Search results for " Buildings"

The Maifinito phenomenon. Confession, Forgiveness, and Healing: “condoni” and“sanatoria”, Isabella Fera in Conversation with Arno Brandlhuber

2016

The book Maifinito featured essays, projects, and a selection of “international artistic, social and architectural experiences,” all of which centered around the “fenomeno del maifinito,”1 the maifinito phenomenon—in other words, the enormous number of unfinished buildings in southern Italy, and especially on the island of Sicily. Many of these buildings, so-called maifiniti, have been constructed entirely outside the legislative framework—a phenomenon that perfectly encapsulates the relationship in Italy between construction, the public vs. private realm, the state, and legislation. In December 2015, Arno Brandlhuber met Isabella Fera in Palermo for a wide-ranging discussion.

USER- AND CONTEXT-ORIENTED CRITERIA FOR ASSESMENT OF HIGH EFFICIENCY POLYGENERATION PLANTS FOR BUILDINGS APPLICATIONS

2013

The eligibility criteria adopted to assess polygeneration plants as “highly efficient” can play a determinant role in favouring or discouraging the market growth of polygeneration systems, especially for buildings applications where economic viability is often more difficult to achieve. Basing on the current European framework, in this paper the opportunity to adopt user- and context-oriented criteria is discussed. After having identified three buildings with different uses (a large hotel, a hospital and an office building), the optimal layout and operation strategy of a polygeneration plant serving each building is determined; then, ex-post processing of economic and energetic results is u…

Energy analysis of the buildings stocks. Scaling from national to regional and urban contexts

ANALISI DELLE RISORSE FINANZIARIE NAZIONALI PER LA RIDUZIONE DEI CONSUMI ENERGETICI NELLE PUBBLICHE AMMINISTRAZIONI

2015

The compliance with the Italian Internal Stability Pact represents a relevant constraint for Public Administrations in their aims of improving the efficiency with which they use energy, despite several interesting financial tools have been released for helping these institutions in the imple mentation of effective actions. The available domestic financial tools are here shortly revised, particularly about their compatibility with the Stability Pact. The role of the socalled rotative founds is moreover described as a tool for supporting Public Administrations in improving their energy efficiency, even in the observance of the limits established by the Stability Pact.

Gli strumenti finanziari nazionali di supporto alla riduzione dei consumi energetici negli edifici delle pubbliche amministrazioni

2015

Public Administrations are currently constrained, in their aims of carrying out actions and projects for the limitation of the energy consumption of buildings, by the scarcity of adequate budgets and by the need of observing the Growth and Stability Pact. On the contrary, the availability of (and the access to) suitable financial sources would represent significant opportunities for an economic development characterized by energy and environmental sustainability. This paper, after a short review of the domestic financial tools actually available for the reduction of their energy consumption of municipalities, analyses the technical and economic barriers that limit their effective utilizatio…

Monitoring the urban environment: developing a mixed (fix and mobile) observatory on the urban quality control

2005

An integrated network of monitoring was developed by the authors from 2002. A wide knowledge of the space and time distribution of the environmental data can be acquired integrating the network of fixed stations (were each environmental parameter is collected) with a number of sensors installed on public transport means (were, at the present time, only some parameters are collected). All citizens of the involved local governments will benefit from an increased awareness of environmental quality and their effects on health. The system could be considered as a decision support system and a tool of knowledge dissemination. The aims of the system is to define a standard protocol for monitoring …

Energy and Economic Analysis of Different Buildings Constructed with Environmentally Sustainable and Traditional Materials

2013

The economic and environmental sustainability in the choice of materials to improve the performances of existing buildings

2015

The concept of sustainability in the construction industry cannot, above all in this historical moment, include in its parameters considerations about economic, social and environmental factors. All this factors are deeply connected with the context, both for climatic reasons and for economic and social reasons. Technical valuations about the choice and use of materials must be motivated by reality in which we work, in the perspective of quality of process as satisfaction of the users but also, in this case, of the producers. The aim of the proposed study is the valutation and individuation of suitable materials for the improvement of the energetic performances of existing buildings which w…

Modeling of spanish household electrical consumptions: Simplified and detailed stochastic approach in trnsys environment

2013

The initial assessment of electric energy demands of a building is a key element in the design process, that should be integrated in the earlier stages of the design of a net zero energy building. The objective of the study is the creation of predictive models of household electrical consumptions in the Mediterranean/Spanish climate and its implementation in TRNSYS 17 environment. The models offer both a simplified level of analysis, based on average seasonal electrical consumptions trends and a stochastic in-depth level for the simulation of peak loads through the compiling of multiple TRNSYS types.

The Role of Natural Ventilative Cooling in NZE Temporary and Emergency Shelters Design: a Mediterranean Case Study

2016

The paper presents a case-study of a pre-fabricated housing module built in Messina (Sicily, Italy) and the assessment of its energy performances under the net zero energy perspective. The potential of ventilative natural cooling application in the case-study is also investigated. Some particular features of the building - the modularity, the prefabrication, the rapidity of assembly, the possibility of being built on disconnected soils and the absence of maintenance - identify an effective use as a temporary housing solution for e.g. workers in proximity of an isolated working place or in emergency situations such as earthquakes and natural disasters. Monitoring studies were performed durin…