Inter-ActiveHouse: users-driven building performances for Nearly Zero Energy Buildings in Mediterranean climates

Building simulations rely on fixed assumptions and mathematical models to describe a specific building scenario, overlooking the building occupants’ component. Almost 40% of in-home energy use is due occupants interacts with the building systems. The goal of this paper is to understand the magnitude of the performance gap when applied to two case studies in a Mediterranean climate. A set of scenarios are simulated assuming both a typical building usage and possible variations given by the users’ interactions with shading, ventilation and cooling systems. Results show that the magnitude of the effects with a negative impact is bigger if compared to actions that might have a positive influence, this means that simulated results with standard usage assumptions are not an average of the possible effects but they reflect an optimistic outcome given by the optimal equipment usage

ACTIVE HOUSE Progettazione e innovazione con tecnologie di costruzione stratificata a secco

La tecnologia di costruzione stratificata a secco ha ormai raggiunto la piena maturità ed è sempre più impiegata per rispondere alle sfide di sostenibilità che il settore delle costruzioni è chiamato ad affrontare. Seguendo i tre principi cardine di Active House (Ambiente, Energia e Comfort), gli edifici realizzati con la tecnica integrale “strutture/rivestimenti - S/R” a secco permettono, senza aumento eccessivo degli spessori e sfruttando le intercapedini per gli isolanti, di raggiungere parametri caratteristici di un edificio ad alta efficienza energetica. Questo manuale offre al lettore gli strumenti operativi per la realizzazione di strutture che presentano indubbi vantaggi: l’utilizzo di fonti di energia rinnovabili per il fabbisogno degli impianti, la massima libertà architettonica al progettista, la garanzia del benessere ambientale per gli occupanti, la riduzione dei tempi di costruzione, il miglioramento delle prestazioni antisismiche e la possibilità di reimpiegare tutti i materiali utilizzati in un nuovo ciclo produttivo al minimo costo (secondo i dettami dell’economia circolare). L’opera, ricca di immagini commentate, stratigrafie e particolari costruttivi, si completa con un’importante sezione dedicata a numerosi casi di studio relativi ad architetture di nuova costruzione e di trasformazione dell’esistente

Inter-ActiveHouse: users-driven building performances for Nearly Zero Energy Buildings in Mediterranean climates

Building simulations rely on fixed assumptions and mathematical models to describe a specific building scenario, overlooking the building occupants’ component. Almost 40% of in-home energy use is due occupants interacts with the building systems. The goal of this paper is to understand the magnitude of the performance gap when applied to two case studies in a Mediterranean climate. A set of scenarios are simulated assuming both a typical building usage and possible variations given by the users’ interactions with shading, ventilation and cooling systems. Results show that the magnitude of the effects with a negative impact is bigger if compared to actions that might have a positive influence, this means that simulated results with standard usage assumptions are not an average of the possible effects but they reflect an optimistic outcome given by the optimal equipment usage

Comparison of Comfort Performance Criteria and Sensing Approach in Office Space: Analysis of the Impact on Shading Devices’ Efficiency

Indoor occupant comfort has been related to total building energy consumption, and some of its components (lighting, heating, and cooling mainly), together with carbon production, also with occupants’ productivity, learnability, and health. However, few works relate comfort to the circular economy and are barely related to the circularity of the selected building materials or systems. This work is intended to evaluate how the dynamism of a building envelope (triggered by different comfort preferences) disturbs the efficiency of the building and maintenance activities

Active House: Smart Nearly Zero Energy Buildings

The book provides an overview of the Active House (AH) vision, intended as a building design method “beyond” the passive approach for buildings of the future that will be more and more connected, smart and innovative. It offers a novel philosophical design approach in which buildings, new or renovated, are in balance with natural, renewable energies and become “concentrators-distributors” of energies instead of being consumers of resources. The book is composed of five chapters, providing information on fundamental aspects of innovations toward resource-efficient buildings, as well as case studies presenting the concept in practice. It demonstrates that a completely new design approach is possible, and that a turning point has been reached. Lastly, it shows how the AH Alliance, along with designers, institutions, industries and academies, is bringing a breath of fresh air to the world of construction

Wooden Byobu. From Architectural Façade to Sculpture

The Japanese Pavilion at EXPO Milano 2015, designed by Atsushi Kitagawara, has been visited by millions of people with great success, especially for its stunning wooden façade. Its naked structure is defined by only one element, a 12 × 12 cm section, whose larch came from Fukushima region, to show the health of the forest after the terrible Tsunami. The façade was conceived with studs, connected without any screws or nails, thanks to the “compressive-tension” effect, whose concept interprets old Japanese wooden-based techniques of constructions and even handcrafts of complex wooden toys. Analogic mock-ups and parametric models have defined the entire design phase, leading to a simple form at the end of a complex research path. The wooden structure was, then, elaborated and produced through CNC processes, built for EXPO Milano 2015, and dismantled after the event. A new life of this concept is becoming an art object: the Byobu. This is a traditional separating screen in Japanese houses, something that creates space and multiple possibilities. Thus, the structural concept of EXPO Milano 2015 turns into several variations for different places: University Byobu at Politecnico di Milano, Urban Byobu at Farm Cultural Park in Sicily, Forest Byobu at Arte Sella, near Trento, and finally Museum Byobu—Kigumi Infinity at Mori Art Museum in Tokyo. All these examples leave a memory of a stunning structure, conceived to be temporary for EXPO Milano 2015, now visible in several places between Italy and Japan

Active House and sensors’ monitoring campaign towards the final user: VELUXlab, a smart building prototype

European buildings absorb 40% of final energy consumption. This statement is almost an acquired knowledge, a learned lesson for the current design standards and best practices, which are pushing on an efficient, integrated design of envelope and systems within the specific relation “building-context”. However, a considerable amount of the environmental impact of the construction sector is linked to the building’s operational phase: here, the occupants-building interaction plays a fundamental role, not properly considered during the design phase. The paper shows, at first, how the Active House Vision and its three integrated principles of Comfort, Energy and Environment are well-established examples of user-centred design strategies and practices, anticipating the main human actions’ drivers (Comfort), and contextualizing them into the environmental issues (Energy and Environment). Besides, the real experience of VELUXlab, a smart building prototype at Politecnico di Milano, allows gaining an additive perspective on the topic: the communication and education of occupants about the correct use of a high-efficient building system. Here, a wireless network of sensors integrates real-time data into the building’s augmented reality and communicates with the final user through a user-friendly dashboard (interactive visualizations of internal comfort, indoor air quality, energy consumptions, according to the occupants’ component). As within the automotive sector, sensors and related IoT systems have already driven users to a more efficient attitude, the paper proposes a concrete, suitable response to the AEC – Architecture, Engineering and Construction – sector need of communicative tools, able to diagnose the human behavior effects upon the building physic and easily feedback to the final user

KODAMA: A Polyhedron Sculpture in the Forest at Arte Sella

KODAMA is the new “sculpture” conceived by Kengo Kuma for Arte Sella—The Contemporary Mountain. The process shows the concept, the development, and the construction of a complex structure in massive wood (Italian larch), a new sculpture in this famous Land art park. After the first options, which have been discussed between the Japanese and the Italian teams, a solution with lattice blades has been chosen. The first phase was to produce different scale mockups, both analogic and digital in order to find proportion and dimensions. All the structure which creates a kind of “porous sphere” (a polyhedron) is made only by one wood section, connected without nails or screws. Old toys, Chidori-like, are the reference and several scaled mockups have been produced with different woods: cedar, larch, fir, and oak. Once assessed the architectural/spatial shape the model has been studied for its structural behaviour thanks to complex software analysis, which have been studied using the parametric model (Rhino-Grasshopper). Models have been used for testing the structure after assessing the real loads (mainly snow and wind). Full scale 1:1 mockup have been realized both analogic and with CNC machines by master carpenters. The final shape is an ideal “Teahouse” space in the middle of the forest, close to Villa Strobele, which will be the new core of Arte Sella, dedicated to famous architects and their ways to conceive art and nature using wood as a creative material

The Sense of Sensors

Sensors are nowadays more and more common in buildings because they are becoming everyday cheaper, reliable and long lasting. Applications inside, outside and in between the built layers are more and more common and therefor the possibility to collect a big amount of data. However, the question is: does it make any Sense? Huge amount of data does not mean that the building is nicer and works better. Sometime the excess of technology and the presence of these devices ends up in a lack of responsibility by the user and, in some cases, the building does not work better than one without all these invisible measurements. Thinking and adapting the purpose of the sensors and educate users, on contrary, allow us to have a more interactive building and the possibility to check it very quickly with an app and run it from remote. Thus it is very important to set up what kind of sensors we need and how we collect the data and how we interpret them in a correct and fast way, being data so many and being the user not necessarily an Engineer. Some experiences will be shown seeing the effect of users and also actual benchmark technologies that allow us to live in an Active House and check it live, than\ks to an app that shows several sensors outputs. The paper will also show an experimental case study at Politecnico di Milano, VELUXlab, where sensors have been installed for different purposes, since some years, and where the building behaviour has been checked with and with-out occupants. Big Data are around us, but sometimes it seems that we forget the basics and the world surrounding us when too much technology seems to substitute our senses. Finally, the goal is to show that technology and remote sensing is efficient and produces a better living environment only if it does not cancel our singular responsibility and our capability to trust in our senses and in a clever use of our architectures