Building energy retrofitting in urban areas (original) (raw)
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Under the current Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, EU countries must set building energy renovation as a goal for future development of the cities. The 22@ district of Barcelona is one of the most thriving innovation districts of Europe with an increasing market for office buildings. In this framework, the present paper evaluates the effectiveness of a series of strategies considered the real case project of the energy retrofit of an existing building in 22@. In particular, the study presents the results of different scenarios of building retrofits, where simulations of dynamic envelopes are performed, with the inclusion of a conventional ventilated façade, Living Green Walls and Phase Change Material (PCM) for thermal energy storage. The different scenarios are compared in terms of energy performance, enhanced comfort and cost-benefit analysis. The benefits of latent thermal energy storage, improved thermal inertia and evapotranspiration of the vegetated elements are also assessed. Eventually this study helps understanding the feasibility of the implementation of the nZEB standard in energy retrofit of buildings in the specific context of Barcelona and Spain. 1. Introduction The massive urban development is altering the land surface by concentrating materials which effectively retain heat and create impervious surfaces, thus affecting urban local climate and urban hydrology. Moreover, tall buildings provide multiple surfaces for the absorption of solar radiation that is subsequently reradiated as heat, thus enhancing the efficiency with which urban areas are warmed up [1]. Building renovation is a main issue of recent European policies towards energy efficiency. Today's renovation projects have the challenges of improving the energy efficiency in order to reach the goals of zero emission in the building sector while improving their social and economic value, securing a sustainable use of resources [2] and minimizing the deleterious effects of buildings in the urban environment. The renovation of the building envelope, are a key factor in the energy rehabilitation of buildings and the urban environment. This paper describes three renovation strategies: living walls, ventilated facades with fibre-cement cladding and ventilated facades with PCM materials [3,4,5].
Sustainability
Nowadays, energy retrofit interventions on the existing building stock are of paramount importance towards energy consumption and emissions reductions in the construction sector. Such interventions are also crucial in the view of increasing cities resilience with respect to the intensification of frequent extreme weather events, such as cold spells and heatwaves. Indeed, a wide portion of our cities is dated and lacking with respect to performances. These are the motivations behind the proposed sustainable approach, which deals with the environmental perspective, but also with social and economic ones, by proposing the retrofit of the Public Residential Building stock (Edilizia Residenziale Pubblica, ERP). The objective is to improve the energy performance of ERP stock by means of construction materials coming from local km0 agricultural waste and by-products. The research was conducted by means of in field and numerical analyses of the energy performances of a relevant case study b...
Civil And Environmental Engineering Reports, 2016
A comprehensive design of a building along with the development of a surrounding land may counterbalance the tendency of housing estates comprising houses built on the basis of “ready-made projects” - which have no references to the existing urban tissue and which do not create a new one. In the first place, the energy intensity of buildings using the so-called passive methods should be lowered, and only then active systems should be applied, considering economic balance. The problem should be considered from two different perspectives i.e. for intensively and for less urbanised areas. The article results in the formulation of guidelines for energy-efficient modernization of contemporary buildings and their surroundings.
2011
The project Sustainable Renovation examines the challenge of the current and future architectural renovation of Danish suburbs which were designed in the period from 1945 to 1973. The research project takes its starting point in the perspectives of energy optimization and the fact that the building process over the period changed from craftsmanship to industrialized production of housing. The aim is to present the context in which energy transformation has to be seen as an architectural question. The research field focuses on social housing blocks and expands the discussion of architecture from architectural heritage to energy efficiency and from architectural quality to sustainability. The first, second and third renovations are discussed from financial and sustainable view points. The role of housing related to the public energy supply system and the relation between the levels of renovation of the architectural heritage are examined as possible ideas for seeing the renovation fie...
Sustainable Solutions for Extensive Retrofitting of Residential Buildings Built in the 1970s
Springer Proceedings in Energy
Today, more than half of the urban population in Romania lives in collective housing units based on standard typologies built from large prefabricated reinforced concrete panels. These units were built on a large scale between the early 60s and 90s in order to rapidly provide housing for a large number of workers coming from the rural areas due to the intense expansion of the industries near the cities. With the evolution of technology and social routines, these housing units are now outdated and consume significant amounts of energy for heating, cooling and ventilation while, not being able to meet modern living needs. Based on the main aspects of sustainable development, a retrofitting scenario of these building is proposed, i.e.: (1) social, by rethinking the space configuration within the apartments, accessibility and transforming the inner courtyards, now occupied by cars, into a positive space; (2) economic, by offering a new building envelope based on a ventilated facade system and by improving the existing facilities for heating, ventilation and cooling; (3) environment, by integrating renewable energy systems and passive design strategies-a new extension module is placed on top of the buildings that behaves as an active core and house a solar panel array and energy distribution networks. With the transition of the existing power grids to the so-called "smart grids", such buildings can become, consumers as well as suppliers, and the possible energy losses on the grid to be eliminated.
The District Energy-Efficient Retrofitting of Torrelago (Laguna de Duero – Spain)
IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 2019
The urban growth is estimated to reach up the 66 % by 2050 and consequently the need of resources within the cities will increase significantly. This, combined with the 40 % of energy consumption and 36 % of CO2 emissions of the building sector, makes necessary to accelerate the transition towards more sustainable cities. The CITyFiED project contributes to this transition, aiming to develop an innovative and holistic methodological approach for energy-efficient district renovation and deliver three large scale demonstration cases in the cities of Lund (Sweden), Laguna de Duero (Spain) and Soma (Turkey). CITyFiED methodology consists of several phases that ease the decision-making tasks towards the district renovation, considering the energy efficiency as the main pillar and local authorities as clients. For the case of Torrelago district (Spain) the intervention consists of a set of energy conservative measures including the façade retrofitting of 143.025 m2 of living space in 31 t...
Energies, 2022
The research concerns renovation variants for modernist housing estates built in Szczecin, Poland during 1918–1925 and in Bialystok, Poland during 1950–1990. These buildings are now substandard in many ways; functionally, aesthetically, technically, and ecologically they do not fulfil the current energy efficiency standards. Some of them have architectural heritage, so not all energy-saving technologies can be applied. Renovations must include energy-saving improvements and the use of renewable energy sources. Equally important is the well-being of residents, meaning the quality of the apartments should be increased. The aim of this research was to analyze the renovation options in terms of energy efficiency and well-being criteria, as well as in relation to the cultural value of the buildings. The simplified energy calculation method was used to check the present buildings’ energy demands to compare them with retrofitting results. Three retrofitting possibilities were considered: low-cost, current standards, and near-zero energy. The results show that without EU financial aid, which will soon be introduced under the “Renovation Wave” program, such modernization projects will be difficult, making the target of 55% CO2 emission reductions compared to 1990 levels by 2030 impossible. Keywords: architecture; “Renovation Wave”; energy-efficiency; CO2 emissions; well-being
Eco-technologies for retrofitting social housing stock: strategies for an Italian case study
Eco-Architecture IV, 2012
While there are an increasing number of new projects aiming at combining high residential quality and low power consumption, it is clear that the main challenges in the short term concern the performance upgrading of the existing residential building stock. As a matter of fact, when compared to new buildings construction methods, this kind of intervention reduces the consumption of land and energy and could be applied to a large portion of buildings characterized by low architectural quality and low performances. Social housing stock consumes high energy and does not offer suitable levels of comfort. This type of building is characterized by different variables, ranging from its historical background to the more recent suburban additions, and requires flexible methods of approach to define objectives and modalities of intervention. In Italy, the condition of the existing residential stock is not very satisfactory. Therefore, it is important to define methods of requalification to improve energy and morphological performances of construction. This paper describes the status of some of the Italian high density suburban areas, focusing in particular on a district in Bologna in the Emilia Romagna region (IT). This paper aims at identifying intervention strategies for morphological and energy improvement. Their effectiveness in terms of reducing the energy requirements will be verified with a simulation model of the behaviour of one of the building subject of retrofitting.
RETROFITTING THE EXISTING: RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS
International Journal of Scientific Research in Engineering and Management (IJSREM), 2022
Building industry is a guide to the reduction of the low-cost world economy. This region is the world's secondlargest emitter of co2 after the steel industry, accounting for around one-third of global total emissions. Retrofitting is one of the best options to make an existing building safe against future problem like earthquake, energy loss and other environmental forces. It aims to strengthen a structure to satisfy requirements of current situation of seismic design. There re different deficiencies in building these causes due to impropriate construction, building requires different measures with respect to their climatic conditions. The study was to recognize and review the suitable solution for buildings that can be used to achieve level of sustainability.
Three correlated researches try to give operative answers to the problem of defining procedures and tools for a correct survey and retrofit actions for the existing building stock. Starting from a first research on social housing energy retrofit, a fast audit protocol and different intervention scenarios have been defined, with the ultimate purpose of supporting the energy transformation of older urban aggregates; this cluster includes single buildings with high historical values, which necessarily need a deeper diagnosis with a future perspective of a wider promotion and evaluation of environmental sustainability issues.