Olatz Irulegi

University of the Basque Country | UPV/EHU · Architecture

Compared to the European Union (EU), Latin American (LA) countries are much slower in implementing policies to improve energy performance and thermal comfort in the residential building stock. This comes at a time when cities in developing countries are experiencing faster growth than in the developed world. Understanding that the morphological cha...

The expansion of urban built environments in cities continues to grow. Despite occupying about 2% of the earth's surface, they consume between 60% and 80% of the world´s energy. It is estimated that, by 2030, approximately 60% of the population will live in urban areas and that, by 2050, this percentage will have increased to 70%. This situation pr...

European energy policies introduced nearly zero energy building (NZEB) design to stimulate the energy transition in buildings, and EU programmes promote the evolution towards positive energy buildings (PEB). Most studies into NZEBs are based on simulations, and not on real monitoring data. This paper presents the real performance data of the Zero b...

Urban overheating has a serious impact on building energy consumption. Daytime radiative cooling materials are an interesting passive solution for refrigeration. However, their costs and complex manufacturing hinder their current application. In this study, a series of scalable and lowcost daytime radiative cooling (DTRC) materials were designed, f...

The energy poverty derived from socio-economic imbalances affects mostly households with fewer economic resources, being social housing complexes one of the most vulnerable sectors. The insufficient access to energy and the incapability to maintain dwellings at an adequate temperature can have negative impact on people’s health due to the prolonged...

The objective of this paper is to present the potential of daytime radiative cooling materials as a strategy to mitigate the Urban Heat Island effect. To evaluate the cooling potential of daytime radiative cooling materials, 15 theoretical materials and seven existing materials were simulated: two radiative cooling materials, a coolmaterial, two wh...

Since 2000, urban regeneration programmes in Spain have progressively involved greater integration and complexity. As a result, the management of the regeneration process has taken on greater significance. One of the determining factors has been rehabilitation companies. The paper examines the impact of their characteristics on the implementation o...

Educational buildings in Europe account for around 20% of the entire non-residential floor space where good indoor comfort and air quality are essential for correct educational development. Directive 2010/31/UE upholds that the public administration should promote the transformation of its buildings towards Net Zero Energy Buildings. In Spain, it i...

Good indoor comfort and air quality are essential for correct educational development. Most reports in this field focus on primary and secondary school buildings, with numerous projects conducted in the Mediterranean Zone. However, little has been done in the context of university buildings. Data on indoor temperature and relative humidity data acq...

The Mediterranean area attracts almost 20 % of the world’s tourism (over 150,000,000 tourists each year) due to its mild and pleasant climate and famous cultural heritage. Tourism-related energy studies generally focus on estimating total energy use and efficiency and comparing the energy consumption regarding various facets of tourism-related acti...

This book analyzes the trends and technologies of green and energy efficient building, identifying strategies for implementing energy savings and enabling the use of renewable resources in residential, commercial, healthcare and educational building sectors. The authors focus on best practices in temperate climates, providing in-depth coverage of u...

There are several important challenges facing the construction sector and among them, achieving low energy buildings is the first step towards the attainment of “nearly Net Zero Energy Buildings.” For this purpose it is necessary that architects and designers use adequate design strategies especially in early stages of the project. Without a correc...

Night ventilation has been applied successfully to many passively-cooled or low-energy office buildings. This paper analyses the thermal comfort achievable in office buildings in Spain according to European standard EN 15251:2007. Furthermore, the comfort level is evaluated using the Degree Hours (DH) criteria and the maximum indoor temperature. Co...

This paper analyses the energy efficiency of a Ventilated Active Façade-VAF-applied to office buildings in Spain. The studied VAF was developed in the “Ventilated Active Façade” project financed by the Spanish National Plan for Research and finished in December 2009. This façade system consists of an outer layer element of 2 mm galvanized steel pan...

This paper analyses the energy efficiency of a Ventilated Active Façade –VAF– applied to office buildings in Spain to reduce heating demand. This façade system consists of an outer layer element of 2 mm galvanized steel panels and a 3 cm air cavity where the ventilation air is preheated in winter and exhausted in summer. After defining 8 typica...

This paper analyses the energy efficiency of a Ventilated Active Façade (VAF) applied to office buildings in Spain in comparison with conventional façades that comply with the minimum energy requirements of the Spanish Technical Building Regulation (Código Técnico de la Edificación - CTE). The analysis considers the climatic diversity of the 12 cli...