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Buildings
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Energy Efficiency of Historical Buildings
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Energy Efficiency of Historical Buildings

A special issue of Buildings (ISSN 2075-5309). This special issue belongs to the section "Building Energy, Physics, Environment, and Systems".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2021) | Viewed by 27145

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Elena Lucchi

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Eurac Research, Institute for Renewable Energy, Viale Druso 1, 39100 Bolzano, Italy
Interests: energy efficiency; energy audit; building energy simulation; highly efficient materials; renewable energy sources; BIPV
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

I would like to invite you to contribute to a Special Issue of the open-access journal Buildings that will be dedicated to the “Energy Efficiency of Historical Buildings”. Modern cities are the result of human settlement, which led to the coexistence of buildings from different ages through a series of transformation, conservation, and renewal processes. Each historical period follows well-defined and differentiated characteristics, according to the territory, the local resources, the economic opportunities, and the skills of workers. Every building is unique and must be analyzed to be preserved, maintained, and retrofitted in a correct way. The benefits of reuse range from the intangible benefits of heritage to society and cultural identity to measurable economic and environmental advantages. The potential and the value of the historical building stock has to be recognized as part of sustainable development. In this context, the improvement of energy efficiency in traditional and historic building, certainly preserving its values and historical characters, is a subject of great importance. Energy efficiency should be considered as an effective means with which to balance the needs of energy efficiency, human comfort, heritage preservation, and long-term sustainability. The topics involved in this activity include economic, aesthetic, historical, and social factors. Therefore, this Special Issue provides a forum to discuss and identify new trends, materials, solutions, and developments in the energy efficiency of historical buildings.

Prof. Lucchi Elena
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Buildings is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • In this framework, this Special Issue aims to collect original research or review papers on but not limited to one or more of the following topics in both global and local contexts:
  • Energy audit and the simulation of heritage and traditional buildings
  • Energy and the environmental monitoring of historical buildings
  • Non destructive technologies for cultural heritage (e.g., I.R. thermography, BDT, and HFM)
  • Methodological approaches, specific methods, and tools for the energy efficiency of cultural heritage
  • Energy retrofit solutions and strategies for historical buildings
  • High-energy performance materials and smart solutions applied to historical buildings
  • Renewable energy resources (RES) integration in heritage and traditional buildings and landscapes
  • Technical standards and legislation on energy efficiency and RES integration in heritage sites
  • Policies and guidelines on energy retrofit of historical buildings
  • Case studies on the conservation, valorization, and management of historical buildings and towns
  • The impact of human factors and behaviors in the energy efficiency of historical buildings
  • “Soft actions” for energy efficiency (i.e., maintenance, the optimization of natural ventilation and lighting, etc.).

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Editorial

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3 pages, 170 KiB  
Editorial
Energy Efficiency of Historic Buildings
by Elena Lucchi
Buildings 2022, 12(2), 200; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12020200 - 10 Feb 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1697
Abstract
Cultural heritage is recognized as a vital component of the sustainable development [...] Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Efficiency of Historical Buildings)

Research

Jump to: Editorial

22 pages, 7059 KiB  
Article
Improving Energy Performance of Historic Buildings through Hygrothermal Assessment of the Envelope
by Alexander Martín-Garín, José Antonio Millán-García, Jon Terés-Zubiaga, Xabat Oregi, Iñigo Rodríguez-Vidal and Abderrahmane Baïri
Buildings 2021, 11(9), 410; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings11090410 - 15 Sep 2021
Cited by 15 | Viewed by 4183
Abstract
The intervention on historic buildings through building energy retrofitting has become one of the current challenges of improving energy efficiency. Nonetheless, this building typology presents certain complexities. Among them, one of the most relevant is the protection on their façades due to the [...] Read more.
The intervention on historic buildings through building energy retrofitting has become one of the current challenges of improving energy efficiency. Nonetheless, this building typology presents certain complexities. Among them, one of the most relevant is the protection on their façades due to the historical and/or artistic values of a given façade and, therefore, the addition of external thermal insulation is restricted. However, at the same time, in several of those buildings indoor surfaces do not present that architectural value, and then internal thermal insulation becomes a promising strategy for improving their thermal performance. Nevertheless, its application must be carefully evaluated to avoid possible pathologies caused by moisture problems. This paper aims to identify constructive solutions for interior insulation of walls free from moisture problems. For this purpose, a comprehensive analysis of a series of constructive solutions based on internal insulation has been carried out through hygrothermal simulations. The results show how the application of water-repellent impregnation becomes essential to guaranteeing the integrity of the envelope. In addition, the combination of insulations with or without inner membranes, such as smart vapor retarders or vapor diffusion barriers, has been evaluated detecting the solutions that best fit the objective. Finally, taking advantage of the great potential of 2D simulation tools, the post-processing of the data has been performed to apply the wood decay model, and thus assess the behavior of a very conflictive point in this type of intervention, i.e., the wooden beam-ends. The results in this critical point have shown how the application of the proposed constructive solutions becomes essential to guarantee the integrity of the element and how the application of traditional solutions could lead to a hazard that must be avoided. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Efficiency of Historical Buildings)
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20 pages, 6606 KiB  
Article
Energy Modelling of Traditional and Contemporary Mosque Buildings in Oman
by Haitham Al Rasbi and Mohamed Gadi
Buildings 2021, 11(7), 314; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings11070314 - 20 Jul 2021
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 4052
Abstract
Building energy efficiency is vital to achieve human thermal comfort with minimum energy consumption. It is a great concern in extremely hot countries such as Oman. This study aims to investigate the thermal performance of contemporary mosque buildings in comparison to traditional mosque [...] Read more.
Building energy efficiency is vital to achieve human thermal comfort with minimum energy consumption. It is a great concern in extremely hot countries such as Oman. This study aims to investigate the thermal performance of contemporary mosque buildings in comparison to traditional mosque buildings in Oman. The research methodology employs energy modelling using EDSL’s Tas Engineering computer simulation software. The analysis focused on how traditional mosque buildings compare to contemporary mosque buildings in terms of dry bulb air temperature and different thermal loads. The outcome showed the traditional mosque building design and construction are better suited for free-running buildings, while contemporary mosque building design and construction achieved less cooling load demand per area. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Efficiency of Historical Buildings)
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18 pages, 8381 KiB  
Article
Three-Dimensional Thermal Mapping from IRT Images for Rapid Architectural Heritage NDT
by Efstathios Adamopoulos, Monica Volinia, Mario Girotto and Fulvio Rinaudo
Buildings 2020, 10(10), 187; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings10100187 - 21 Oct 2020
Cited by 30 | Viewed by 4107
Abstract
Thermal infrared imaging is fundamental to architectural heritage non-destructive diagnostics. However, thermal sensors’ low spatial resolution allows capturing only very localized phenomena. At the same time, thermal images are commonly collected with independence of geometry, meaning that no measurements can be performed on [...] Read more.
Thermal infrared imaging is fundamental to architectural heritage non-destructive diagnostics. However, thermal sensors’ low spatial resolution allows capturing only very localized phenomena. At the same time, thermal images are commonly collected with independence of geometry, meaning that no measurements can be performed on them. Occasionally, these issues have been solved with various approaches integrating multi-sensor instrumentation, resulting in high costs and computational times. The presented work aims at tackling these problems by proposing a workflow for cost-effective three-dimensional thermographic modeling using a thermal camera and a consumer-grade RGB camera. The discussed approach exploits the RGB spectrum images captured with the optical sensor of the thermal camera and image-based multi-view stereo techniques to reconstruct architectural features’ geometry. The thermal and optical sensors are calibrated employing custom-made low-cost targets. Subsequently, the necessary geometric transformations between undistorted thermal infrared and optical images are calculated to replace them in the photogrammetric scene and map the models with thermal texture. The method’s metric accuracy is evaluated by conducting comparisons with different sensors and the efficiency by assessing how the results can assist the better interpretation of the present thermal phenomena. The conducted application demonstrates the metric and radiometric performance of the proposed approach and the straightforward implementability for thermographic surveys, as well as its usefulness for cost-effective historical building assessments. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Efficiency of Historical Buildings)
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Graphical abstract

26 pages, 18133 KiB  
Article
Enhancing the Historic Public Social Housing through a User-Centered Design-Driven Approach
by Elena Lucchi and Anna Caterina Delera
Buildings 2020, 10(9), 159; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings10090159 - 06 Sep 2020
Cited by 40 | Viewed by 10601
Abstract
The study presents a didactic experience for the deep refurbishment and the revitalization of the San Siro neighborhood in Milan (Italy). The public housing is a significative example of the 20th-century architecture (also named “Italian Modernism of Architecture”), designed by the Italian architects—Franco [...] Read more.
The study presents a didactic experience for the deep refurbishment and the revitalization of the San Siro neighborhood in Milan (Italy). The public housing is a significative example of the 20th-century architecture (also named “Italian Modernism of Architecture”), designed by the Italian architects—Franco Albini, Renato Camus, Giancarlo Palanti, and Laslo Kovacs (1938–1941). Nowadays, it is a multicultural area, characterized by the presence of a fragile population, with strong socio-spatial inequalities, intercultural and intergenerational conflicts. Here, an architectural design project is realized, experimenting with innovative and up-to-date design solutions. This experience develops a sensitive awareness of the multidimensional complexity of the environmentally responsible design, which requires a critical balance among different disciplines and skills. The reusing of existing buildings has sustainable importance for preventing new land-uses and for saving the potential energy consumption related to the construction process. Only a widespread knowledge of the local socio-economic conditions through participatory actions permits the selection of appropriate retrofit solutions, considering also the high cultural, social, and economic values. Functional and social mix, space flexibility, green design, renewable energies, circular economy criteria, and continuative maintenance are the correct strategies for boosting the social revitalization and for improving fairness, safety, architectural quality, human comfort, energy efficiency, and sustainability in this public housing neighborhood. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Efficiency of Historical Buildings)
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