Sustainable strategies and methods for the energetic improvement of social housing stock in Italy

Abstract

This paper seeks to investigate the use of sustainable strategies of intervention in the refurbishment of social suburban building stock considering some public buildings in Emilia Romagna region of ACER (Emilia Romagna housing company) ownership. In this study, interventions on the envelope and the installations, in order to improve architectural and energetic performance following the new European Energy Standards for energy savings, have been considered. Besides the technology and architectural result, an evaluation of the costs of the interventions and their payback was done; this should be very important considering the nature of the ownership.Examples of interventions pointed to the use of renewable energies and sustainable technologies for building envelopes (external thermal insulation, ventilated façades, and greenhouses) are examined. The investigation is based on a range of examples developed during the course of energetic control of buildings at the Faculty of Architecture of Ferrara and with the support of ACER Ferrara and Reggio Emilia. Social buildings owned by public companies are very popular in the Italian suburbs. These large and highly populated living units clearly represent the main examples of energy consumption in the building sector. Performing envelopes and renewable energies are the most useful strategies to improve not only the energetic balance, but also the architectural value of these buildings.The approach carried out was step by step, starting from the easiest and cheapest operations (e.g. replacement of windows) up to the more expansive (e.g. photovoltaic panels). This approach can be helpful to public administrations to manage interventions by considering their incidence on the overall balance. Examples presented in this paper show that sustainable technologies, commonly used in new constructions and based on the concept of a low environmental impact, can be also employed in the refurbishment of existing buildings, which is the main challenge for the global reduction of CO 2 emissions.

Climatic conditions as a guideline to mass customisation in Brazilian housing

“…The study shows a mapping that analysed the building performance and concluded that the PMCMV basic singlefamily floorplan provides poor outcomes, especially in hot climates. Passive and bioclimatic architecture (Brunoro, 2012;Colclough;Kinnane;Hewitt;Griffiths, 2018;Muñoz Cruz et al, 2017;Preciado-Pérez;Fotios, 2017;Rincón;Carrobé;Martorell;Medrano, 2019;Suárez;Fernández-Agüera, 2015) has been presented in the literature as an essential factor to improve affordable housing performance. Among the strategies, optimising the solar orientation of dwellings is expected to improve their thermal performance and energy efficiency levels (Bodach;Hamhaber, 2010;Franco et al, 2019;Taleb;Yeretzian;Jabr;Hajj, 2020;Sassi, 2015).…”

The sustainable improvement of social housing stock in italy: strategies of intervention

“…The application of ETICS became in the last ten years a popular measure to improve the energy performance and the weather resistance of façades in the building stock. Even if it is frequently supposed that the small thickness of the exterior plaster and a smooth insulation material as substrate are possible causes for damage from mechanical impact, many experiences can demonstrate that the costs and frequency of maintenance for ETICS are less than those of traditional wall structures [2,5]. Energy regulation standards in Emilia Romagna region for walls is expressed with a maximum thermal transmittance (U value) of 0.34 W/m 2 K. In the most cases, initial wall transmittance was higher that 1.2 W/m 2 K: this means that 12 cm of extruded polystyrene insulation layer was considered (Fig.…”