: the conservation of the MoMo architecture and renovation the 20th-century building stock.