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Housing plays a key role in the world path to energy transition, and retrofitting buildings is a major asset to this end. Unfortunately, despite the supporting measures and incentives promoted in many countries, the renovation rate is still too slow. This is even more complex within some specific assets, such as social housing, which, especially in Italy, depends on the availability of public funds. The study proposes a predictive tool conceived as an enabler in the decision-making process, capable of considering and comparing the performance levels that different retrofitting actions can reach, according to building features, intervention costs, timing, and resource availability. The tool is tested on a social housing case study in Bologna. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adaptive façades represent a viable and effective technological solution to reduce the building energy demand for cooling while achieving interesting aesthetic effects on the building envelope to screen solar radiation. During the last decade, many different design solutions, including those based on shape memory alloys, have been experimented to obtain appropriate responses without being dependent on electro-mechanically actuated systems. Several recent and ongoing studies have been published in the scientific literature regarding the different actuator typologies, as well as the different properties of the materials used, which usually determine the adaptive solution characteristics after a series of complex and time-consuming simulations using specialised dynamic modelling software. Due to the time and resources required, this kind of evaluation is usually delivered during the last and more advanced design stage as a form of assessment of already-taken architectural and technological choices. The study reported in the paper aims to offer a quick, time-saving simplified algorithm to calculate the response of an adaptive façade, according to the ISO 13790 standards, to be adopted during the early design stage to evaluate the possible effects of design decisions. The study includes three main steps: (a) the conceptualisation of the adaptive solution considering the context conditions; (b) the definition of the calculation algorithm; (c) the application of the method to a test room in a case study building located in Bologna for supporting the discussion of the related outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Huge efforts have been made in recent decades to improve energy saving in the building sector, particularly focused on the role of façades. Among the explored viable solutions, climate-adaptive building shells [CABS] consider promising solutions to control solar radiation, both in terms of illuminance and heating levels, but are still piloting these solutions due to their complex designs and necessary costs. The present study aims to provide a speedy but reliable methodology to evaluate the potential impacts of adopting active/passive CABS systems during the preliminary design stage. The proposed methodology allows the evaluation and comparison, when multiple options are considered, of the effects of each solution in terms of the energy needs, thermal comfort and lighting, while reducing the required effort and time for an extensive analysis of the overall building level. This is based on the use of a "virtual test room" where different conditions and configurations can be explored. A case study in the city of Bologna is included for demonstration purposes. The achieved results support the decisions made regarding energy behavior (over/under heating), indoor comfort, lighting and energy at an early design stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Energy performance certificate (EPC) to c contribute in defining a energy poverty index. • Mapping building energy poverty risks to support policy actions for tackling energy poverty. • Merging GIS tool and EPC database to obtain city energy poverty maps at city (Bologna) level. Energy poverty is defined as the condition in which low-income people is no more able to face the costs of energy bills and consequently accept to live in cold and uncomfortable houses. In recent years the scientific literature about this specific issue has registered a significant growth, despite the problem is mainly approached from an econometric point of view to which instead medical, social and energy aspects have to be coupled. Recent EU policies like the Clean Energy Package and the Energy Building Performance Directive Recast III encourage to increase the efforts to tackle and eradicate the energy poverty. The paper approaches the problem focusing on one of its complementary causes: the building energy performance. The adopted methodology includes the calculation of the energy costs for each household, the definition of the energy poverty threshold, the calculation of the related building energy performance limit, otherwise leading to the energy poverty condition. These data, associated with the energy performance certificates, are used to create a GIS based mapping of the buildings potentially affected by energy poverty. Maps can be used to support decision making process in addressing appropriate strategies at urban level to tackle the energy poverty risk. The paper includes a case study in the city of Bologna where the proposed methodology is tested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper reports a methodology developed to map energy consumption of the building stock at the urban scale on a GIS environment. Energy consumption has been investigated, focusing on the shift from the individual building scale to the district one with the purpose of identifying larger homogenous energy use areas for addressing policies and plans to improve the quality and the performance levels at the city scale. The urban planning zoning concept was extended to the energy issue to include the energy behavior of each zone that depends on the performance of its individual buildings. The methodology generates GIS maps providing a district scale visualization of energy consumption according to shared criteria. A case study in Bologna city (Italy) is provided. In the specific case, the last update of Emilia-Romagna regional urban planning regulation required a mapping action regarding energy efficiency of homogeneous urban portions defined by the General Urban Plan. The main achieved results are (a) a methodology to identify homogeneous areas for analyzing energy consumption; (b) an updated energy map of Bologna Municipality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]