Search

Results of an online survey conducted during the COVID-19 lockdown among 848 home workers living in London (United Kingdom) and in Italy are reported with a focus on (1) the impacts of building services on the perception of the acoustic environment while working and relaxing at home and (2) the factors associated with window opening behaviour. The analyses showed no significant difference in soundscape appropriateness for relaxation depending on the heating, ventilation and cooling system typologies, and in soundscape appropriateness for working from home (WFH) based on the ventilation strategy. Higher soundscape appropriateness for WFH was associated with houses equipped only with radiant floors for heating in Italy and with air-cooling systems in London. In London, air systems resulted in higher perceived dominance of noise from building services compared to other systems. Overall, rooms with less dominant sounds from building services were evaluated as more appropriate for working and relaxing. The dominance of sky or buildings from the window view, outdoor noisiness, noise sensitivity, age and gender were not significantly associated with participants’ window opening behaviour while WFH. Differently, participants viewing more vegetation from windows in Italy were more likely (odds ratio: 1.279) to keep the window open while WFH.

La transición energética y el paisaje se consideran a menudo contrapuestos, debido a las transformaciones sobre los paisajes cotidianos que se acometen para alcanzar los objetivos energéticos. El paisaje, entendido como relación profunda entre las personas y su medio, debe ser una cuestión clave a tener en cuenta durante la transición energética, ya que los cambios físicos y perceptivos operados, en casos de saturación, pueden provocar rechazo social. Una consideración integral del paisaje contribuye a que se consideren los intereses de los diferentes agentes locales y de la ciudadanía en los procesos de toma de decisiones. En el marco del proyecto de investigación H2020 PEARLS - Planning and Engagement Arenas for Renewable Energy Landscapes, se ha realizado un estudio de caso en una pequeña ciudad de Andalucía que tiene como objetivo proponer una metodología para introducir el concepto de paisaje en la planificación energética local. Se pone de relieve la importancia de dos estrategias principales: la introducción de la percepción pública y la introducción del enfoque paisajístico en los procesos de planificación, con el objetivo de mitigar las transformaciones del paisaje derivadas de la instalación de plantas solares.

Current literature and guidelines on sustainable design often debate on the advantages of natural ventilation (NV) and mechanical ventilation (MV) on indoor environment and energy consumption. The present systematic review explores the existing literature comparing NV and MV on the indoor comfort and well-being points of view. The findings emphasize that thermohygrometric comfort is the main driver of occupants’ ventilation behavior, while ventilation design is mainly led by indoor air quality targets. Moreover, more recent papers (especially after COVID-19 outbreak) emphasize the necessity of a health-based approach, contrasting airborne pathogens transmission. In this sense, MV is more frequently recommended in public spaces, while hybrid ventilation (HV) is often suggested as a solution to both ensure proper indoor conditions and energy savings. The concept of well-being is currently under-explored, as the present literature only refers to comfort. The same happens with topics such as visual, acoustic, and multi-domain comfort, as well as passive techniques such as night cooling, or analysis of specific environments such as healthcare facilities. Current knowledge would benefit from an expansion of future research in these directions. The choice of the best ventilation solution cannot ignore the context, type, and condition of energy efficient buildings, in order to properly take into account occupants’ well-being.

Sexual well-being is a fundamental facet of the overall well-being of individuals and implies the ability to have safe and pleasurable sexual experiences, beyond the absence of disease or disturbance. The extent to which people can achieve sexual well-being depends, among other aspects, on whether they live in an environment that promotes and support it. The present study focuses on the unexplored impacts of the perceived acoustic environment (i.e., the soundscape) on human sexual activity carried out in domestic settings. Verbal descriptions have been gathered from open-ended questions included in a survey administered to 848 respondents living in London (UK) and in Italy in January 2021 during the COVID-19 lockdown. Thematic analysis was used to extract a framework detailing the positive and negative impacts of the acoustic environment on sexual activity. The results show the mechanisms by which the acoustic features of the environment can impact on the sexual experience in terms of privacy, distraction, disruption or support, up to trigger coping strategies (e.g., controlling windows, playing music) and behavioural changes (e.g., lowering the volume of the voice) that can in turn limit or enhance the freedom of sexual behaviour, affect or foster sexual well-being.

The on-site measurement of the thermal properties of existing building envelopes is of utmost importance to fairly accurately calculate the thermal loss by transmission to the outside environment and so to define the building overall energy performance. This paper presents a preliminary investigation concerning the use of a new indirect method for measuring the thermal characteristics of building materials throughout the year based on the analysis of the material electrical properties. The main goal is to identify a relationship between thermal transmittance, moisture content and electrical impedance through relative electrical permittivity measurements.

Urban green infrastructure (UGI) has a key role in improving human and environmental health in cities and contributes to several services related to climate adaptation. Accurate localization and quantification of pervious surfaces and canopy cover are envisaged to implement UGI, address sustainable spatial planning, and include adaptation and mitigation strategies in urban planning practices. This study aims to propose a simple and replicable process to map pervious surfaces and canopy cover and to investigate the reliability and the potential planning uses of UGI maps. The proposed method combines the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), extracted from high-resolution airborne imagery (0.20 m), with digital elevation models to map pervious surfaces and canopy cover. The approach is tested in the Municipality of Trento, Italy, and, according to a random sampling validation, has an accuracy exceeding 80%. The paper provides a detailed map of green spaces in the urban areas, describing quantity and distribution, and proposes a synthesis map expressed as a block-level degree of pervious surfaces and canopy cover to drive urban transformations. The proposed approach constitutes a useful tool to geovisualize critical areas and to compare levels of pervious surfaces and canopy cover in the municipal area. Acknowledging the role of green areas in the urban environment, the paper examines the potential applications of the maps in the policy cycle, such as land use management and monitoring, and in climate-related practices, and discusses their integration into the current planning tools to shift towards performative rather than prescriptive planning.

According to the data of major international organizations and studies in the building sector, we actually live in a housing emergency. Each year millions of people migrate all over the world (258 millions in the 2017). About one billion people now live in slums. Looking to prediction for the future, these numbers are expected to increase. It is therefore evident that the theme of housing and of the city is really important for the near future. The research presented in this paper aims to develop a modular and modifiable building system, to answer to the aforementioned questions, ensuring at the same time flexibility and speed required by modern living: modular houses fast to be built, easy to change, and to dismiss. A pre-design matrix is under development, as a driver tool for designers and planners that can theoretically combine the best (ideal) choices for a given place/environment based on specific social and environmental needs/availability. The matrix combines the main parameters that influence the final energy consumption and indoor human comfort of a building, with particular attention to the building envelope. The performances of the envelope in severe environments (cold and hot) are considered, while changing materials and technological elements. The main result obtained is the list of requirements that an envelope must have to satisfy the comfort target in a given climate. This paper illustrates the results of these changes in the composition of the envelope.

The focus of the building industry and research is shifting from delivering satisfactory spaces to going beyond what is merely acceptable with a wave of new research and practice dedicated to exploring how the built environment can support task performance and enhance people&rsquo, s health and well-being. The present study addresses the role of acoustics in this paradigm shift. Indoor soundscape research has recently emerged as an approach that brings a perceptual perspective on building and room acoustics in order to shape built environments that &ldquo, sound good&rdquo, according to building occupants&rsquo, preference and needs. This paper establishes an initial discussion over some of the open questions in this field of research that is still in an embryonic stage. A thematic analysis of structured interviews with a panel of experts offered a range of perspectives on the characterization, management, and design of indoor soundscapes and health-related outcomes. The discussion pointed out the importance of both perceptual and multisensory research and integrated participatory design practices to enable a holistic view regarding the complex building&ndash, user interrelations and the design of just cities. Soundscape methodologies tailored to the peculiarities of indoor soundscapes can help to measure and predict the human perceptual response to the acoustic stimuli in context, thus reducing the risk of mismatches between expected and real building experiences. This perceptual perspective is expected to widen the scientific evidence for the negative and positive impacts of the acoustic environment on human health, well-being, and quality of life. This will support prioritizing the role of acoustics in building design and challenge many current design practices that are based on a noise control approach.

Models of perceived affective quality of soundscapes have been recently included into standards to guide the measurement and improvement of urban soundscapes. Such models have been developed in outdoor contexts and their validity in indoor built environments is unclear. A laboratory listening test was performed in a mock-up living room with a window sight, in order to develop an indoor soundscape model for residential buildings. During the test, 35 participants were asked to rate 20 different scenarios each. Scenarios were defined by combining four indoor sound sources and five urban environments, filtered through a window ajar, on 97 attribute scales. By applying principal component analysis, Comfort, Content, and Familiarity, were extracted as the main perceptual dimensions explaining respectively 58%, 25% and 7% of the total variance. Relationships between the principal component scores, acoustic parameters and indoor and outdoor sound categories were investigated. Comfort, Content, and Familiarity were found to be better predicted respectively by loudness N10, level variability LA10-LA90 and sharpness S. The magnitude of linear-mixed-effect model predictions sensibly improved by accounting for sound categories, thus pointing at the importance of semantic meaning of sounds in indoor soundscape assessment. A measurement system is proposed, based on a 2-D space defined by two orthogonal axes, Comfort and Content, and two additional axes, Engagement and Privacy – Control, rotated 45° on the same plane. The model indicates the perceptual constructs to be measured (e.g. in post-occupancy evaluations), the attribute scales to be employed and actions to improve indoor soundscape quality, thus providing a reference for both research and practice.

Super-adsorbent polymers have the capacity to immobilize huge quantities of water in the form of hydrogel, thanks to their configuration. A commercial sodium polyacrylate (PA) was analysed as such and at different water uptakes, indicated through the weight ratios PA:H2O. The hydrogels were prepared using different type of water (tap, distilled and deuterated) and characterized by Infrared and Raman spectroscopic analyses, nuclear magnetic resonance experiments, CHN elemental analysis, measurements of thermal conductivity and diffusivity. All the measurements were done in order to assess applications of PA:H2O gels as Thermal Energy Storage systems for improving thermal performances of building envelope through passive solar walls. It has been observed that the behaviour of the hydrogels depends both on temperature and water content. In certain conditions such as low weight ratios, a spontaneous and quick cooling of the hydrogel could be observed. The curves of heat flow and average specific heat (cp) were determined as a function of temperature in order to investigate the states of water in PA hydrogels. When a few water molecules are present, they are mainly and strongly bonded with carboxylate groups. Increasing the amount of water, greater shells of solvation around ionic groups form and water molecules can even interact with neighbouring non-polar hydrocarbon groups. At very high amount of water molecules, they are much more involved into H-bonds among themselves, rather than with PA, so that water pools form into the links of polymeric network. Bulk-like water can freeze and melt. Whatever the amount of water in the hydrogel, its thermal capacity is higher than dry polymer, because the heat can be absorbed by the continuous desorption of water from polymer to bulk-like water (watergel → waterliquid), which can evaporate as temperature approaches 100 °C (watergel → waterliquid → watervapour).

Data from an online survey conducted in January 2021 by 464 participants living in London and working from home (WFH) after the COVID-19 outbreak were analysed, focusing on: (1) types of building services at home, (2) perceived sound dominance of building services, and (3) the perception of the indoor acoustic environment (i.e. the indoor soundscape) in relation to two main activities, i.e. WFH and relaxation. Results show that most of participants’ houses had radiators for heating and relied on window opening for ventilation and cooling. Air systems (e.g., HVAC systems) resulted in higher perceived dominance compared to other systems, but only when evaluated for WFH. Sound dominance from building services was in turn related to soundscape evaluation. Spaces with less dominant sounds from building services were more appropriate for both WFH and relaxation, and spaces with fewer dominant sounds were assessed better, but just for WFH. Participants’ evaluations generally did not differ according to building service typology. The presence of air-cooling systems was associated with better perceived sound environments, most likely due to better acoustics conditions in newly built or retrofitted dwellings, more probably equipped with air cooling systems. Preliminary findings point out the importance of carefully considering the dominance of sounds by building services, especially for air systems, in relation to traditional and new uses of residential buildings.

Relashionship between LCA and C2C approach on a case study is defined. C2C, if appropriately developed in the construction sector, can become a holistic method to analyse the environmental quality of a building. Considering the overhall environmental impact, a material or an element traditionally considered non-sustainable can perform better than a so-called natural one. Analysis of the building sustainability should embrace a holistic approach, giving equal importance both to environmental and energy issues and to those related to indoor comfort, safety, health and users’ satisfaction.

The design of an indoor acoustic environment positively perceived by building occupants requires a perceptual approach to be adopted in order to define what makes it sound good. Soundscape standards ISO 12913 have been introduced to assess how the acoustic environment is perceived, in context, by people. According to the standards, a straightforward characterization of a soundscape as positive is currently possible only through measurements by persons, because of a current gap in linking perceptual metrics to acoustic or psychoacoustic measurements. In addition, despite applying also to indoor contexts, methods and perceptual metrics described by the standards have been mainly derived from studies related to outdoor urban environments and it is not clear whether they could be directly applied indoor. For this reason, a systematic review was performed to investigate: (i) Data collection methods used in the literature for indoor residential soundscapes and (ii) factors, output of such methods, that characterize them positively. For this purpose, a systematic review has been conducted in accordance with the PRISMA guidelines (preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses) guidelines. The Scopus database was searched for peer-reviewed journal papers published in English, between 1 January 2009 and 24 June 2019, including: (1) field or laboratory studies relevant to residential buildings and (2) studies assessing factors that influence the perception by building users of indoor acoustic environments. The search excluded studies related to: (a) Speech perception issues; (b) noise-induced sleep disturbance; (c) acoustic perception by hearing impaired building users; (d) perception of vibrations or impact sounds. The search returned 1087 results. After the screening process, 37 articles were finally included. Given the differences in methodologic approaches, a quantitative meta-analysis could not be performed, and a qualitative approach was adopted instead. A large part of the selected literature reflected a general effort of minimizing noise annoyance by reducing noise exposure and, in particular, noise levels. Questionnaires and guided interviews were used to capture people’s perception, while the adoption of soundwalks and non-participatory behavioral studies did not emerge in the review literature and need further investigation. The evaluation of a variety of auditory sensations both in their positive and negative dimensions, beyond annoyance, would be required to explore the positive perceptual potential of sounds. Besides sound level, a variety of factors related and unrelated to the acoustic environment were found to affect perceptual outcomes and a framework of evaluation has been proposed as a reference for future assessments. Results encourage the integration of soundscape methodologies into IEQ research, in order to enhance user health and well-being.

The indoor-outdoor connection provided by ventilation openings has been so far a limiting factor in the use of natural ventilation (NV), due to the apparent conflict between ventilation needs and the intrusion of external noise. This limiting factor impedes naturally ventilated buildings meeting the acoustic criteria set by standards and rating protocols, which are reviewed in this paper for residential buildings. The criteria reflect a general effort to minimize noise annoyance by reducing indoor sound levels, typically without a distinction based on a ventilation strategy. Research has developed a number of solutions, discussed here, that try to guarantee ventilation without compromising façade noise insulation, but, currently, none have been adopted on a large scale. This concept paper highlights the main limits of the current approach. First, a fragmented view towards indoor environmental quality has not included consideration of the following acoustic criteria: (i) how buildings are designed and operated to meet multiple needs other than acoustical ones (e.g., ventilation, visual, and cooling needs) and (ii) how people respond to multiple simultaneous environmental factors. Secondly, the lack of a perceptual perspective has led acoustic criteria to neglect the multiple cognitive and behavioral factors impinging on comfort in naturally ventilated houses. Indeed, factors such as the connection with the outside and the sense of control over one’s environment may induce “adaptive acoustic comfort” opportunities that are worth investigating. The mere use of different sound level limits would not be enough to define criteria tailored to the complex user–building interaction that occurs under NV conditions. More holistic and human-centered approaches are required to guarantee not only neutrally but even positively perceived indoor acoustic environments. For this reason, this paper considers this apparent conflict from a soundscape viewpoint, in order to expose still unexplored lines of research. By underpinning a perceptual perspective and by contextualizing it, the indoor soundscape approach provides a framework capable of overcoming the limits of the traditional noise control approach. This could provide the opportunity to foster a wider adoption of NV as a passive design strategy that enhances user health and well-being, while enabling low-cost, and low-energy cooling and ventilation, thereby contributing to current climate change challenges.

European energy politics, usually focused on the single building scale, are now broadening their field of interest towards a wider context, defining more adequate intervention strategies aiming at facilitating virtuous relationship between buildings at district, city and region levels. Themes related to human comfort are properly considered as well, both at physical and social level, namely relational comfort between people living in the same built environment. Again, relationship is the key word. In this context, university student residences have been often studied as large buildings hosting several and complex functions, where people with different habits, education, origins and culture live together. Besides, dorms have particular relationships with the city, often acting as places for urban regeneration. The study presented here concerns the analysis of the recent San Bartolomeo student dorm, performed with focus groups with the occupants and questionnaires, on-site monitoring survey and energy modelling in transient state. The purpose is to present a comprehensive study on the constructive and energetic aspects of existing building complexes, in order to define a possible procedure aimed at considering the overall comfort level of the living community and the interaction with the urban surrounding from an operational and social point of view.

The paper presents a spatially explicit and “bottom-up” methodology for the building stock analysis of the residential sector. It integrates different input data in a Geographical Information System (GIS), without using the “archetypes approach” and simulation tools. In particular, the energy balance at the building level (BL) for the whole Valle d'Aosta region (Italy) is addressed, using the Italian Ministerial Decree 26/06/2009 and the UNI/TS 11300-1:2014 standard. Main outputs are the estimation of the geo-referenced heating demand of the residential buildings for the case study area (almost 42,000 buildings), and the development of a methodology that can be applied at different scales. The application of the methodology to the case study slightly overestimates the total thermal demand of the residential building stock, especially referring to the more energy demanding buildings. However, being the method influenced by data availability, the quality is expected to improve with newly available data. The proposed GIS-based methodology is designed to be part of a broader Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS) for sustainable energy plans that integrate renewable sources in the building stock energy renovation.

Quantitative thermography is now mostly accepted as a reliable method to measure energy performance of existing buildings, in particular the thermal transmittance U-values of opaque elements. Some researches have been conducted in this field, each presenting a different procedure verified by the application on simple case studies. Anyway, a comprehensive approach, based on a parametric analysis of walls with different typologies and exposure, but same boundary conditions, is still missing. This study proposes a systematic approach to the problem, based on a three years research activity carried on an experimental building where timber (light) and brick (heavy) structures were tested simultaneously with Infrared Thermovision Technique (ITT), also equipped with heat flow meter (HFM) sensors and a nearby meteo station. Standard deviation of U-values measured with ITT is given as well as absolute deviation against values calculated following international standards and measured with HFM method. Parameters having high significance for the achievement of good results compared to the expected U-values are assessed through a sensitivity analysis. Influence of weather conditions during the survey are also considered and a repeatable procedure is finally set up. The findings presented in the study show that the method gives good results for heavy constructions, while further studies are still needed for light and super-insulated walls.

In recent years, timber construction systems have been increasingly used in multi-storey residential construction in Europe. In line with this international trend is the choice of the Trentino social housing company ITEA to build two five-storey multi-family apartment buildings in Trento (Italy) using two different timber wall systems. The two buildings are identical except for their structural system: timber frame (TF) and cross laminated timber (CLT). The design and the construction of these two buildings are the result of an international collaboration between ITEA and the Canadian social housing company Quebec Societe D’Habitation in order to evaluate and compare timber construction systems for social housing from the two countries. Since the two buildings have identical floor plans, layouts and finishes and differ only in their structural system, they present a unique opportunity for comparison of the two key forms of timber construction in terms of economic, engineering and indoor comfort issues. This paper investigates the difference in indoor conditions and analyse the achieved thermal comfort by measuring physical parameters and surveying the occupants’ perception. The two structural systems used for the buildings represent two widely used but fundamentally different forms of timber construction. The light timber frame is extremely lightweight, which gives the building low thermal mass and consequently low thermal inertia. This can lead to a lack of thermal comfort, particularly in summer, due to temperature fluctuations. Cross-laminated timber, used to form the timber shear walls in the south building, is a comparatively modern building component. Again, it can be highly prefabricated, and used with computer controlled cutting techniques to pre-cut openings for windows, doors and services to a high degree of accuracy. This system, known as ‘massive timber’, provides a higher thermal mass, if compared to the previous system. By means of indoor comfort monitoring and subjective questionnaires to the users’, it has been investigated to what extent this difference of thermal properties affects the indoor conditions provided and the final users’ satisfaction towards the thermal environment. This experimental campaign falls into a broader policy adopted by ITEA to engage closely with the performance of the buildings they build and manage, in accordance with an increasing interest globally in building performance assessment and post-occupancy evaluation (POE), whose main purpose is to investigate occupants’ reported levels of comfort and satisfaction and the degree to which they perceive their needs are being met by the building’s indoor conditions.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.sace.19.2.17531

Visual quality is an important component of indoor environment quality and greatly affects inhabitants&rsquo, perception of the living space. Nevertheless, the lighting design of residential buildings is usually underestimated by both designers and standards. This paper presents an integrated index for evaluating the visual quality of an indoor environment in residential buildings. The main parameters considered are daylight access, probability of glare from daylight and electric illumination, maintained illuminance, and color temperature. These aspects are evaluated throughout a whole year using a fixed set of metrics and are combined using relative weights. It was decided to also consider qualitative parameters in order to give more importance to some psychological aspects of visual comfort. Finally, the building visual quality index is obtained by a weighted average of the results of each room with the addition of the qualitative parameters. The applicability of the index was tested through the simulation of a dwelling that will be built and monitored in the context of the Comfort for Sustainable Buildings in the Alps (CASA) research project. The building visual quality index proved to be useful during the design process, allowing for improvements in both electric illumination and daylight access through a comparison of different solutions. This study could represent a step towards the holistic evaluation of indoor environment quality.

Following international standards concerning energy performance of buildings, in absence of reliable data on the envelope characteristics, thermal transmittance of building elements should be measured in situ. The method commonly used, based on ISO recommendations, is the heat flow meter measurement method. An alternative approach is based on the infrared thermovision technique (ITT). In this case, actual thermal emissivity value of the surface finishing material is paramount to obtain the true value of the surface temperature. Several methods and instrumentations are available for laboratory measurement of emissivity of materials, whose values can be even retrieved in databases. In this study a novel method for a direct evaluation of the emissivity of common building finishing materials by means of ITT is presented, using a portable instrument affording a comparatively fast but still quite accurate procedure. The laboratory experimental results, referring to six different building materials, provide promising indications on the possibility of applying the methodology to on site tests, so taking into account real material conditions, like environmental pollution, aging, laying mode.

Buildings in Europe account for 40% of total primary energy consumption and 36% of CO2 emissions. Nearly one-half of the building stock was built before modern energy efficiency standards and need urgent renovation. Urban retrofitting has emerged as a crucial factor for bringing about a radical change, the new construction rate being lower than 1%. Nevertheless, an accepted and consolidated methodology for refurbishing the existing housing stock is still lacking. The study presents an operating methodology for the optimization of the retrofitting process, based on energy efficiency and cost-effectiveness, as well as users’ comfort, in the building asset of ITEA SpA, the social housing institute for the Province of Trento (Italy), which manages more than 600 buildings. The research consists of the following stages: (1) definition of building classes, similar in age, dimension, typology, construction system and location; (2) analysis of plant systems and recognition of cases significant for classifying buildings in term of energy class; (3) identification of possible improvements and related cost-benefits; and (4) extension of the results to the whole building class. A tool is here proposed, intended for use by ITEA in order to set medium- and long-term plans. The tool does not consider only the effective sustainability of the controlling body intervention but also the final users’ full satisfaction.

Passive solar elements for both direct and indirect gains, are systems used to maintain a comfortable living environment while saving energy, especially in the building energy retrofit and adaptation process. Sunspaces, thermal mass and glazing area and orientation have been often used in the past to guarantee adequate indoor conditions when mechanical devices were not available. After a period of neglect, nowadays they are again considered as appropriate systems to help face environmental issues in the building sector, and both international and national legislation takes into consideration the possibility of including them in the building planning tools, also providing economic incentives. Their proper design needs dynamic simulation, often difficult to perform and time consuming. Moreover, results generally suffer from several uncertainties, so quasi steady-state procedures are often used in everyday practice with good results, but some corrections are still needed. In this paper, a comparative analysis of different solutions for the construction of verandas in an existing building is presented, following the procedure provided by the slightly modified and improved Standard EN ISO 13790:2008. Advantages and disadvantages of different configurations considering thermal insulation, windows typology and mechanical ventilation systems are discussed and a general intervention strategy is proposed. The aim is to highlight the possibility of using sunspaces in order to increase the efficiency of the existing building stock, considering ease of construction and economic viability.

Electric lighting is one of the major energy loads in non-residential buildings. It is strategic to examine the real behaviour of available lighting control systems for practical applications so as to allow the development of strategies that can improve the reliability of measured data (in terms of illuminance at the desktop) and the consequent response of the control system. This paper presents a case study of an office where lighting data measured at the desktop and read by the automation system have been analysed. It also investigates the consequent response of the control system. In particular, we extrapolate data on the system's improvement margins and suggest suitable correction functions to be applied to the illumination data measured by ceiling-mounted sensors.

Due to new European standards and requirements for energy performance in non-residential buildings, it is important to explore and quantify the benefits of intelligent (automated) energy-efficient operating systems relative to conventional (manual) systems. This paper explores the energy performance of an automated lighting control system under realistic conditions in two groups of lecture rooms that have the same shape, dimensions and exposure. The results demonstrate that the use of automated systems for electric lighting control can improve the energy performance of the system between 40% and 65% depending on the complexity of the system and the parameters under control.

This paper presents a parametric approach to the definition of a proper building shape compared to the building heating requirement in the very first stage of the design process. A new simplified index is introduced, namely the south exposure coefficient Cfs. In fact, as far as bioclimatic architecture is concerned, the relationship between buildings and natural environment is very important both for the control of indoor comfort conditions and energy requirements. The building shape is a fundamental aspect of this relationship. Usually, in thermal behavior analysis this parameter is considered only from the point of view of compactness. This is a reductive approach, because two buildings with the same coefficient could have different shapes and so a different thermal behavior. Some aspects such as orientation, openings, exposure to atmospheric agents and natural elements must also be strictly considered. Moreover, in scientific literature no indications are given to designers who operate in mild and warm climate conditions. This is why the results of a research activity focused on heating requirements of buildings with different shapes and laid in the Italian territory are presented. Monthly calculations have been performed following the quasi-steady-state method suggested in the European standard. Outputs show that better results in the building energy performance can be achieved considering a bioclimatic (though simplified) approach since the very beginning.

Due to new regulations in the field of energy saving, international standards concerning energy requirements of buildings have been developed. In this field, during the design phase, one of the most important parameters to be considered is the value of heat losses coefficient through the envelope. Anyway, very often a great difference is experienced between predicted performance of building elements as calculated using the methods prescribed in technical standards, and the one considering as-build conditions, particularly in the field of building renovation where the envelope thermal transmittance value must be measured on site. Till now, the only method accepted by international standards is the heat flowmeter (HFM) that presents some restriction and some uncertainty in the results. In this study a faster and less invasive method is proposed, the infrared thermovision technique (ITT) whose full potentiality has never been investigated yet, in order to acquire quantitative data of real thermal transmittances of the building envelope in a quasi-steady state condition. The theoretic background is presented together with the application in three case studies. The results indicate that, following a specific methodology, it is possible to record significant data useful to perform a proper assessment of energy performance of existing buildings.

This paper deals with research carried out at the Laboratory of Building Design, University of Trento, Italy to define possible design actions to improve energy efficiency and indoor comfort conditions in residential buildings. The paper presents retrofitting interventions both in wintertime and summertime, through the use of passive solar elements and of natural materials typical of the local building tradition. There were five stages of research: (1) critical analysis and classification of sustainable buildings in the Italian Alpine region; (2) recording data of the temporal courses of specific indoor environmental parameters in some rooms of selected existing buildings during real life conditions; (3) setting up of a virtual model of the buildings in dynamic state conditions; (4) a critical calibration of the model in order to take into account the real behaviour of the inhabitants and their use of the building components; (5) modification of some features on the model (materials, shape and so on) in order to achieve better performances concerning users’ comfort conditions and energy saving issues. In consequence, it is now possible to evaluate the real effectiveness of bioclimatic design procedures and to propose guidelines concerning the design of sustainable wooden buildings. Finally, some specific recommendations are given based on the critical analysis of the simulation results.

The paper deals with a research carried out within the project CASA “Comfort for sustainable housing in the Alps”, concerning the definition of an integrated rating system of inner comfort from a thermal, visual, acoustic and IAQ point of view. A preliminary phase of the project is presented, regarding the evaluation of a free running single building made of two distinct parts: a prevalent E-W body with exposed concrete envelope and a timber element intersecting the first one. The main aim is to investigate which complex wall solution better resolves thermal comfort parameters evaluated during a significant summer week period, time of execution and costs.

This paper presents a new method for the planning of photovoltaic systems in the early architectural design. The method finds capacity and position of a photovoltaic system over the envelope of a building by means of optimization. The input consists in: geometry of the building, surrounding shadings, local weather, hourly electric demand, unitary costs of the system and benefits for the production of electricity (sold or self-consumed). In the input there are known values (e.g. PV installation costs [€/kWp] or present costs for the electricity [€/kWh]) and unknown ones (e.g. degradation rate [%/year], maintenance costs [€/kWp year] or discount rate [%/year]). The optimization is performed using the expected value out of a set of parametric scenarios generated by the unknown input values. The results show that, if capacity and position of the system are tailored on its aggregated electric demand, a large penetration of photovoltaic electricity is profitable at current prices without incentives or valorization from the grid. The optimization performed with an arbitrary set of electric storages shows how the presence of storage fosters a higher optimal capacity for the PV system. This method has the potential to hugely expand the installation of urban photovoltaic.

The present work constitutes the sequel to the analysis of data from an online survey administered to 464 home workers in London in January 2021 during the COVID-19 lockdown. Perceived affective quality of indoor soundscapes has been assessed in the survey through a previously developed model, as the combination of two perceptual dimensions, one related to comfort (a comfortable – annoying continuum) and the other to content (a full of content – empty continuum). Part I of the study reported on differences in comfort, content, and soundscape appropriateness based on the activity performed at home during the lockdown, i.e. working from home (WFH) and relaxation. Moreover, associations between soundscape dimensions and psychological well-being have been highlighted. Part II of the study deals with the exploration of the influences of several acoustical, building, urban and person-related factors on soundscape dimensions and well-being. A mixed-method approach has been adopted by combining multivariate regression of questionnaire scores with the qualitative analysis of spontaneous descriptions given by respondents. Results showed that several sound sources, urban features, housing characteristics, working modes and demographic factors can influence (positively and negatively) soundscape dimensions differently depending on the task at hand. Notably, the perceived dominance of neighbours’ noises during relaxation, moderated by noise sensitivity, and the number of people at home were common factors negatively affecting both comfort and well-being, that partially explained the association between comfortable indoor soundscapes and better mental health. The discussion points out the importance of considering the different impacts that acoustical factors (e.g. sound typology), building (e.g., house size), urban (e.g., availability of a quiet side), situational (e.g., number of people at home), and person-related factors (e.g., noise sensitivity) can provide on building occupants depending on the specific activity people are engaged with at home and the opportunities to foster people’s well-being through building, urban and acoustic design.

Vrijeme u kojem živimo, “digitalna era”, vrijeme je stalnih i velikih promjena. Prostor je jedini ograničavajući faktor za moguće promjene u budućnosti. S toga bi istraživanje geniusa loci kao općeg pojma okoline (ambijentalne, ekološke i kulturološke) koja je nastanjena ljudima trebalo biti osnova istraživanja. Promjene i napredak neodvojiv su dio suvremenog življenja i reflektiraju rastući stupanj edukacije, stalno rastućeg životnog standarda i bogatstva. Evolucija u socijalnom ponašanju vodi nas prema novim konceptima pristupa modernog dizajniranja kuća, stanovanja, ka novim konceptima rješavanja pitanja jedinica stanovanja i okoline. Jedan od ključnih elemenata razvoja je odnos prema novim informacijskim tehnologijama. Virtualna stvarnost - VR je nova, specifična i vrlo važan predmet u arhitekturi koja se u ovom trenutku nalazi još u povojima. Promatrajući važnost i dubinu mogućeg utjecaja informacijskih i komunikacijskih tehnologija - ICT na područje arhitekture budućnosti, na način na koji radimo s tehnologijama virtualne stvarnosti, postoji potreba za stalnom diskusijom i istraživanjem na temu virtualne arhitekture. Važnost virtualne stvarnosti dolazi na vidjelo kroz proizvodnju i iskustvo potpuno simuliranih okruženja stanovanja i kao takva postaje osnovni postulat za kreiranje novih metoda dizajniranja. Putem tečaja arhitektonskog dizajna na Arhitektonskom fakultetu u Zagrebu prenosimo na naše studente prihvaćeno i definirano znanje, dajemo im teoretski okvir arhitektonskog dizajna u okolini novih medija i razvijamo nove metode arhitektonskog dizajna koje su podržavane ICT-em. Opći predmet praktičnog rada u našoj grupi tijekom zadnjeg, devetog semestra na našem fakultetu je istraživanje i razvoj hipotetičkih modela grada Zagreba. Sljedeći korak u bliskoj budućnosti je primjena virtualnih (hipotetičkih) modela u arhitektonskoj praksi. Predstavit ćemo iskustva našeg rada u ovom radu.