Mainly expertise areas and offered services

Research | Architecture Section

Architecture>Energy Research Centre provides consulting and design research aimed to raising energy efficiency and environmental quality of buildings, both in new construction, both in the recovery and/or restoration of existing buildings.
Main expertise fields are:

• design guidelines of performance enhancement aimed to increase energy efficiency and environmental quality of existing buildings, even in cases of high historical value;
• experimentation and collection of technologies, procedures and intervention models for the technological development and innovation of building products and processes;
• elaboration of design guidelines from the building scale (implementations of local building codes) to the urban one (regional energy planning), with a most recent interest towards industrial sites, historical buildings, schools, social buildings and envelopes summer behaviour;
• data collection and development of databases concerning sustainability, energy efficiency and certification processes.

Research | Energy Section

Architecture>Energy Research Centre carries out research relating to special equipment design (fuel cells) and renewable energy sources (wind, solar, biomass, hydropower), with application to the neighborhood scale and local level.
Main expertise fields are:

• research in low enthalpy geothermal energy;
• research and consultancy in the field of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Cost (LCC) to provide classification of phenomena, analysis of critical points and possible lines of development;
• research in innovative photovoltaic systems applied to architecture, with particular reference to thermal and optical features of semitransparent devices;
• energy performance evaluation, based on calculations and experimental applications in the field, through the employment of advanced and integrated techniques for diagnostics, construction site checks or other buildings monitoring and for the optimization of the evaluation process of the historical heritage;
• energy planning at local and regional scale;
• support to the preparation of calls for Public Administrations.

Measurings and evaluations

Architecture>Energy Research Centre delivers physical measurements for performance assessment and evaluation of buildings and urban sectors. The measurements are performed either on the basis of calculations and experimental applications in the field, through advanced diagnosis techniques, on site verification and ex-post monitoring.
Main expertise fields are:

• evaluation of envelopes thermal behaviour through infrared thermal camera;
• evaluation of envelopes thermal quality through heat flux meter;
• calculations of energy balances and heat flows (static and dynamic approach) for the evaluation of energy consumption (current and expected), the risk of condensation and thermal bridges;
• design, dimensioning and architectural integration of systems powered by renewable energy sources (solar thermal, photovoltaics, micro-CHP, micro-wind, etc.);
• evaluation of the use of solar energy (shading, overheating, etc.) through the use of solar diagrams;
• indoors and outdoors acoustic measurements and development of impact analysis for the determination of the acoustic and sound insulation requirements related to passive acoustic performance of buildings;
• The Centre can also offer economic assessments regarding investments in energy efficiency and environmental quality, in particular:
• estimation of amortization for energy saving measures and construction of plants fed by renewable energy sources;
• calculating of the present value of investment for energy efficiency enhancement of existing buildings and comparison of technical solutions to new construction.

Educational activities and pubblications

The Centre has particular expertise in scientific management, promotion and organization of training activities such as thematic conferences, technical seminars, training courses and masters for operators of Public Administrations, designers and technicians of the construction industry; all courses are aimed to increasing knowledge in the field of energy efficiency and environmental sustainability.
Main expertise fields are:

• design of buildings with high energy efficiency standards, with attention to the restoration of existing buildings, including historical context;
• definition of policies for energy performance and environmental quality enhancement;
• energy performance certification and certificates market;
• update on technical regulations and legislation in force, with attention to the incentives offered to national and local level.

Architecture>Energy Research Centre draws up publications, essays and articles in major national and international specialized publications networks and organizes conferences and activities within the trade fairs. The Centre also organizes workshops and study tours to the most current energy-efficient national and international architectures.

Please see the following sections for further information about on-going  or full-finished activities.