Francesco Babich

Eurac Research · Institute for Renewable Energy

Climate change is driving the construction sector to use of more environmentally friendly and sustainable materials. Hemp concrete has been recently adopted as an innovative solution by the building industry to reduce emissions, as this material stores more CO2 than the emitted during its production. Part of this storage occurs during its service l...

Good air quality in classrooms, achieved through natural or mechanical ventilation, is necessary for students' health and cognition, but might simultaneously expose them to challenging sound environments, affecting learning and well-being. In this work we focused on the interaction between acoustics and ventilation modality and systematically revie...

Sexual well-being is a fundamental facet of the overall well-being of individuals and implies the ability to have safe and pleasurable sexual experiences, beyond the absence of disease or disturbance. The extent to which people can achieve sexual well-being depends, among other aspects, on whether they live in an environment that promotes and suppo...

The period of home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic made the importance of a high-quality surrounding environment even more evident than before. Several studies have been carried out to assess the (negative) impacts of noise on annoyance, particularly whilst working from home (WFH). The present study takes a step further by (1) investigatin...

Background Despite sexual wellbeing representing a potential component of the overall wellbeing of individuals, its relationship to indoor soundscape has not been investigated. The aim of this study was to identify acoustic-related variables linked to sexual wellbeing during the COVID-19 lockdown; the mechanisms through which those variables exert...

Perceived control, as an integral part of the psychological impact, can be considered an important factor in the adaptive thermal comfort model. With the aim of exploring the relationship between perceive control and thermal comfort and indoor air quality (IAQ) in school buildings, a three-month field study was conducted during the heating season i...

Sexual well-being is a fundamental facet of the overall well-being of most individuals and implies the ability to have safe and pleasurable sexual experiences, beyond the absence of disease or disturbance. The extent to which people can achieve sexual well-being depends, among other aspects, on whether they live in an environment that promotes and...

The present study investigates acoustic comfort in naturally ventilated residential buildings through an indoor soundscape approach. Preliminary results from a laboratory listening test are presented, where, in a mock-up living room with a window sight, participants have been exposed to 20 acoustic scenarios, obtained as a combination of 4 indoor s...

The present work constitutes the sequel to the analysis of data from an online survey administered to 464 home workers in London in January 2021 during the COVID-19 lockdown. Perceived affective quality of indoor soundscapes has been assessed in the survey through a previously developed model, as the combination of two perceptual dimensions, one re...

Data from an online survey conducted in January 2021 by 464 participants living in London and working from home (WFH) after the COVID-19 outbreak were analysed, focusing on: (1) types of building services at home, (2) perceived sound dominance of building services, and (3) the perception of the indoor acoustic environment (i.e. the indoor soundscap...

Children spend a large part of their growing years in schools, and as they are more sensitive to some pollutants than adults, it is essential to monitor and maximize the indoor air quality (IAQ) in classrooms. Many schools are located in historic and heritage buildings, and improving the IAQ, preserving the architectural features, poses a great cha...

Results of an online survey conducted during the COVID-19 lockdown among 848 home workers living in London (United Kingdom) and in Italy are reported with a focus on (1) the impacts of building services on the perception of the acoustic environment while working and relaxing at home and (2) the factors associated with window opening behaviour. The...

Data from an online survey conducted in January 2021 by 464 participants living in London and working from home (WFH) after the COVID-19 outbreak were analysed, focusing on: (1) types of building services at home, (2) perceived sound dominance of building services, and (3) the perception of the indoor acoustic environment (i.e. the indoor soundscap...

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, as a result of the adoption of worldwide lockdown measures, the home environment has become the place where all the daily activities are taking place for many people. In these changed social and acoustical contexts, we wanted to evaluate the perception of the indoor acoustic environment in relation to tr...

Recent technological advancements have enabled the development and deployment of low-cost consumer grade monitors for ubiquitous and time-resolved indoor air quality monitoring. With their reliable performance, this technology could be instrumental in enhancing automatic controls and human decision making. We conducted a comprehensive performance e...

Regenerative building design represents a paradigm shift from current sustainability practices towards a new design approach, as it focuses not only on limiting negative impacts but also on promoting a positive contribution to social and ecological systems. Regenerative design and indoor soundscape research share a multidisciplinary approach and th...

Models of perceived affective quality of soundscapes have been recently included into standards to guide the measurement and improvement of urban soundscapes. Such models have been developed in outdoor contexts and their validity in indoor built environments is unclear. A laboratory listening test was performed in a mock-up living room with a windo...

The focus of the building industry and research is shifting from delivering satisfactory spaces to going beyond what is merely acceptable with a wave of new research and practice dedicated to exploring how the built environment can support task performance and enhance people´s health and well-being. The present study addresses the role of acoustics...

Nowadays, people spend an average of 87% of their time inside buildings, and about 69% at home. Hence, it is essential to ensure the highest possible level of indoor air quality (IAQ). Providing that the quality of the outdoor air is acceptable, the IAQ level is improved by increasing the ventilation rates. However, this means that a larger volume...

The indoor-outdoor connection provided by ventilation openings has been so far a limiting factor in the use of natural ventilation (NV), due to the apparent conflict between ventilation needs and the intrusion of external noise. This limiting factor impedes naturally ventilated buildings meeting the acoustic criteria set by standards and rating pro...

The design of an indoor acoustic environment positively perceived by building occupants requires a perceptual approach to be adopted in order to define what makes it sound good. Soundscape standards ISO 12913 have been introduced to assess how the acoustic environment is perceived, in context, by people. According to the standards, a straightforwar...

This paper presents a comparative study among well-established simulation tools showing their capabilities evaluating complex fenestration systems in terms of thermal and daylight performance. Two powerful and flexible toolchain approaches based on EnergyPlus and TRNSYS including third-party software are analysed in detail and their application is...

New design tool and approaches, and innovative construction methods are enabling architects and engineers to conceive and develop increasingly complex and daring building envelopes. This process is rapidly reshaping our built environment, and transforming the concept of building envelope itself, which is no longer a passive and static element that...

Ventilated façades are applied in both new and existing buildings. It has been claimed that these components help to reduce energy use in buildings and improve occupant comfort. However, their performance strongly depends on the airflow passing through the cavity. In order to characterise and to model the behaviour of the ventilation and its effect...

Ventilated façades are applied in both new and existing buildings. It has been claimed that these components help to reduce energy use in buildings and improve occupant comfort. However, their performance strongly depends on the airflow passing through the cavity. In order to characterise and to model the behaviour of the ventilation and its effect...

Complex Fenestration Systems (CFS) can have optical and thermal behaviours dependent from the solar rays’ properties and from the air cavity type. The current most detailed calculation methods rely upon the ISO 15099 standard, which let some gaps on how to deal with such CFS. In particular, the optical and convective models might not be adequate fo...

Recognizing the value of open-source research databases in advancing the art and science of HVAC, in 2014 the ASHRAE Global Thermal Comfort Database II project was launched under the leadership of University of California at Berkeley's Center for the Built Environment and The University of Sydney's Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) Laboratory. The...

Vapour barriers and retarders are often needed to improve the hygro-thermal performance of the building envelope. Their use is particularly important in prefabricated timber façades, especially when critical boundary conditions occur. In the literature, very little is known about the actual performance of complete envelope packages that integrate t...

Available online at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2017.06.039 (OPEN ACCESS) --- Ceiling fans have been used for decades as a means of providing thermal comfort in tropical countries such as India. However, recent years have witnessed a significant increase in the use of air conditioning as a means to achieve comfort, and therefore in the tot...

Cooling homes is often important to maintain acceptable internal comfort. This can be achieved by both active and passive solutions. This research focused on passive systems and has examined one hypothesis: that evaporative cooling towers are an important element of plus-energy houses in southern Europe. Refinements to the design of the existing ve...

(Full paper available here: https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/24344) In recent years, there has been a proliferation of air-conditioning in both residential and commercial buildings in India. Mixed mode buildings are buildings in which a combination of air-conditioning and natural ventilation is used to provide comfortable indoor environments. These...

This research aimed to test and validate the only existing real-time coupled model of human thermal comfort by comparing simulation results and measured data for a number of different realistic non-uniform scenarios. This model incorporates detailed and realistic human figures in CFD, coupled with the IESD-Fiala model which enables the reaction of...

As the climate changes, global use of air-conditioning will proliferate as solutions are sought for maintaining thermal comfort in buildings. This rises alongside increased purchasing power as economies grow, harbouring the potential to unleash an unprecedented growth in energy demand. Encouraging higher levels of air movement at warmer temperature...

As the climate changes, global use of airconditioning will proliferate as solutions are sought for maintaining thermal comfort in buildings. This rises alongside increased purchasing power as economies grow, harbouring the potential to unleash an unprecedented growth in energy demand. Encouraging higher levels of air movement at warmer temperatures...

Cooling homes is important in order to maintain acceptable internal comfort, especially in a warming world. This is set alongside the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive of the European Commission which has set a zero energy goal for all new buildings by the end of 2020. One of the relatively recent housing concepts is the plus-energy house w...

Cooling homes is important in order to maintain acceptable internal comfort, especially in southern European climatic zones. This research project examined one main hypothesis: that cooling towers are an important element of plus-energy houses in southern Europe. In particular, refinements to the design of the existing ventilation tower of a Solar...