Reducing the environmental impact of distribution centres: Designing green-enveloped biobased alternatives to compare with reference steel and concrete designs

The climate emergency calls for a global shift towards a low-carbon economy, to preserve natural resources and biodiversity, while limiting global warming and its consequences. This project focuses on the impact of distribution centres, intended for the storage of commercial goods. Warehouses are characterised by large flexible spaces and simple...

An Envelope - for an extension at Proteus Eretes: circular, carbon sequestering approach towards zero embodied carbon

Building sector is responsible for 39% of global carbon emissions, which makes it a main actor for climate change due to its high greenhouse gas emissions. Further, it is estimated that this 39% is total of 11% Embodied Carbon emissions (mainly the carbon emissions during construction processes and material production processes) and 28%...

Robustness Assessment Method for Future Climate Uncertainties

Energy-efficient buildings tend to cause thermal discomfort due to overheating during summers. With the advent of climate change and increasing outdoor temperatures, the risk of overheating will be exacerbated. Henceforth, the building design must be future proof or robust for climate change. Passive design strategies applied to the building...

Building façade renovation through parametric panel generation for Dutch housing

The Dutch government has set the goal to disconnect all houses from the natural gas network that runs through our country. This to decrease emissions and meet the goals set in the Paris Agreement in an effort to halt the global mean temperature increase. To provide heat to the houses they will need to be heated with electric energy. This heating...

Building Envelope in Airport Regions: An influence of building envelope toward aircraft noise propagation

Airport and aviation activities, after it first appearance in 1900s, have elevated the transportation industry to a new height. They are both the country biggest economic engine and connection hotspot, as well as biggest source of environmental and social impact—including noise, CO2 emission, territorial disruption and depreciation of local...

Environmental impacts cost assessment model of residential building using an artificial neural network

Purpose: Buildings are major contributors to greenhouse gases (GHG) along the various stages of the building life cycle. A range of tools have been utilised for estimating building energy use and environmental impacts; these are time-consuming and require massive data that are not necessarily available during early design stages. Therefore,...

Renovation for different energy systems: Prefabricated renovation approach for post-war walk-up apartments that is applicable to different energy systems

The post-war building stock represents 33% of all residential buildings. A common characteristic is that they are poorly insulated compared to the current Dutch building regulations. This research will focus on post-war walk-up apartments, they account for approximately 8% of the total residential building stock. 70% out of this 8% is social...

Energetic performance of a combined double skinfaçade with photovoltaic modules placed atvarious locations

There is a 95% certainty that human activity is the dominant cause of observed warming since the mid-20thcentury [1]. Burning fossil fuels for energy is the dominant cause of greenhouse gas emissions. 32% of the Dutch energy supply is consumed by the built environment. The façade is the largest area of the building envelope. Consequently, the...

Solar Cooling Façades: An Integrated Façade Design with Thermoelectric Cooling Systems for Office Buildings in Athens

Nowadays the use of renewable energy resources is a necessity. Approximately 13% of the energy spent in Greece comes from renewable energy resources, however a significantly higher percentage is essential in order to meet the European standards by 2020. A prompt solution is the in-situ energy generation. Additionally, the harmful emmisions of...

An Energy-Harvesting Facade Optimization System for Built Environments

Daylighting is the immediate exploitation of solar energy in the form of nat-<br/>ural lighting and plays an integral role in minimizing the energy footprint<br/>of a building. Smart daylighting enables us to design buildings that provide<br/>comfort and energy savings.<br/><br/>This work proposes a dynamic facade system for buildings which aims...

Comparative experimental approach to investigate the thermal behaviour of vertical greened façades of buildings

Greening the building envelope is not a new concept, however it has not been fully approved as an energy saving method for the built environment. Vertical green can provide a cooling potential on the building surface, as plants are functioning as a solar filter and prevent the adsorption of heat radiation of building materials extensively. In...

Air Tightness: Predicting the performance of a building envelope

In the field of building physics the performance of the building envelope is a highly studied topic. Heat, light, sound and humidity are common topics to include in design requirements. Air tightness is becoming increasingly common in this list, but it still lacks for detailed information on performance requirements or calculation methods. When...