Green buildings and design for adaptation: strategies for renovation of the built environment

The recent EU Directives 2010/31 and 2012/27 provide standards of nearly zero energy buildings for new constructions, aiming at a better quality of the built environment through the adoption of high-performance solutions. In the near future, cities are expected to be the main engine of development while bearing the impact of population growth: new challenges such as increasing energy efficiency, reducing maintenance costs of buildings and infrastructures, facing the effects of climate change and adjusting on-going and future impacts, require smart and sustainable approaches. To improve the capability of adaptation to dynamics of transformation, buildings and districts have to increase their resilience, assumed as ‘the capacity to adapt to changing conditions and to maintain or regain functionality and vitality in the face of stress or disturbance’ (Wilson A., Building Resilience in Boston, Boston Society of Architects, 2013). This paper describes the research methodology, developed by the Department of Architecture, a research unit of Technology for Architecture, to perform the assessment of resilience of existing buildings, as well as the outcomes of its application within Bologna urban context. This methodology focuses on the design for adaptation of social housing buildings, aiming at predicting their expected main impacts (energy consumption, emissions, efficiency, urban quality and environmental sustainability) and at developing models for renovation

Energy-efficient sports hall with renewable energy production Retrofitting a sports hall in Landskrona

In today's society, much energy is used and all energy use (e.g. heat, electricity) affects the environment. Greenhouse gas emissions from energy affect the climate of the earth and increase the natural greenhouse effect. Environmental impact because of energy use causes both local and global problems. Efficient energy use in buildings is a prerequisite for dealing with climate issues and in the long term, securing our energy supply. Increased energy prices and major climate change make the issue of energy efficiency both economically and environmentally interesting. In this degree project, the possibility to refurbish a new sports hall to meet the nearly zero- and plus-energy requirements with today's construction technology is being investigated. The possibility was investigated for a sports hall in Landskrona. In order to be able to carry out energy retrofitting, an energy audit was realized. The first step was to realize an inventory of the building equipment. From this analysis, building behavior and energy use were modeled using IDA ICE simulation software. A comparison with real measured energy use showed reasonable agreement. Retrofitting by increasing the insulation of the building envelope was investigated as well as the possibility of adding solar energy. Each retrofit solution was evaluated calculating the LCC based on investment costs and energy savings. The results show that the addition of insulation materials to walls, roof and floor, adjustment of heating set point would have a significant impact on reducing the energy demand in the sports hall, also the result of calculations of energy use shows that it is possible to make a sports hall that meets the requirements of nearly zero and plus energy buildings and earn money at the same time if all of these measures have been implemented. The work is carried out as a case study.In today's society, much energy is used and all energy use (e.g. heat, electricity) affects the environment. Greenhouse gas emissions from energy affect the climate of the earth and increase the natural greenhouse effect. Environmental impact because of energy use causes both local and global problems. Efficient energy use in buildings is a prerequisite for dealing with climate issues and in the long term, securing our energy supply. Increased energy prices and major climate change make the issue of energy efficiency both economically and environmentally interesting. In this degree project, the possibility to refurbish a new sports hall to meet the nearly zero- and plus-energy requirements with today's construction technology is being investigated. The possibility was investigated for a sports hall in Landskrona. In order to be able to carry out energy retrofitting, an energy audit was realized. The first step was to realize an inventory of the building equipment. From this analysis, building behavior and energy use were modeled using IDA ICE simulation software. A comparison with real measured energy use showed reasonable agreement. Retrofitting by increasing the insulation of the building envelope was investigated as well as the possibility of adding solar energy. Each retrofit solution was evaluated calculating the LCC based on investment costs and energy savings. The results show that the addition of insulation materials to walls, roof and floor, adjustment of heating set point would have a significant impact on reducing the energy demand in the sports hall, also the result of calculations of energy use shows that it is possible to make a sports hall that meets the requirements of nearly zero and plus energy buildings and earn money at the same time if all of these measures have been implemented. The work is carried out as a case study

Comprehensive energy renovation of two Danish heritage buildings within IEA SHC Task 59

Historic and heritage buildings present a significant challenge when it comes to reducing energy consumption to mitigate climate change. These buildings need careful renovation, and increasing their energy efficiency is often associated with a high level of complexity, because consideration for heritage values can often reduce and impede possibilities and sometimes even rule out certain improvements completely. Despite these issues, many such renovation projects have already been carried out, and therefore the IEA SHC Task 59 project (Renovating Historic Buildings Towards Zero Energy) in cooperation with Interreg Alpine Space ATLAS has developed a tool for sharing these best-practice examples—the HiBERatlas (Historical Building Energy Retrofit Atlas). The Internet serves as a best-practice database for both individual energy efficiency measures and whole-building renovation projects. This paper presents two of the Danish projects featured in HiBERatlas. The first project, Ryesgade 30, is a Copenhagen apartment building with a preservation-worthy period brick façade. The second project is the Osram Building, a listed Copenhagen office building from 1959 with a protected façade, which today acts as a culture centre. Both renovation projects achieved significant energy savings and consequently CO2-emission reductions, and the indoor climate in both buildings have also improved significantly. Furthermore, a detailed analysis was carried out regarding possible window solutions and ventilation systems in Ryesgade 30, and for the Osram Building regarding daylighting technologies. This paper investigates the two renovation cases through the available measurement and calculation results before and after renovations and demonstrates that it is possible to reduce energy consumption significantly and at the same time improve the indoor climate without compromising the cultural values of buildings

Comparison of module usage of project management information system and success rate of construction projects: case study

If construction is about delivering a built asset that is of high quality and efficiency, wouldn t most companies use all the tools and processes available at the highest organizational level possible? A major assumption is made that Prolog Manager is an effective Project Management Information System. Saying Company X will benefit from more module use with Prolog Manager system is not the same as saying they will suffer from lack of module usage. If a company has already attained success using manual systems it successes may continue. To be as successful as possible, maximum utilization of all modules of Prolog Manager at the unique project type organizational level is necessary, and correlations can be made between higher module usage and greater project successes with this type of company size and structure.M.S.Committee Chair: Dr. Linda Thomas-Mobley; Committee Member: Dr. Daniel Castro; Committee Member: Prof. Kathy Roper; Committee Member: Ron L. Smit

A model of the role of management in construction fire safety failure scenarios

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Immersed In Pellet Technology: Motivation Paths of Innovative DIYers

What drives and moves an individual towards certain goals and activities is a familiar question for scholars dealing with motivation in the context of schooling or (techno-scientific) work practices. However, non-school contexts such as Internet-enabled volunteer-based technical DIY communities are also important to understand since a growing part of everyday social life is spent on the Internet. This article offers the analytical concept of 'motivation path' for understanding changing and dilemmatic motives in innovative pellet DIY development. It also introduces the concept of 'innovative DIY' to show the blurring of the boundaries between profession/hobby and  and past work life/retirement of technically competent, innovative people. The findings indicate that Internet-enabled making can be an important medium for continued personal growth, competence development, and (self) reflection. The findings could also help us understand how motivations may be carried over from professional work to private DIY work

Internet of Things (IoT) in Buildings: A Learning Factory

Advances towards smart ecosystems showcase Internet of Things (IoT) as a transversal strategy to improve energy efficiency in buildings, enhance their comfort and environmental conditions, and increase knowledge about building behavior, its relationships with users and the interconnections among themselves and the environmental and ecological context. EU estimates that 75% of the building stock is inefficient and more than 40 years old. Although many buildings have some type of system for regulating the indoor temperature, only a small subset provides integrated heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. Within that subset, only a small percentage includes smart sensors, and only a slight portion of that percentage integrates those sensors into IoT ecosystems. This work pursues two objectives. The first is to understand the built environment as a set of interconnected systems constituting a complex framework in which IoT ecosystems are key enabling technologies for improving energy efficiency and indoor air quality (IAQ) by filling the gap between theoretical simulations and real measurements. The second is to understand IoT ecosystems as cost-effective solutions for acquiring data through connected sensors, analyzing information in real time, and building knowledge to make data-driven decisions. The dataset is publicly available for third-party use to assist the scientific community in its research studies. This paper details the functional scheme of the IoT ecosystem following a three-level methodology for (1) identifying buildings (with regard to their use patterns, thermal variation, geographical orientation, etc.) to analyze their performance; (2) selecting representative spaces (according to their location, orientation, use, size, occupancy, etc.) to monitor their behavior; and (3) deploying and configuring an infrastructure with +200 geolocated wireless sensors in +100 representative spaces, collecting a dataset of +10,000 measurements every hour. The results obtained through real installations with IoT as a learning factory include several learned lessons about building complexity, energy consumption, costs, savings, IAQ and health improvement. A proof of concept of building performance prediction based on neural networks (applied to CO2 and temperature) is proposed. This first learning shows that IAQ measurements meet recommended levels around 90% of the time and that an IoT-managed HVAC system can achieve energy-consumption savings of between 10 and 15%. In summary, in a real context involving economic restrictions, complexity, high energy costs, social vulnerability, and climate change, IoT-based strategies, as proposed in this work, offer a modular and interoperable approach, moving towards smart communities (buildings, cities, regions, etc.) by improving energy efficiency and environmental quality (indoor and outdoor) at low cost, with quick implementation, and low impact on users. Great challenges remain for growth and interconnection in IoT use, especially challenges posed by climate change and sustainability