Today more than ever, for those involved in residential construction, there are two objectives that are the most important requirements to achieve:
The well-being of users and the economy of building management.
Both objectives can be achieved with green building and construction of a sustainable house.
To make an eco-house, environmentally sustainable, it is not enough that it is equipped with efficient plants. The objective to be achieved through green building is to make buildings less energy-intensive.
In the field of applications for biomimetic architecture, where the materials used imitate nature in form and behavior, bioclimatology studies the relationships that are established between climate and life and, in particular, studies the relationship between man and building, taking into account of the type of climate in which it is located (see the example of Metropol Parasol HERE).
Therefore, the bioclimatic architecture concerns a complex of design and architectural solutions that ensure the maintenance of well-being conditions in a building, minimizing the use of traditional plants that require energy consumption from exhaustible sources, therefore not renewable.
If a building uses renewable energy sources for its air conditioning, the envelope, the second skin of the building should be able to dynamically manage incoming and outgoing energy flows, considering gains and losses.
How to develop a bioclimatic plan for an evolved building.
In the design phase, it is necessary to consider the variables relating to:
- site features (geographical, orographic features);
- urban shape (density and conformation of the building fabric of the site);
- anthropic features of the site related to industries, infrastructures, monumental emergencies;
- shape of the building (typology, planimetric form, compactness, envelope configuration, internal environments).
Therefore, today the design must necessarily be eco-compatible and involves the different levels of design: environmental, typological, technical-constructive and plant engineering.
Practice of eco-sustainable or environmentally friendly architecture requires the attention to the environment as the first necessity. In fact, construction industry in an industrialized country accounts for 40% of global energy consumption and 51% of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere.
In summary, three paradigms come into play in eco-friendly design:
- Ecological paradigm: it is based on the relationship between landscape and built element. The characteristics of the place and the landscape guide the design of the building and characterize the architecture related to the shape and technology of the materials used;
- Bioclimatic paradigm: it is based on the exploitation of the climate resource, to control the well-being of living spaces.
- Energetic paradigm: it develops in a synergistic way compared to the bioclimatic one. Starting from solar energy, considered as preferred means of of air-conditioning of buildings, increasingly sophisticated technologies are being developed to air-condition buildings with reduction of the building energy consumption to nearly zero energy level.
The ecological paradigm and the bioclimatic paradigm are based on the study of the first human settlements. While the energetic paradigm responds to the need imposed by the recent energy crisis and the consumption of resources with limited availability.
Comfort and evolved buildings
In addition to meeting the essential requirements to build an advanced building with nearly-zero energy level, the bioclimatic architecture also aims to guarantee the satisfaction and maintenance of the comfort conditions of the users of the sustainable house. In this case, comfort is also the mental and psychophysical satisfaction of the users of the building.
From this point of view, bioclimatic architecture sets the conditions for guaranteeing the requirements for the control of building air quality, temperature, humidity, natural lighting and acoustics, reducing the use of traditional plants with high energy consumption levels.
