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As the urgency to mitigate climate change intensifies, the achievement of zero carbon targets in the built environment has become a critical objective. Building retrofitting plays a vital role in reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions in existing buildings. This paper presents an approach that combines Building Information Modeling (BIM) with multiple domains to strive for zero carbon targets in building retrofit projects. The proposed approach is based on a dynamic multi-parameter analysis that integrates indoor comfort, energy savings, CO2eq reduction, and the social cost of carbon while considering investment costs. Renewable energy technologies, such as photovoltaic panels and solar thermal systems, are emphasized to achieve the desired zero-carbon outcomes. Real-time monitoring mechanisms enable continuous performance evaluation and adaptive retrofit strategies for further energy savings. This approach is validated through a case study of an existing thermal bath building, known as “Terme Lucane”, located in southern Italy. The results of the study demonstrate significant reductions in energy consumption and carbon emissions, highlighting the potential of the proposed approach to achieve zero carbon targets through the integration of multi-data BIM implementation. These findings offer a promising pathway for building retrofit projects aiming for zero carbon targets through multi-data BIM modeling.

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the engineering/technical approach to building and plant design. In Italy, most of the school heritage belongs to historical buildings, which are not only under constraints for the protection and prevention of loss of cultural heritage but are often created with a different intended use. This fact implies that any plant engineering project is really complex. Starting from the current sanitary measures for reopening during the Covid-19 era and the crucial current research on this matter, the feasibility of plant retrofit/refurbishment solutions by means of effective ventilation and air quality are investigated. Various plant solutions based on demand-controlled mechanical ventilation, operating 24 h a day, seven days a week, without air recirculation mode, for a historical high school building were studied using transient simulations. A result comparison showed that it is possible to obtain healthy school environments by means of an optimal compromise between energy savings and the best ventilation conditions for indoor air quality (IAQ). Sustainability is understood as effective and efficient solutions for energy consumption reduction and environmental sustainability as a guarantee for people&rsquo, s safety and wellbeing.

This research provides an integrated methodological approach based on the combined use of spatial syntax modelling and eyetracker analysis techniques for lighting sustainability aimed to adaptive reuse of all the spaces with high historical, architectural, philological value of Cultural Heritage (CH). MosLESS (Modelling Sustainable Lighting with Eyetracker and Spatial Syntax techniques) is the proposed method, that can suggest fundamental guidelines for dynamic and static lighting in the museographic and museological areas, but also for reuse, conservation and enhancement of historical and CH buildings integrated with efficient energy management and conservation and protection needs. The National Museum of San Matteo in Pisa (Italy) was the pilot project. Particular environments were chosen for the experimental measurement campaigns carried out to assess dynamic and static visual fields, vision and perception. Methodological approach and results can be useful tools for exhibition planning with important energy, social and cultural effects. A further objective of the research will be to facilitate cultural exchanges, communication and new procedures for the digital management of the transmission or modification of museographic and exhibition projects, up to relations with public clients, as well as integrated management of information and decision-making processes.

Our present research, starting from a previous study, aimed to define a methodological approach for sustainable lighting designs in a historical library, focusing on lighting quality, mainly obtained from the optimal use of natural light and its combination with the artificial one. A historical Florentine monastery, which is now a university library, was used as a pilot project. The proposed method forms an essential part of widening and deepening the recent study. Results have shown that this method will allow for adaptive lighting, based on the optimal control and use of natural light, historical&ndash, philological re-reading of the space, cultural heritage preventive protection and conservation, with the aim of building adaptive reuse, and it can be extended to similar cultural heritage cases, but also non-listed buildings and current designs. This research demonstrates how a correct natural lighting design can be a tool for sustainable refurbishment, guaranteeing cultural heritage conservation and preventive protection, and recovery of the historical, architectural and philological value of old and/or listed buildings, which have been converted to uses, often diametrically opposed to the original ones.

Many ancient libraries in Italy are housed in historical buildings, only a few in former churches and monasteries. Newly built libraries mostly comply with the requirements of sustainability, energy saving and renewable energy use, but this does not occur for existing ones, especially when they belong to the historical cultural heritage. Historical library buildings have good mass and thermal inertia but often have inadequate windows with low light transmission value. Lighting systems are often without control and thus cause poor lighting conditions. Our present research concerns the energy sustainability assessment of retrofit operations for lighting in an existing historical university library, focusing on lighting quality, adequate lighting conditions for visual tasks, vision ergonomics and well-being, and guaranteeing the preventive conservation and protection of heritage books. This case study is very particular, because it concerns a Florentine historical monastery which is now a university library. Our proposed method introduces an optimal toolset for lighting design solutions with the aim of sustainability. The library indoor space was procedurally decomposed into illumination volumes according to different occupant activities and visual tasks and different use areas. This method is extensible to all similar cultural heritage case, but also existing old buildings and current designs.

Many literature studies demonstrated that technologies belonging to cognitive neuroscience can be used in museums. Physics, optics, thermodynamics and neurosciences applications can provide an important support to applied and practical research for lighting our Cultural Heritage. In our research we provided a multidisciplinary integrated approach for the study of the luminous climate inside a historical building: Villa La Quiete in Florence is the case study. The quantitative measurements of the relationship between observer and artworks were performed, with eye-tracking technique application. The Information Theory, read on a thermodynamic basis, the ergonomy of the multi-perceptive learning and optical physics, were the fundamental tools for the assessment of the correct light sources in terms of spectral emission and colour light temperature. The eye-tracking technique combined with the results of lighting parameter quantification, allowed checking how the colour of light changes the observer's perception, and from the information theory point of view, the communication and interpretation process of the signals due to different lighting. At the same time, it was also possible to measure by assessing the perceptive data of the visual path, and thus the neg-entropy, the informative content of the interaction of light with works of art.

Airflow and ventilation are particularly important in healthcare rooms for controlling thermo-hygrometric conditions, providing anaesthetic gas removal, diluting airborne bacterial contamination and minimizing bacteria transfer airborne. An actual hospitalization room was the investigate case study. Transient simulations with computational fluid dynamics (CFD), based on the finite element method (FEM) were performed to investigate the efficiency of the existing heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) plant with a variable air volume (VAV) primary air system. Solid modelling of the room, taking into account thermo-physical properties of building materials, architectural features (e.g., window and wall orientation) and furnishing (e.g., beds, tables and lamps) arrangement of the room, inlet turbulence high induction air diffuser, the return air diffusers and two patients lying on two parallel beds was carried out. Multiphysics modelling was used: a thermo-fluidynamic model (convection-conduction and incompressible Navier-Stokes) was combined with a convection-diffusion model. Three 3D models were elaborated considering different conditions/events of the patients (i.e., the first was considered coughing and/or the second breathing). A particle tracing and diffusion model, connected to cough events, was developed to simulate the dispersal of bacteria-carrying droplets in the isolation room equipped with the existing ventilation system. An analysis of the region of droplet fallout and the dilution time of bacteria diffusion of coughed gas in the isolation room was performed. The analysis of transient simulation results concerning particle path and distance, and then particle tracing combined with their concentration, provided evidence of the formation of zones that should be checked by microclimatic and contaminant control. The present study highlights the fact that the CFD-FEM application is useful for understanding the efficiency, adequacy and reliability of the ventilation system, but also provides important suggestions for controlling air quality, patients' comfort and energy consumption in a hospital.

We suggest a method to identify the suitability of a chosen indoor environment for paper material conservation in historical libraries. Our approach is based on two steps: numerical simulation for solving the air velocity, moisture and temperature fields, and then post-processing indexes evaluation to assess how the indoor microclimatic conditions can be favourable or not to the growth and development of microorganisms responsible for paper deterioration. A real case study was analysed in two different conditions: one the present situation and the other proposed by the authors with a HVAC system assuring controlled air temperature and RH levels. Numerical models, validated by experimental data published in previous works, were used to carry out microclimatic results. Starting from these results, some indexes suggested by the scientific literature were computed to check the suitability of the indoor environment for preserving a library heritage. Boolean parameters were also deduced from the combination of microclimatic factors favouring the growth of microorganisms responsible for paper material deterioration. Our research can provide a methodological approach that predictively allows one to know when, where and how the processes responsible for indoor microorganism activity can find the microclimatic conditions for their kick-off and triggering, and then their areas of potential growth. The proposed method highlights the main causes of the deterioration processes connected to building thermo-physics. Simulation results turned out to be a fundamental approach to identify the risky zones and potential areas of triggering deterioration processes of all the materials present.

The aim of this paper is to describe a multidisciplinary approach including biological and particle monitoring, and microclimate analysis associated with the application of the Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD). This approach was applied at the Palatina historical library in Parma. Monitoring was performed both in July and in December, in the absence of visitors and operators. Air microbial monitoring was performed with active and passive methods. Airborne particles with a diameter of ≥0.3, ≥0.5, ≥1 and ≥5 μm/m3, were counted by a laser particle counter. The surface contamination of shelves and manuscripts was assessed with nitrocellulose membranes. A spore trap sampler was used to identify both viable and non-viable fungal spores by optical microscope. Microbiological contaminants were analyzed through cultural and molecular biology techniques. Microclimatic parameters were also recorded. An infrared thermal camera provided information on the surface temperature of the different building materials, objects and components. Transient simulation models, for coupled heat and mass-moisture transfer, taking into account archivist and general public movements, combined with the related sensible and latent heat released into the environment, were carried out applying the CFD-FE (Finite Elements) method. Simulations of particle tracing were carried out. A wide variability in environmental microbial contamination, both for air and surfaces, was observed. Cladosporium spp., Alternaria spp., Aspergillus spp., and Penicillium spp. were the most frequently found microfungi. Bacteria such as Streptomyces spp., Bacillus spp., Sphingomonas spp., and Pseudoclavibacter as well as unculturable colonies were characterized by molecular investigation. CFD simulation results obtained were consistent with the experimental data on microclimatic conditions. The tracing and distribution of particles showed the different slice planes of diffusion mostly influenced by the convective airflow. This interdisciplinary research represents a contribution towards the definition of standardized methods for assessing the biological and microclimatic quality of indoor cultural heritage environments.

Urban form matters in assessing the energy consumption of buildings. This chapter introduces three useful tools to assess the environmental impact of the urban form and to define possible energy scenarios. These outcomes can be used to inform the redevelopment or the new design of urban districts, or simply to evaluate the overall energy performance of different urban fabrics. The tools presented comprise: (a) simplified indicators of energy-dependent variables based on morphological information of the urban form; (b) algorithms for the estimation of the heating energy needs of the urban fabric, based on the implementation of European Standards; (c) algorithms for the assessment of the solar potential of the urban form, computing the solar irradiance impacting on different sloped urban surfaces. The techniques introduced are based on an innovative approach that makes use of Digital Urban Surface Models (DUSMs) and Digital Image Processing (DIP) techniques.

In October 2005, a survey to several potential end-users (surveyors, architects, urban planners, environmental and energy specialists, among others) of the City of Geneva (Switzerland) howed a strong interest for the integration of the third dimension in the available GIS data of the City of Geneva, mainly by the integration of new layers of information, here referred to as 3-D urban indicators [1]. In order to extract this type of indicators, different geo-referenced data of excellent quality, such as 2-D cadastral data, aerial images, LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) data and a 3-D vector model were used. A main focus was given to the construction of innovative 3-D Urban Environmental Quality (UEQ) indicators, which are highlighted through the 3-D visualization displays proposed here. A simple example is the exploration of the solar potential of building facades and roofs. In this case, the purpose is to evaluate the potential of buildings for the installation of solar panels (photovoltaic and thermal).

The accuracy of thermal conductivity and diffusivity measurements using the parallel wire method depends on the mathematical model used. This work presents an analytical solution of a model that takes into account the probe radius and the thermal contact resistance between the material and the probe. The model is compared to the classical hot wire model on the basis of the acquired experimental data.