Category Archives: Conference Paper
Passive Downdraught Cooling: hybrid cooling in the Malta Stock Exchange
The use of cooling in buildings is continuing to increase in Europe. This is raising concern that it will undermine the European Community’s drive toward reducing CO2 emissions. To counter this trend, there is increasing interest in evaporative cooling in … Continue reading
Analyzing the microclimatic influence of urban canyon geometry with an open-air scale model
A novel approach is developed for modeling the influence of street canyon geometry on microclimatic conditions within the urban canopy. A physical scale-model of an urban roughness array was constructed in open-air conditions to enable the measurement of climatic parameters … Continue reading
Assessing Environmental Comfort – Towards a systemic quantitative and qualitative approach
This paper presents the preliminary results of the first stage of a research grant from SSHRCC (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada) on the control of physical ambiences and the nature of internal-external transactions in a Nordic climate. … Continue reading
Building envelope design for natural ventilation
The aim of this paper is the architectural analysis of natural ventilation devices developed by architects. The technical solutions adopted are exposed through some examples of naturally ventilated buildings. The natural ventilation principles and design challenges are discussed. The necessity … Continue reading
An evolutionary model for sustainable design
This paper presents a new Generative Design System to be used by architects in early to intermediate stages of design, to help improving the environmental performance of buildings. Both thermal and lighting analysis are included in the system, together with … Continue reading
The Berlaymont Building: The European Commission headquarters designed to be a model of environmentally conscious building
Steven Beckers and Pierre Lallemand conceived the refurbishment of the European Headquarters in the centre of Brussels. With a low-energy design, sensitive in its choice of materials, the building uses environmentally friendly strategies and meets all modern comfort and environmental … Continue reading
Passive downdraught cooling: Architectural integration in Seville
Passive Downdraught Cooling is a technique which will potentially become a substitute for conventional air-conditioning in Southern Europe and the hot dry regions of the world. As well as providing substantial energy savings, the technique avoids the need for ductwork, … Continue reading
The application of Passive Downdraught Evaporative Cooling (PDEC) to non-domestic buildings : Office building prototype desing in Catania Italy
This paper describes the Architectural Design Studies undertaken by Mario Cucinella Architects as part of a three year JOULE research project into the application of Passive Downdraught Evaporative Cooling (PDEC) in non-domestic buildings. The objective of the research was to … Continue reading
Comfort in urban spaces : Defining the boundaries of outdoor thermal comfort for the tropical urban environments
With rapid urbanisation, often without climate responsive guidelines, cities in the Tropics are progressively falling short of sustaining outdoor life. In order to re-establish and sustain life outdoors, it is important that we try to make urban spaces comfortable as … Continue reading
Vegetation in the urban environment : Microclimatic analysis and benefits
This paper describes part of the work being carried out by CRES, in the frame of the EU-funded JOULE project “PRECis : assessing the Potential for Renewable Energy in Cities”. The main aim is to develop simplified parameters that describe … Continue reading