DURABILITY, USE AND RE-USE OF BUILDING STOCK

A substantial share of the building stock in Europe is older than 50 years. Many buildings in use today are hundreds of years old. More than 40% of our residential buildings have been built before the 1960s, when energy building regulations were very limited. The energy consumption and emissions are actually very significant. The refurbishment and renovation of the building stock is the main issue in the government agenda. Furthermore the maintenance and refurbishment is the most important activity of the European construction sector. Nevertheless the regeneration of housing estates of our suburbs is a complex topic common to major European cities. The decision to refurbish or demolish and rebuild the large building stock built during the sixties and seventies of the last century requires a deep evaluation of social, economic and technological issues. The buildings, in particular the public and social housing, are mostly obsolete in terms of layout, energy performances and durability. The topic of refurbishment of public housing is very complex and also the technological aspects are becoming more significant facing the challenge of energy consumption and emission reduction and accomplishing sustainability. One of the most important issues to allow the responsible use of natural as well as financial resources is the feedback from building use and operation to the design. The lack of information about the service life of buildings can be overcome by design tools and procedures to evaluate durability and performances of the building and components over their life time. The research suggests the use of methods of analysis of Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) to develop a procedure for the service life prediction and prevention of defects. Through the model the reliability of such data is properly managed by a probabilistic approach and the probability of failure related to environmental agents, users, quality of materials and components, design options and workmanship skills is estimated

DESIGN TOOLS FOR LIFE CYCLE ANALYSIS AND DURABILITY EVALUATION OF BUILDING SYSTEMS: A RESEARCH ON THE BUILDING ENVELOPE

The behavior and service life prediction of building systems requires to develop tools to assist the designer. The paper is focused on a research carried out in the Department of Architecture and Design with the Department of Mathematical Sciences of the Politecnico di Torino. The goal is to develop a design tool to forecast the building subsystem durability and to help the designer in design options. The method is based on FMEA (Failure Mode and Effect Analysis) developed in a qualitative way as well as in a probabilistic way. The analyst assess the functional models, the failures and the consequent predicted service life of components. The designer will select materials defining the risk coming from environmental agents, design, materials and workmanship. The estimated service life has been assessed by Monte Carlo method. The external walls was the example tested using data by investigations in the area of northern Italy and from literature

Adaptation, Mitigation, and Smart Urban Metabolism towards the Ecological Transition

The paper discusses the relationship between adaptation and mitigation in different dimensions (temporal, spatial, economic, political, psychological, social, and finally architectural), to highlight the existing or potential links. The perspective the one of the systemic and multi-scale design approach, capable of integrating its benefits. This strategy is based on widespread technological awareness, on smart metering, and on available IoT technologies, which can be integrated into buildings to govern the metabolism of matter and energy of the urban system. The essay relates disciplinary and specialized scientific approaches, making a synthesis focused on the theme of the relationship between global warming, ecological transition, enabling technologies, and perception of the risks associated with climate change in progress

La cessione del patrimonio immobiliare pubblico: la riconversione dei siti militari

La dismissione del patrimonio immobiliare pubblico è nell’agenda dei governi per reperire risorse e migliorarne la gestione. Il patrimonio da valorizzare ha caratteristiche articolate e la sua cessione coinvolge temi di rilevanza territoriale. I siti militari costituiscono un ambito specifico caratterizzato da: articolazione delle tipologie, dispersione territoriale, obsolescenza, stato di abbandono e passività ambientali. Il patrimonio immobiliare non può essere riconvertito ad altri usi senza una conoscenza del costruito, premessa necessaria ad un proficuo recupero. Il contributo analizza problematiche e caratteristiche del patrimonio costituito dai siti militari, con particolare attenzione ad esperienze internazionali e al ruolo dell’università nello screening del patrimonio da alienare

Increasing the value of the Public Building Assets: the former military sites redevelopment

The sale of public real estate assets is one of the main issues in the governments agenda. The goal is to find resources and improve the management of the building stock. Such assets are different from each other and transformation involves issues of urban and regional importance. Former military sites are mainly characterized by: different types (barracks, military airports, military bases, military hospitals, firing ranges, powder magazine, ports), spread out, obsolescence and environmental liabilities. Also historical buildings are relatively few in the military building stock. It follows that these assets cannot be converted to other uses without a technological knowledge. The paper discusses the key issues in rehabilitation of the military sites with particular attention to recent international experiences. The paper then goes on to focus the role of the research institutions in the screening required of the military real estate to be divested

IoT in Building Process: A Literature Review

The pervasive diffusion of digital technologies opened up to new concepts in managing and monitoring the processes occurring in our society. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) become enabling tools to rethink our way of living, consuming and producing goods and services. Among these, the Internet of Things (IoT) represents the disruptive technology that may redefine the stages of the building process to meet renewed environmental challenges. This new technological paradigm imports in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) sector new and not-tectonic instances. In this context, the paper maps the experiences related to the use of IoT for managing the building process. Through a systematic literature review, the article highlights the potential benefits generable by a widespread integration of IoT in the AEC sector. In particular, the article has three purposes: defining the IoT infrastructure for its proper application in the AEC sector; identifying IoT main application domains; investigating the integration modalities

Wood fiber vs synthetic thermal insulation for roofs energy retrofit: a case study in Turin, Italy

In this paper the thermal performance of synthetic and natural insulation materials under real applications are investigated through an experimental activity as well as numerical simulations. During the refurbishment of two houses in Turin (north – west Italy) one roof was insulated with a natural material (wood fiber panels) and the other one with a business as usual synthetic material (XPS and polyurethane). An experimental activity was carried out, both during summer and winter seasons, and the results were used to validate a simplified model. During winter, as expected, the strongest influence on the global performance is related to the insulation thickness. As far as the summer season performance is regarded, for smaller roof surfaces, as for the analysed case study, no particular difference was noticed between the two solutions. A better control of the indoor air temperature was evaluated for the wood fiber insulation when applied on a large surface of the roof. In order to define the best cost-benefit retrofit solutions, ad-hoc evaluations need to be performed