Search results for "Sustainable Design"
showing 10 items of 23 documents
ECO-FRIENDLY MATERIALS FOR THE ENERGY RETROFIT OF EXISTING BUILDINGS
2015
Today is widely recognized that the main cause of CO2 production and of non-renewable energy consumptions in Europe is due to the building field. For this reason, to improve the energy performance of existing houses through an energy retrofit action (adapting their performances to those required by regulations) is an important strategy to reduce energy consumptions since they are much more than new ones, also representing an economic opportunity. In particular, an important approach in the reducing energy needs consists in the thermal insulation of the envelope, through the application of innovative technologies and materials. The paper will present the result of a research about the possib…
Designing a sustainable regeneration in the outskirt of Agrigento
2016
This paper describes a case of building recovery and sustainable re-use in Sicily, that is the recovery of Villaseta. It is a very degraded neighborhood in the outskirts of Agrigento. The main goal of the redevelopment project is therefore the rebuilding and the environmental regeneration of the neighborhood, using sustainable technologies and tools, with the construction of vegetable gardens and urban gardens, the production of renewable energy and the sustainable recovery of existing buildings. The eco-friendliness of the restoration project is therefore given by the use of garden roofs and vertical gardens. Villaseta will be a real "green lung" able to give greater environmental awarenes…
Assessment of the Entropy of Spatial and Time Distributions of Rooms Daylighting: A Possible Tool for a Sustainable Design
2015
The indoor visual comfort of subjects faced with indoor ambient lighting varies with the position of the subject and is not constant over time. Average performance indexes, such as the mean value of Daylight Factor and Daylight Autonomy, are commonly used to analyse lighting distribution. These indexes, however, don’t properly take into account either the spatial or the time distribution of values affecting the non-uniformity of environmental lighting. Indeed, these are limited to the definition of a mean value or to the assessment of time availability of daylighting. This paper examines spatial and temporal non-uniformities in indoor lighting as possible causes of discomfort for occupants.…
SUP R DSS: A sustainability-based decision support & system for road pavements
2019
Road pavement community members are increasingly becoming aware of the need to incorporating the principles of sustainable development into the sector. Policies are also going in this direction and as a consequence in the recent years researchers and practitioners are coming up with new materials, technologies and practices designed to reduce the negative impacts of their activities in the surroundings. Within this framework the road pavements sector is witnessing a paradigm shift towards the development of pavement technologies incorporating high-content of recycled materials, as well as best practices to decrease the overall carbon footprint. These are all promising solutions that to the …
Farm Cultural Park : An Experience of Social Innovation in the Recovery of the Historical Centre of Favara
2017
In 2010 some people from Favara decided to initiate a process of recovery and re-appropriation of the abandoned historical centre, by establishing Farm Cultural Park, a private cultural institution. This paper aims to describe the process of sustainable design, social innovation and inclusion, triggered by the Farm Cultural Park in the historical centre of Favara which, by showing its resilience, has redefined its identity, progressing from a place of widespread, unauthorised development to a dynamic creative city.
Building green covering for a sustainable use of energy
2013
Nowadays the growth of the cities increased built and paved areas, energy use and heat generation. The phenomenon of urban warming, called urban heat island, influences negatively outdoor comfort conditions, pollutants concentration, energy demand for air conditioning, as well as increases environmental impact due to the demand of energy generation. A sustainable technology for improving the energy efficiency of buildings is the use of green roofs and walls in order to reduce the energy consumption for conditioning in summer and improve the thermal insulation in winter. The use of green roofs and walls can contribute to mitigate the phenomenon of heat island, the emissions of greenhouse gas…
Concepts for medium-high to high temperature thermoelectric heat-to-electricity conversion: a review of selected materials and basic considerations o…
2015
Within the last decade, novel materials concepts and nanotechnology have resulted in a great increase of the conversion efficiency of thermoelectric materials. Despite this, a mass market for thermoelectric heat-to-electricity conversion is yet to be opened up. One reason for this is that the transfer of the lab records into fabrication techniques which enable thermoelectric generator modules is very challenging. By closing the gap between record lab values and modules, broad industrial applications may become feasible. In this review, we compare three classes of materials, all designed for medium-high to high temperature applications in the field of waste heat recovery: skutterudites, half…
Green Design of Novel Starch-Based Packaging Materials Sustaining Human and Environmental Health
2021
A critical overview of current approaches to the development of starch-containing packaging, integrating the principles of green chemistry (GC), green technology (GT) and green nanotechnology (GN) with those of green packaging (GP) to produce materials important for both us and the planet is given. First, as a relationship between GP and GC, the benefits of natural bioactive compounds are analyzed and the state-of-the-art is updated in terms of the starch packaging incorporating green chemicals that normally help us to maintain health, are environmentally friendly and are obtained via GC. Newer approaches are identified, such as the incorporation of vitamins or minerals into films and coati…
Il BIM nella Progettazione Sostenibile
2017
Il Building Information Modeling (BIM) è un sistema di progettazione integrata che usa tecniche di modellazione parametrica, associando a ogni elemento costruttivo una descrizione delle caratteristiche geometriche, dei materiali impiegati, dei costi di produzione, ecc. Ma è anche un’attività umana, che sta determinando consistenti modificazioni dei processi nel settore delle costruzioni. L’articolo presenterà i risultati di uno studio che si sta conducendo nell’ambito del Corso di Laurea in Ingegneria Edile –Architettura dell’Università degli Studi di Palermo, sulle potenzialità e i limiti che il BIM può determinare per il risparmio energetico. Attraverso l’approfondimento di un caso studio…
Measure the Embodied Energy in Building Materials: An Eco-Sustainable Approach for Construction
2019
This paper highlights how the use of materials and building components often implicates the growth of embodied energy necessary to their construction, which is not always adequately compensated by a decrease of operational energy because incorporated energy can be almost half of the total energy used in a building’s life cycle and, sometimes, it even exceeds operational energy. The paper highlights how searching only for “operational” energy efficiency does not sufficiently guarantee environmental sustainability of the intervention. The intervention is heavily influenced by embodied energy whose knowledge must drive, since the beginning, the decision-making process towards more sustainable …