Sustainable buildings design

The studio offers offers specialised in sustainable architecture, low energy buildings, nearly zero energy buildings, passive house (Passivhaus standard).

To build sustainable means evaluating two basic elements: the relationship between the building with the environment and the relationship between this building and its users. Energy, water, materials are the key elements to build and manage a building.

Environmental impacts associated with energy

Today, buildings are responsible for 40% per cent of primary energy consumption. Heating, cooling and air conditioning are the main cause of inefficiency in the energy use.
The manufacture of building products requires energy, materials and water. Buildings are considered unsustainable due to their significant consumption of energy materials associated with the industrial processing cycle of each material. The impacts associated with materials are the energy resourcing involve in their manufacturing processes, transport requirements, use and final disposal.
Materials requires low embodied energy should be preferred. The energy required to make a material, represents only a part of the global energy use over the lifetime of a building. It may happen that the materials with high embodied energy get greater benefits in terms of energy saving such as to justify their choice.
Minimising this energy through sustainable materials and construction techniques means reduce the environmental impact of energy consumption and improve quality of people's life. In the other hand it is necessary change architectural design approaching by adopting measures that primarily affect the building envelope and all passive/active systems that uses energy in an efficient way. The resulting reduced energy requirements should be provided by renewable sources.

Environmental impacts of material use

The manufacture of building have a significant impact on human well-being and the natural environment can be evaluate. Manufacturing processes reduce environmental resources .
The assessment of all environmental impacts of materials from their manufacture to their disposal, or as it is often described, from ‘cradle to grave’, is known as a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA).This methodology allows to evaluate the environmental impacts of construction elements removing some concepts that associate words such as ecological, eco-friendly, recyclable as sustainable material. LCA evaluate and quantifies the impacts of the use of materials in terms of energy use in extraction, transport, production, distribution and final disposal.

Environmental impacts from water consumption

Water is a primary resource for all life on the planet. In the sector building as residential use, there are many options for improving water management:

• reduced water consumption (select plants with low watering requirements)
• use greywater efficiently (install collection systems from basins to flush WC, water gardens)
• use greywater efficiently
• recycle rainwater
• encourage green roof
• encourage water absorbent landscaping
• natural graywater treatment
• use new technology for wastewater treatment

The water consumption causes a consumption of energy. Consciously water use means reduce the environmental impact and energy consumption. The cleanest energy .... is not consumed.

European project CEPHEUS

Few years ago, following the recent European directives and especially in response to over consumption of energy, are spreading, even in Italy with some isolated example, the buildings define 'nearly zero energy buildings'. These buildings characterized by low energy heating requirements and represent an important opportunity in terms of environmental sustainability and economic feasibility. To build a nearly zero energy buildings needs an appropriate design strategies and high efficient technologies. Usually the building envelope is compact and well insulated to minimize heat losses, high thermal performance windows system, extremely efficient active technology such as mechanical ventilation with heat recovery use renewable energy sources.
European countries have developed sustainable solutions to meet the basic needs for buildings and safe environment. One of the most interesting experiences are construction of Kronsberg in Hanover and Vauban in Freiburg (Germany), BedZED in London (Great Britain), districts of Salzburg (Austria) ...
The Passive House (or passivhaus) development Hannover Kronsberg in 1998/99 consists of 32 essentially identical Passive town houses. The development was part of the CEPHEUS project involving the construction and scientific evaluation of 221 dwelling units built to passivhaus standards in 5 european countries (Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, France).
CEPHEUS project demonstrate technical feasibility in terms of energy performance at low extra cost. The house keep the total final energy demand for space heating, domes-tic hot water and household appliances below 42 kWh/(m²a) with high comfort level through the extra costs contained in the order of 10-15%.

Case Study - building system in cob and wood

Exhibition center of fine art - Architects: P. Renieri, G. Papini

The architectural and functional features of complex is based on an interdisciplinary vision of the design process and offers the opportunity to enhance a culture of energy efficient building and develop a lifestyle associated with a high ecological and sustainable footprint.
Preliminary analysis of the microclimate area has been made to understand the potential for developing new bioclimatic strategy. Design approach focused on the element as topography of the site, shape, orientation, existing buildings.
the proposal was to avoid creating a single compact large building and we opted for separate buildings can allow a better distribution and give preference to a spatiality can be perceived and internalized by individual users.
Studies of natural daylight and visual comfort, the shading, and the ecological footprint have influenced the morphology of the whole project. The new buildings have regular shapes composed of simple prismatic volumes; simply flanked by creating two separate buildings, one for the art gallery and one for the multi-purpose room, placed in a kind of "village green" made of paths and open spaces, where the users can perceive both the unity of space together the morphological features of the surrounding territory.

From environmental sustainability point of view primary objective was to achieve high comfort levels with minimum energy consumption that you can get through design solution that minimize heat losses through appropriate insulation and thermal mass:

• analytic study of environmental factors and climate of the site
• use of sustainable products: cob, wood, as well as being environmentally friendly and recyclable products have a low environmental impact LCA
• minimized energy consumption: through an energy-efficient envelope, passive solar technologies use, correct layout of the rooms which encourage natural ventilation, two integrated photovoltaic systems on the roof, it was possible to achieve a very low energy demand
• sustainable drainage systems (use permeable surfaces)
• use of bioclimatic strategies has improved the thermal comfort of indoor space and reducing CO2 emissions. The blinds are used to shade the building and prevent overheating in summer.
• compatibility with the local context: the shapes and colors of the project want to enhance the relationship with the surrounding environment
• install a rainwater recycling system and greywater collection from basins, showers and baths to flush wc or water gardens