“Sustainable Campus”: a starting point for a Building Sustainable Refurbishment. Energy-Efficiency Upgrading and Thermal Comfort

During the last year Politecnico and Universita degli Studi di Milano have been launching a project in order to transform the university area into a sustainable and quality campus, which could become a model for the rest of the city, sharing experiences and results into the International Sustainable Campus Network (ISCN). Various interventions are needed within that project, in order to improve the quality of life, environmental, economic and social aspects, not only on a large scale but also at each building level. For this reason some activities have been already carried out and others have been planned on a number of representative buildings inside the campus. More specifically, the first aim is the assessment of the current condition in terms of thermal performance of the building envelope, heating and cooling systems functioning and indoor comfort. It has been done by micro-climate measurements, statistical surveys, energy consumptions monitoring, modelling and simulations, after having established the specific methods, standards and protocol to follow. Some BIM models have been created to support analysis and design phase. In this study the ultimate goal is the proposal of different solutions to improve the energy efficiency and thermal comfort of the existing buildings, acting both on the envelope and on the plants. The best project alternative choice is based on the calculation of the sustainability level of each one, determined through a multi-criteria choice method, based on the existent AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) comparison method, able to consider simultaneously environmental, economic and social aspects, following the standards EN 15643 relating to the sustainability assessment of buildings. The best alternatives obtained have been compared with the current situation of the building, showing a large performance increase in 1 Associate Professor; ABC Department; Politecnico di Milano; Via G. Ponzio, 31 – I-20133 Milano (MI); bruno.daniotti@polimi.it. 2 Researcher; ABC Department; Politecnico di Milano; Via G. Ponzio, 31 – I-20133 Milano (MI); fulvio.rececconi@polimi.it. 3 PhD Student; ABC Department; Politecnico di Milano; Via G. Ponzio, 31 – I-20133 Milano (MI); rosanna.galliano@mail.polimi.it. 4 PhD Student; ABC Department; Politecnico di Milano; Via G. Ponzio, 31 – I-20133 Milano (MI); sebastiano.maltese@polimi.it. terms of environment, economy, and internal performance level. These results have also been confirmed by changing into the BIM model the boundary conditions based on the best refurbishment interventions and comparing them with the actual state. In conclusion, that evaluation system could be a tool useful during the decision phase, able to guarantee the maximum quality level and upgrading within a sustainable building framework in the project alternatives design stage.