NZEB and Active House: A Case Study of Residential Building in Northern Italy

According to the European Directive, the Nearly Zero Energy Building standard (NZEB) represents a backbone to achieve the European CO2 emission reduction target considering both, new and under renovation buildings. In this chapter, the Maison Verte, a low energy residential building, located in northern Italy has been presented showing the sustainable design approach, the technological design and his energy and comfort rating. The building represents a high energy efficient case study building, in which, the principles of comfort (visual and thermal), energy and environment are perfectly balanced according to the voluntary Active House certification scheme. During the design phase, the overall building performances has been deeply analyzed applying a multi-disciplinary design optimization process tools where parametric design, financial models and energy simulation tools are combined to accelerate the design phase and explore design options faster and more effectively than current conventional design process.