Thermal Comfort Assessment during Winter Season: A Case Study on Portuguese Public Social Housing

Many public social housing building stocks were constructed before the introduction of national thermal regulations, and, as a result, in some situations, energy poverty conditioning during severe winter seasons results in little to no heating habits involving active systems in order to improve building thermal performances. Besides rigorous summer seasons, climate change predictions also indicate rigorous winter seasons will occur that will prevail in some Iberia Peninsula locations, worsening this scenario for this Southern European region. Among others, understanding the extension of discomfort in social housing buildings during heating seasons is therefore essential so as to perceive the suitability of the building stock to deal with present and future climate scenarios. Thus, this article presents a thermal comfort assessment during a winter season period applied to two social housing dwellings located in Covilhã, Portugal, inhabited by elderly residents, under realistic heating habits. An experimental campaign was performed and the results show that discomfort was found to be extremely significant for the majority of the occupied time. Passive means alone and resident heating habits were not enough to achieve proper indoor thermal and humidity conditions, resulting in important losses of well-being to the risk group of the elderly

Precast Concrete Building Construction and Envelope Thermal Behavior: A Case Study on Portuguese Public Social Housing

A considerable part of Southern European countries building stock was constructed before the implementation of national thermal regulations, and as such, it is currently exposed to challenges such as energy poverty and climate change. Portuguese public social housing presents a significant variety of construction systems and applied typologies. Among them, the “Novobra NK1”, a precast concrete construction system that exploits some innovative features in envelope components, has been used in several projects. Considering the importance of retrofitting to improve and adapt the thermal behaviors of buildings to face the aforementioned challenges, this article aims to provide an understanding of the behavior of a NK1 thermal envelope of a dwelling located in Covilhã, Portugal, and the impact of some constructive envelope retrofit measures applied. Results show that existing opaque envelope elements and glazed areas present characteristics that are no longer able to provide proper responses to contemporary building constructive requirements. External insulation was identified as a key retrofit measure, window replacement also being an advised solution for rigorous heating seasons. Improvements from the internal side of windows, such as roller shades, may provide few benefits during cooling seasons, and applying solar films is not advised without a proper thermal repercussion analysis

Proposal for a methodology for sustainable rehabilitation strategies of the existing building stock: the ponte Gêa neighborhood

Abstract: Having in mind the objectives of the United Nations Development Agenda 2030, which refers to the sustainable principles of a circular economy, it is urgent to improve the performance of the built environment. The existing buildings must be preserved and improved in order to reduce their environmental impact, in line with the need to revert climate change and reduce the occurrence of natural disasters. This work had as its main goal to identify and define a methodology for promoting the rehabilitation of buildings in the Ponte Gêa neighborhood, in the city of Beira, Mozambique, with an emphasis on energy efficiency, water efficiency, and construction and demolition waste management. The proposed methodology aims to create a decision support method for creating strategic measures to be implemented by considering the three specific domains—energy, water, and waste. This model allows for analyzing the expected improvement according to the action to be performed, exploring both individual and community solutions. It encompasses systems of standard supply that can reveal greater efficiency and profitability. Thus, the in-depth knowledge of the characteristics of urban space and buildings allows for establishing guidelines for the renovation process of the neighborhood.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Proposal of methodology for evaluation of a vertical shanty building in Beira, Mozambique

Abstract: Emerging economies are in an almost winless situation: they would benefit from improving the extremely poor economic situation, making them self-reliant and economically productive. However, the poor fight for daily survival and, therefore, cannot afford to improve themselves. This article describes the state of the “Grande Hotel” in the city of Beira, Mozambique, built-in Portuguese colonial times, a real vertical shanty building that is occupied by approximately 1000 inhabitants trapped in poverty. To carry out any constructive intervention in a building or an urban complex, it is necessary to carry out a rehabilitation project that is developed based on a diagnosis of the building understudy, its main deteriorations, the causes, mechanisms of action, evolution, and possible treatments to be used for its repair. Analysis methods are necessary for the conservation of buildings since trying to stop, or correct buildings’ deterioration without a diagnosis of their problems or a prognosis on their evolution is a risky procedure with a high percentage of failure chances. The use of an appropriate methodology for diagnosing the damage present in the “Grande Hotel” and its prediction of evolution and development should directly impact a better quality of rehabilitation projects in the neighborhood where the building is located.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Passive Solar Systems for the Promotion of Thermal Comfort in African Countries: A Review

Globally, the residential sector consumes a significant amount of energy. Therefore, bioclimatic architectural systems which consider passive solutions should be studied, analyzed, and implemented to reduce energy consumption. This review aims to promote thermal comfort in African countries by using passive solar systems. It begins with the keyword thermal comfort and then reviews articles published over the last ten years that consider bioclimatic architecture and construction strategies in Africa, the main trends in scientific research in this field, and the possibilities for each climate zone in achieving the highest degree of climate comfort. Following an extensive review, certain bioclimatic architectural strategies adopted in specific countries can be applied in countries with similar climates and this can contribute to significant energy savings through effective functional solar and ventilation design strategies. Several countries have been identified as having the most significant publications on thermal regulations in buildings, and the associated regulations and projects are discussed. Several studies have also examined static and adaptive models of thermal comfort

The Possibilities of Capturing Rainwater and Reducing the Impact of Floods: A Proposal for the City of Beira, Mozambique

Modern societies face various challenges, including climate change, rapid urbanization, and sometimes inadequate urban planning policies. In recent years, extreme weather events have received increasing attention for their impacts on cities, humans, and ecosystems worldwide, particularly on coastal towns in Mozambique, such as cyclones, floods, water pollution, and water scarcity, demonstrating their vulnerability to climate change. Cities must adapt to cope with the pressure on their water resources, and it is essential to ensure that communities have access to safe, reliable, and affordable water. A viable way to promote this resilience and simultaneously reduce costs in domestic budgets is to use rainwater to meet daily needs where water quality parameters are not required for consumption. According to the results of this study, it is possible to significantly reduce potable water use from the municipal water supply network by harvesting rainwater, up to 40% when the use does not require potable water at all, proactively protecting this vital resource. In addition to these direct benefits, the large-scale deployment of rainwater harvesting (RWH) systems in densely urbanized areas can also provide indirect benefits, such as reducing peak flow volumes in stormwater drainage systems and potentially reducing the frequency of urban floods. These benefits result from the reduction in the volume and duration of water sent to the drainage network, which can help to improve the overall resilience of communities in the face of climate change and other challenges

Metodologia para avaliação exploratória do comportamento acústico da Igreja do Mosteiro de S. Bento de Cástris, Évora

A igreja do Mosteiro de S. Bento de Cástris em Évora (séc. XIII-XIX) apresenta uma tipologia de configuração de espaços pouco comum e que parece privilegiar diferentes posicionamentos para o funcionamento de grupos corais de apoio às atividades litúrgicas e de expressão musical. Tratando-se de possíveis opções de carácter empírico, pois são relativamente recentes os conhecimentos científicos no domínio da física das construções e em especial da acústica de edifícios, importa explorar, com medições no local, as condições reais de comportamento acústico e em especial conhecer os tempos de reverberação e comparar os resultados obtidos com as recomendações atuais para este tipo de espaços. Nesta comunicação caracteriza-se a igreja do ponto de vista da conceção e seus principais aspetos construtivos, explica-se o significado e interesse da medição dos tempos de reverberação e apresenta-se a metodologia estabelecida para explorar as condições acústicas da igreja objeto de estudoThe church of the Monastery of S. Bento de Cástris, in Évora (13th-19th centuries) has an uncommon spatial typology that seems to privilege the possibility of offering different positions to the choirs that supported both the liturgical and the musical activities. Considering that these were possibly empirical options, because the scientific knowledge on buildings physics and, particularly, on building acoustics are relatively recent, it is important to explore, with on-site measurements, the real acoustic behavior conditions, specifically the reverberation times, and compare the results obtained with the current recommendations for this type of spaces. In this paper we characterize the church in terms of design and of its main construction features, explaining the meaning and interest of measuring its reverberation times and presenting the methodology defined for exploring the acoustic conditions of the church under study

House dust fungal communities’ characterization: a double take on the six by sixty by six project (6x60x6)

Background and objective(s): Fungi are a group microbes that are found with particular incidence in the indoor environment. Their direct toxicity or capability of generating toxic compounds has been associated with a large number of adverse health effects, such as infectious diseases, allergies and other toxic effects. House dust is a time integrative matrix easy to obtain and have been recommended for epidemiological studies on human exposure to environmental contaminants. This study aims to quantify and identify the fungal community on house dust samples collected using two different methodologies: active and passive sampling.This work was supported by European Funds through COMPETE and by National Funds through the Portuguese Science Foundation (FCT) within project PEst-OE/SAU/UI0709/2014 and Grants SFRH/BPD/65884/2009; SFRH/BD/78168/2011 (supported by funding from the Human Potential Operational Programme POPH, inscribed in the National Strategic Reference Framework and partially subsidized by the European Social Fund).N/

Do Espírito do Lugar - Música, Estética, Silêncio, Espaço, Luz

As Residências Cistercienses em S. Bento de Cástris que se vêm realizando desde 2013 têm como primeiro objectivo reinventar na contemporaneidade a densidade histórica do discurso cisterciense, integrando a realidade deste mosteiro tanto numa ampla geografia da Ordem de Cister em Portugal e na Europa, como na história da região e do país. Inspiradas nas questões da História, da Arte, da Arquitectura, da Música, do Património e da Paisagem, as Residências Cistercienses em Cástris vêm apostando no debate de questões actuais ligadas aos espaços monásticos e ao seu futuro, nomeadamente os cistercienses. Esta aposta concretiza-se também no presente trabalho, DO ESPÍRITO DO LUGAR. ESTÉTICA. SILÊNCIO, ESPAÇO, LUZ, resultado das I e II Residências Cistercienses (2013 e 2014), e integra estudos que se reportam especialmente ao Silêncio e às suas várias linguagens e significados e às dimensões da Estética monástico-religiosa, com algum privilégio para as temáticas da Música. A apropriação do mosteiro pelo silêncio e pela música e a apreciação do espólio musical e instrumental de S. Bento de Cástris permitem uma melhor percepção das diversidades conjunturais e dos seus ritmos, aliando-se às dimensões de valorização patrimonial, eacompanhando-as de sugestões estéticas na pintura, escultura, pintura mural, azulejaria…, no sentido da fruição plena dos espaços. A riqueza deste evento, a Residência Cisterciense no mosteiro de S. Bento de Cástris, permitirá que o futuro deste património, de tanta diversidade e espessura histórico-cultural, continue a ser debatido e a justificar edições futuras resultantes dos trabalhos de investigação aí apresentados e debatidos