Logical use of traditional technologies for housing passive cooling in hot humid Italian climate areas

Climate of the Po Valley, in northern Italy, typically is hot humid during summer and cold during winter. In such region new house constructions are often defective in dealing, by passive means, with solar radiation and outdoor temperatures, the majority of new buildings is designed with light envelope, and no care is taken over many issues like solar control, albedo of external surfaces, natural ventilation strategies. The negative result is a substantial growth of electrical demand associated to housing cooling, since A/C systems are becoming cheaper and more popular. The paper is going to describe, through some actual case studies, how a rational use of traditional techniques and technologies, along with a smart design, can contribute to provide acceptable summer comfort with no needs of energy draining cooling systems. A methodical design procedure is vital to succeed in this aim: starting from site analysis, the continuous checking of design goals and the evaluation of each option through simulation tools can help to outline true primary targets.