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124
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Introduction
Additional affiliations
December 2021 - June 2023
Politecnico di Torino
Position
- Professor (Associate)
December 2018 - December 2021
February 2016 - December 2018
Politecnico di Torino
Position
- Ricercatore Universitario a tempo determinato Legge 240/10 art.24-A
Publications
Publications (124)
This IEA Annex 80 Subtask C report and the associated brochures provide examples of well-documented field studies. These field studies apply resilient cooling technologies to reduce energy demand and carbon emissions for cooling and reduce the overheating risk in different types of buildings, including newly constructed and existing buildings. Exam...
This paper proposes a two-fold method, combining expert and analytical approaches, to develop an energy renovation roadmap for residential apartment buildings. The expert approach provides cost estimates based on energy performance certificates, considering the building’s existing condition, national building tradition, and requirements. Renovation...
Active shading systems are essential to prevent heat gains in buildings and reduce the risk of overheating phenomena. The control logic must avoid overheating while allowing solar gains during heating hours. In general, smart control is based on a temperature and/or solar irradiation threshold; however, innovative informatics tools now allow optimi...
The paper analyses the impact of different simplification approaches for model verification purposes considering a reference demo case of a municipality school located in Torre Pellice (Italy), which has been monitored with room detail since April 2021. The target variable of the calibration process is the indoor air temperature: firstly, results v...
The energy performance certification (EPC) scheme, introduced in the European Union approximately 20 years ago, has become the focus of the upcoming revision of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD). Despite its widespread use, the current EPC scheme has several shortcomings that need to be addressed. The Energy flexible DYnamic buil...
Free-running (FR) buildings and technologies, e.g. ventilative cooling, are generally not considered and valorised in energy labelling schemes. The paper analyses three approaches to transfer discomfort conditions into comparable fictitious energy needs in order to evaluate FR building performances. The first approach adds a virtual mechanical syst...
Dynamic envelope solutions are critical to achieve comfort conditions minimizing the need of active air conditioning systems, emphasizing the potential of thermal adaption of the building occupants. Dynamic systems are, however, difficult to be implemented in European building energy certification schemes, based on semi-stationary calculation metho...
The paper describes specific usage scenarios of an innovative platform, interfacing users, monitoring, and simulations for building energy simulations and the computation of key performance indicators to support, in an interoperable and open vision, design and management choices exploiting the enabling capabilities of ICT in architecture. The modul...
Social network users upload billions of geo-referenced data daily, such as photos, videos, and descriptions. While sharing the users' daily moments, these contents can provide distributed and, compared to traditional collections, real-time insights into the interactions between humans and the territory. This paper presents a new methodology to leve...
Green building technologies and design-correlated choices may significantly contribute to supporting the transition toward net energy flows in the built environment. Nevertheless, large discrepancies are underlined between standard simulated and monitored building behaviours requiring approaches able to simply correlate real building behaviours and...
The chapter describes several climate-correlated variables and suitable key performance indicators (KPIs) to define the local ventilative cooling potential. Furthermore, a methodology is presented to verify potential correlations between climate KPIs and indoor comfort parameters. The latter values are calculated by adopting dynamic energy simulati...
The world is facing a rapid increase of air conditioning of buildings. It is the motivation of Annex 80 to develop, assess and communicate solutions of resilient cooling and overheating protection. Resilient Cooling is used to denote low energy and low carbon cooling solutions that strengthen the ability of individuals and our community to withstan...
Smart building issues are critical for current energy and comfort managing aspects in built environments. Nevertheless, the diffusion of smart monitoring solutions via user-friendly graphical interfaces is still an ongoing issue subject to the need to diffuse a smart building culture and a low-cost series of solutions. This paper proposes a new low...
The global effects of climate change will increase the frequency and intensity of extreme events such as heatwaves and power outages, which have consequences for buildings and their cooling systems. Buildings and their cooling systems should be designed and operated to be resilient under such events to protect occupants from potentially dangerous i...
The paper presents a newly developed low-cost measurement system for outdoor comfort monitoring. The solution is based on IoT (Internet of Things) technologies and is cloud-connected. The system is able to collect physical environment data, and includes a movable GPS monitoring station as well as the subjective thermal sensation of pedestrians via...
Several tools and pieces of software support building energy modelling for optimization, certification and comparisons of different scenarios and usages. Nevertheless, the consistent rise in accessible computational power and the expansion of ICT are pushing the development of new software functionalities and tools able to support cross-disciplinar...
This chapter focusses on ventilative cooling and analyses different methodologies to define its local climatic applicability, being passive cooling techniques strongly correlated with local climate conditions. Additionally, it is discussed an early-design approach to consider the effect of urban spaces on ventilative cooling applicability. This con...
This chapter introduces the book’s contents and its structure. It also includes a short description of why Ventilative Cooling (VC) is increasing in importance in a scenario where building cooling needs are growing. The building sector is responsible for about 40% of primary energy consumption; space heating, cooling and ventilation have proved to...
This chapter focuses on the potential combination of ventilative cooling solutions with ventilative ground cooling systems. Horizontal low-enthalpy buried pipes which use air as heat fluid, for example, earth-to-air heat exchangers (EAHX), are focused on in particular. EAHXs may reduce energy consumption for space heating and cooling thanks to thei...
This chapter analyses the potential combination of ventilative cooling solutions with direct evaporative cooling (DEC) systems. The focus is on passive downdraught evaporative cooling (PDEC) towers, whose performance is described based on the analysis of monitored results. The main design aspects of PDEC towers are explained, including basic relati...
Urban heat island and urban-driven climate variations are recognized issues and may considerably affect the local climatic potential of free-running technologies. Nevertheless, green design and bioclimatic early-design analyses are generally based on typical rural climate data, without including urban effects. This paper aims to define a simple app...
This chapter deals with a geo-climatic approach to low-energy technologies in climate change scenarios. Different key performance indicators (KPI) which are able to predict the geo-climatic potential distribution of bioclimatic solutions in reducing expected energy needs while guaranteeing space comfort in buildings (e.g. wind-driven, controlled na...
This chapter roughly describes an unconventional introduction to bioclimatic backgrounds aimed at tackling some of the major challenges of urban and architectural design with a multi-hybridised approach. As remembered by prof. Pearlmutter in the book preface and demonstrated by prof. Grosso in his key chapter, bioclimatic design is still an urgency...
The aim of this work is to evince the advantages of a synergic application of energy and economic analyses to orient design strategies, exploring the impacts of the territorial location in relation to energy consumptions, maintenance costs, prices and market variability. Centrality is posed on energy efficiency of buildings, in terms of energy cons...
This book includes the most recent outcomes from research and professional practice in the ventilative cooling field, gathered by the selected panel of authors. It provides essential contents to face and reduce the rise of space cooling and ventilation energy uses in buildings by alternative ventilation and cooling solutions. The book is organised...
Earth–air heat exchangers (EAHE) provide heating and cooling that is intrinsically tied to the climate of the surrounding environment. A climate-based approach was applied to 273 sites for both historical and projected climate conditions, with the latter being defined by three different Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) from the CMIP5 co...
The paper introduces a working prototype of an IoT system which controls natural and artificial light balance in combination with a dynamic shading system. The proposed solution adopts a scalable approach to smart system integration in buildings based on sensing and actuating nodes (Arduino-driven) and on a main unit (Raspberry-driven). A control A...
Evolving cooling needs have promoted the examination of passive low energy cooling solutions such as Earth-to-air heat exchangers (EAHE). These systems heat or cool passing air based on the seasonal air-soil temperature differences, therefore exhibiting a natural correlation between system performance and climate. Key performance indicators (KPIs)...
The energy performance of urban buildings is affected by multiple climate phenomena such as heat island intensity, wind flow, solar obstructions and infrared radiation exchange in urban canyons, but a modelling procedure to account for all of them in building performance simulation is still missing. This paper contributes to fill this gap by descri...
This chapter introduces the concept of the third digital age, a development of the first and second ages, and focuses on the centrality of data in design and in urban processes. The topic of the platform is used to analyse the repercussions and risks typical of design spaces based on the centrality of data, especially from the point of view of thos...
Parametric and algorithmic scripts and mass-customization solutions are perfect instruments for applying and innovating the requirement-driven approach which was developed in the 60s and 70s (e.g. Ciribini in I componenti nel “performance design”. Politecnico di Torino, Torino, Ciribini 1970). This technological method, which is antithetical to the...
The first and second digital ages are articulated around the concepts of virtualisation of reality and materialisation of virtuality, with a view to transforming from implicit to explicit links between the different components and knowledge of design and implementation that contribute to the project.
The progressive increase in relations between the virtual world and the real world, in conjunction with the spread of new ICT, is radically changing the ways the two worlds interact, giving rise to hybrid realities, as documented in numerous studies conducted in recent years in literature and in multiple applications presented in architecture.
The chapter analyses some possible application scenarios on an urban scale with repercussions on the building scale deriving from the use of large quantities of real-time data produced by low quality sensors spread throughout the territory. The subject of data on an urban scale aimed at optimising and controlling design is closely related to studie...
This chapter briefly introduces some reflections on the repercussions that new information and communication technologies have on society and on design. Starting from a in-context reflection on the implications of digital tools on design, we analyse the concept of model and parameter. Below are some examples of parameters that are influencing and h...
The paper introduces a simple methodology to include passive cooling dissipative solutions in early design phases. In order to fulfil this objective, specific Key Performance Indicators (KPI), which are able to analyse the geo-climatic potential of heat sinks, are reported. These indicators are based on the calculation of residual local climate coo...
The aim of this paper is to highlight the potentialities of a synergic application of energy analysis and economic analysis for supporting design strategies, considering the effects of the territorial location in terms of energy consumptions and prices/market variations. In order to simulate the effects of the specific projects’ potential location...
This paper focuses on an algorithmic approach to building design, based on the environmental and technological vision to the performance-driven design methodology. The performed analysis concerns to the development of an algorithm with the aim of optimizing, through dynamic energy simulation, the energy and technological definition of a building en...
Wind pressure distribution is an essential factor for calculation of airflow rates in controlled natural ventilation systems for both indoor air quality and cooling purposes. A pressure coefficient calculation model, CpCalc, with a modular parametric approach based on analysis of wind tunnel tests was developed by Mario Grosso within the COMIS work...
Horizontal ground systems for ventilative cooling/heating, such as earth-to-air heat exchangers (EAHX), are a valid pre-heating and pre-cooling low-energy techniques to reduce the building energy consumptions for space heating and cooling. Nevertheless, the potential of these systems, such as others passive solutions, is local specific and need for...
Building energy consumptions for space cooling is a globally rising voice. Considering the need to reduce the total energy consumptions and related GHG, alternative solutions based on natural heat sinks are essential. Unfortunately, these technologies, such as passive cooling systems, are vey local specific and their geo-climatic applicability need...
Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) issues have a direct impact on the health and comfort of building occupants. In this paper, an experimental low-cost system has been developed to address IAQ issues by using a distributed internet of things platform to control and monitor the indoor environment in building spaces while adopting a data-driven approach. The s...
Green infrastructure is a very important aspect to be considered in designing and preparing cities to adapt and mitigate climate change impacts on the built environment. Green based solutions have a strong impact on many aspects, such as controlling storm-water, reducing urban heat island effect, stabilizing soils, facing earthquakes, etcetera. In...
Earth-to-air heat exchangers (EAHX) systems have the potential to provide low energy heating and cooling in line with current appeals for energy efficiency and reduction. The lack of a geo-climatic description of EAHX applicability in North America, useful for pre-design decision making, motivated the creation of the Eahx geo-CLImatic Potential Scr...
Counterbalancing climate change is one of the biggest challenges for engineers around the world. One of the areas in which optimization techniques can be used to reduce energy needs, and with that the pollution derived from its production, is building design. With this study of a generic office located both in a northern country and in a temperate/...
This study analyses the geo-climatic applicability of passive direct evaporative cooling (DEC) for improving indoor thermal comfort in the Mediterranean Region. An initial climate-dependent evaluation of the potential for implementing DEC in selected reference locations was performed using three different methodologies, including a comparison of tw...
Sustainable design practices are being disseminated all around the world, thanks to a growing interest by users, builders, and politicians in facing the impact of climate changes and the need for a more sustainable future. Nevertheless, although design practices include currently green issues and technologies, these are applied mainly in the last d...
Site-climate design is the first phase to be carried out for a sustainable design of a building. In some local building codes and environmental rating tools, specific requirements related to building location on the plot are included. Generally, in site design, solar access and wind protection/exposition are the two most considered parameters, toge...
In this chapter, different bioclimatic archetypes are considered throughout the Italian peninsula, covering different climate conditions, in order to analyse the local vernacular approach to space cooling. Furthermore, seven main archetypes are described in greater detail.
Energy consumption for space cooling is growing rapidly, increasing the need for alternative low-energy solutions. Passive cooling dissipative systems, based on heat dissipation through heat sinks (air, water, ground, …), can constitute a valid alternative to mechanical cooling at least to reduce the hours in which auxiliary cooling energy is neede...
A methodology is presented to assess local criticalities and resilience to climate changes (CC) and UHI (Urban Heat Island). This analysis will consider the expected impacts on the local energy demand of the built environment due to climate-related variations. Climate-related indicators are proposed to assess a vulnerability index to CC and UHI in...
Earth-to-air heat exchangers (EAHX) are a recognised technology which are able to naturally pre-cool and pre-heat an airflow. In this paper a method is presented to analyse the potentiality of this technique in specificlocations in order to optimise and check their ability to cover the expected building energy demand as early aspossible. The proposed...
In the last decadesb the amount of energy consumed for space cooling and ventilation has raised significantly. Furthermoreb cooling energy needs are expected to become one of the major consumption voices in the building sector. The aircconditioning market is growing faster and faster both in industrialized and developing countriesb and even if the...
The paper will implement a methodology to assess the local geo-climatic applicability of sunspaces in European climates considering both winter and cooling seasons. The proposed method is based on the development of a key performance indicator (KPI) able to define the potentiality of sunspaces in reducing the winter energy demand of buildings accor...
This chapter describes synthetically a method integrating functional, technological and environmental aspects of architectural programming for school facilities. This method is based on the analysis of activities and relevant user needs followed by an in-depth assessment of all related functional and environmental aspects usually not considered in...
This chapter focuses on the climatic applicability of passive direct (downdraught) evaporative cooling (PDEC) techniques in the provincial capital cities of Italy. First, a PDEC potentiality map was produced using a previously developed method based on three variables: wet bulb depression, summer comfort air temperature threshold (25 °C) and coolin...
A new concept of hybrid/natural air conditioning system, “NAC (Natural Air Conditioning) wall”, with a high level of architectural integration is presented. NAC wall concept is that of a solar DEC (Desiccant Evaporative Cooling) open cycle with very low pressure drops, thus drastically reducing, or even avoiding, the electricity consumption for dri...
In historical and consolidated contexts, the influence of visual factors and landscape perception may limit the possible integration of renewable energy systems (RES) and retrofitting actions. However, in several cases, these restrictions do not take into account the real visibility of a landmark or landscape excellence, causing constraints and lim...
Amid several natural cooling sources that refer to thermal sinks (water, air, ground and night sky), a possible system is represented by the horizontal earth-to-air heat exchangers (EAHX). This technology, even if less diffused if compared to other geothermal systems, has been demonstrated to be effective alone and coupled with mechanical air-handl...
In a changing global environment, where both temperatures and standards of living are continually rising, the demand for cooling of homes and workplaces is growing at an accelerated pace. Alternatives to energy-intensive air conditioning, which can provide comfortable conditions in a resource-efficient manner, are therefore essential. Passive and h...
The present study focuses on the potential applicability of attached sunspaces in Southern and Central Europe (winter season). Sunspace is a diffuse passive solution which reduces winter thermal losses and increases solar gains. This article analyses the geo-climatic applicability of this technology following a two-step study: 1) a climate based pr...
This paper analyses the integration of a passive downdraught evaporative cooling (PDEC) system in existing residential buildings through a case study, an existing 3-storey building located in a small city near Turin. This study was focused on the technological integration of a PDEC system in residential buildings rather than on its actual applicabi...
The present study analyses the effect of direct evaporative cooling (DEC) in reducing the number of discomfort hours in the area of Southern Europe and the Mediterranean. A total of 20 urban locations were selected in order to cover different climate conditions in the chosen area. Cooling degree hours and virtual climatic discomfort hours were calc...
For several thousands of years, humanity has availed himself of the freedom to distance himself from the rules of nature, pushing considerably forward in the “torture of nature to find out her secretes” (F. Bacon). We have now reached a point of technological and scientific development from which to enable to start of a new cycle of the natural-art...
Ground source heat pump (GSHP) is an innovative and perspective technology able to use the ground as a thermal sink or heat source. If combined with system operating at relatively low temperature, it represents a high efficiency solution for the heating of buildings. Complementarily, during cooling operation it has a good advantage with respect to...
La diffusione di tecnologie e metodologie digitali sta modificando radicalmente l’approccio progettuale e le relative implicazioni alle diverse scale. Urban data si focalizza sulle nuove modalità progettuali e operative capaci di traguardare i futuri delle città sulle sfide energetiche, sociali e ambientali. Nella città algoritmica, i tradizionali...
The spread of digital tools and methods is radically changing the design approach and its implications at different scales. Urban Data focuses on innovative operative modalities able in foreseeing city futures facing
new energetic, social and environmental challenges. The traditional boundaries between different fields of
knowledge are leaving the...
This study analyses the climate-dependent passive ventilative cooling (PVC) potential in central and southern Europe. This analysis was carried out in two phases: (1) evaluation of PVC potential as a climate-dependent variable, in different locations representative of European climate zones for both wind-drive airflow (comfort ventilation) and temp...
The paper aims to evaluate the geo-climatic applicability of two different passive cooling strategies: the passive evaporative cooling (PEC) and the natural ventilative cooling (NVC) in China. The two cooling techniques are analysed following a climate-related approach considering a ‘virtual Space’. NVC potential is assessed by analysing the typica...
This paper presents the general concept of the NAC (Natural Air Conditioning)-wall system and some experimental results on a first prototype. The originality of the system is to perform a solar DEC (Desiccant, Evaporative Cooling) open cycle by exploiting natural buoyancy driven ventilation, thus avoiding the use of fans.
The supply air is dehumidi...
This paper aims at analysing the relationship between aesthetic and technological
aspects in the design process. ‘Sustainability’ is often a label associated
mainly to technological systems aimed at achieving energy efficiency,
without considering architectural quality of spaces or environmental and sustainable
performances as a holistic approach....
Reducing primary energy consumption is an essential issue for the sector of building construction. This paper refers to building ventilation systems and focuses on low pressure flat plate heat exchangers, designed for low pressure drops and low air velocity, minimizing the electrical consumption of fans. The device is conceived for working within p...
This work reports the experimental testing of a prototype of a new adsorption stage for solar DEC (Desiccant Evaporative Cooling) systems, in which airflow is activated by natural forces. The adsorption stage takes place in an air/water coil, coated with a thin layer of zeolite SAPO34 material. The thin coating configuration allowed to test a conce...
The study proposes and compares low-cost strategies to improve the quality of existing building stocks, with special regard to a widespread Indian residential typology. A dynamic energy model of this particular local building typology was simulated with Energy Plus software and validated by comparing it with some original in situ measures, recorded...
Urban and architectural design have been characterized by implicit approaches based on the application of designers' and experts' non-explicit knowledge and experience. However, with the advent of digital techniques, whether of the first (modelling), the second (materialization) or the third (datization) digital era, it is possible to use tools and...
Different simplified simulation models of a Passive Downdraught Evaporative Cooling tower (PDEC) were compared by using experimental data. Among these, a series of tests on a Passive Downdraught Evaporative Cooling tower (PDEC) were carried out at the SyTIn (Systems for Technology Innovation) Laboratory of the Department of Architecture and Design,...
The research unit associated to the Laboratory Systems for Technology Innovation (LaSTIn) of the Department of Architecture
and Design as well as the Department of Energy, Polytechnic University of Turin, has investigated the possibility of producing a
modular wall system for hybrid/natural passive cooling. This system uses pressure differences typ...
The present paper reports the results of a 30-month-long monitoring campaign of a EAHX (earth-to-air heat exchanger) system installed in a school building in Imola (ITA). The horizontal EAHX is divided into three fields for a total of 32 buried pipes. The system pre-treats the inlet air of three dedicated AHUs. The analysis follows a consolidate me...
This paper presents a parametric study on the effect of different TMY (Typical Meteorological Year) datasets on the results of energy dynamic simulation. The analysis was carried out running the software Design Builder with EnergyPlus code on a sample residential building located in three Italian cities and using two different TMY data sets: Energy...
The present study aims at assessing the geo-climatic potential applicability of controlled natural ventilation (CNV) as a natural ventilative cooling (NVC) technique in the Mediterranean area. This assessment was carried following two approaches: (1) a climate-dependent evaluation of the NVC potential of different locations considering a “virtual s...
The peri-urban and subtopic urban areas landscapes suffer not only formal irresolution, lack of characterization and indifference to the sense of place, but also lack of environmental quality, which further worsens the possibility of fruition. The environmental quality is directly interrelated with the usability and accessibility of the spaces, ens...
Il dato e le ICT si caratterizzano come parametri capaci di influenzare direttamente i processi di natura architettonico-progettuale alle diverse scale, interfacciando diverse componenti fino a ieri difficilmente misurabili. L’influenza crescente nella vita quotidiana delle nuove tecnologie sta modificando profondamente il rapporto uomo-tecnologia....
The paper analyses, seven years after the completion of construction works, the case study of the High School "L.Orsini" in Imola (BO). This sustainable school building was characterised since the design program phase by an innovative approach, based on integration of the various disciplines involved in building design as well as the contribution o...