Abstract
The European goal to reach carbon neutrality in 2050 has further put the focus on the construction sector, which is responsible for great impacts on the environment, and new sustainable solutions to renovate the existing building stock are currently under development. In this paper, the AdESA (Adeguamento Energetico Sismico ed Architettonico, in Italian) system, a holistic retrofit technique for the integrated renovation of the existing buildings, is presented. The system was developed by a consortium of enterprises and universities and was applied to a pilot building. The system consists of a dry, modular and flexible shell exoskeleton technique that implements different layers depending on the building retrofit needs (cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels for the structural retrofit, thermal insulation panels for the energy efficiency amelioration, and claddings for the architectural restyling). In order to foster actual sustainability, the solution contextually targets eco-efficiency, safety and resilience. To this end, the system not only couples the structural and energy interventions to reduce the operating costs, but it is also conceived in compliance with life cycle thinking (LCT) principles to reduce impacts throughout the remaining building service life (from retrofit time to the end of its life). The system is designed to be easily mountable and demountable to allow for the reuse/recycling of its components at the end of life by adopting macro-prefabricated dry components and standardized connections, to reduce damage caused by earthquakes by reducing the allowed inter-story drift, and by amassing the possible damage into sacrificial replaceable elements. The paper describes the AdESA system from a multidisciplinary perspective and its effective application for the deep renovation of an existing gymnasium hall.
Highlights
Introduction and Research MotivationThe construction sector is of strategic importance for the European Union, generating almost 9% of the gross domestic product (GDP) in the EU and providing 18 million direct jobs [1]
The objective of the energy-efficiency amelioration measures was to reduce the building’s consumption and improve thermal comfort. This was obtained from insulation systems aimed at both reducing the transmittance levels of opaque surfaces to be lower than the maximum thresholds envisaged for buildings subject to energy requalification [41], as well as keeping the total thickness of the AdESA system within the limit of 25 cm, which is the maximum thickness of the thermal layer envisaged by the Italian Standard to allow for derogation from distances between buildings required by the codes [42]
AdESA system is conceived in full compliance with the principles of life cycle thinking to pursuit eco-efficiency, resilience, and safety throughout buildings’ life cycles, maximizing performances while minimizing impacts and costs
Summary
The construction sector is of strategic importance for the European Union, generating almost 9% of the gross domestic product (GDP) in the EU and providing 18 million direct jobs [1]. When just the energy renovation is carried out without considering the structural vulnerabilities of a structure, losses may occur in the case of natural hazards, such as earthquakes, floods, etc., causing significant environmental, economic and social impacts [5] In such a scenario, the need to reduce the impacts of the construction sector throughout its value chain and throughout a whole building life cycle becomes a priority to reach true carbon neutrality. In the case of buildings located in European countries, for example, the need to reduce/avoid environmental, economic, and social impacts connected to the possible occurrence of earthquakes or floods cannot be disregarded; in other countries, where droughts represent the major issues, water use and fire resistance may become critical In these cases, new principles to reduce the possible losses due to hazardous events should be included in the preliminary stages of the design.
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