English

Appropriate strategies to reduce energy consumption, increase Renewable Energy Sources (RES) penetration within local urban ecosystems are the higher priorities towards low carbon cities. In this context urban canyons (UCs) -conceived and investigated as a whole consisting of the buildings blocks and the related open areas- represent the core of the search for new intersections between energy issues and urban dwellers.

The European Union (EU) aims to a 20% reduction of the Europe's annual primary energy consumption by 2020. Furthermore, EU commits to reduce GHG emissions to 80-95% below 1990 levels by 2050. One of the main issues of the EU energy strategy is the radical improvement of the energy performance of new as well as existing buildings.  

Fixed shading systems are saving energy by reducing the cooling loads of the space they shade, but can be a source of energy losses due to the increased need of daylight that they create. Aim of this paper is the comparative assessment of different typologies of buildings' shading systems with integrated photovoltaics. The assessment is focused on their energy efficiency and degree of internal visual comfort conditions that they can ensure. The purpose of the comparison is to optimize the combination of shading systems and their integrated solar cells.

Assessing thermal risk in urban areas is essential, as this can have major implications to human health and may influence quality of life in urban areas as well as the urban microclimate. Such assessment is promoted by estimating Land Surface Temperature (LST), evaluating the intensity of Surface Urban Heat Island (SUHI) and the variation of the discomfort index (DI), the latter reflecting the most common bioclimatic index used for outdoor thermal comfort applications.

Owing to the growing concern about indoor air quality (IAQ) globally in hospitals, especially after the recent outbreak of diseases like severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Swine Flu (H1N1) and other airborne infections such as Tuberculosis, the quest for energy efficient ventilation system is growing. To provide acceptable indoor air quality that is capable of removing indoor air contaminants in hospital wards, sustainable ventilation strategy is required.

Increasing roof reflectance reduces absorption of solar radiation, roof surface temperatures, and heat flux in the building interior. At the building level this leads to savings in air-conditioning energy consumption and increase in indoor comfort. At the macro level it helps in mitigating Urban Heat Island effect and reduces net solar radiation absorbed by the earth, lowering local air temperature and pollutant formation, and reducing global warming. Various studies have demonstrated energy savings in buildings using cool roofs.

The urban climate of high-density areas is often affected by an increase of the air temperature known as Urban Heat Island (UHI) phenomenon. 
UHI is strongly influenced by the solar reflectance of conventional materials used for building envelope and urban coatings, i.e. streets and square pavings. 
The present work proposes an original method to predict the temperature of both facades and local air mass on urban scenarios. The effect of changes on coatings may also be estimated.  

The indoor environment and occupants’ health of approximately 5,000 residential buildings were investigated by a questionnaire covering entire Japan. The purpose of this survey is to clarify the association between indoor air pollution and adverse health effect, and to study effective ways of keeping indoor air clear with ventilation systems in house. Questionnaires were distributed to 7,812 occupants living in a house with a mechanical ventilation system across 47 Prefectures in Japan on February 2012 using internet survey web site.

The need to improve the energy performance of buildings, both new but also, and in particular, existing ones, is more imperative than ever. The “traditional” approach of thermal insulation is quite satisfactory for the reduction of thermal heating losses and loads, but it is not enough for coping with the problem of increased cooling loads, that are evolving to the single most influential problem, mainly for buildings in the densely built urban environment in Mediterranean and Southern European countries. 

Cool roof is a well-documented passive cooling strategy for buildings in several climate conditions. The mechanism consists of the reduction of the heat load entering the roof, which is characterized by high solar reflectance and high thermal emittance. The purpose of this paper is to study the coupled effect produced by such a technology. First, the passive cooling contribution is quantified, then, the “active” contribution is investigated.