392 research outputs found
Life cycle assessment approaches applied to energy modelling of urban building stocks: a literature review
No full textThe buildings’ sector is one of the major consumers of materials and energy in the world. Thus, the construction of more efficient buildings is a fundamental undertaking to reach a more sustainable future. The evaluation of energy demand during use is no more enough, urban policymakers and urban designers are asking for more broad evaluation scenarios for their aims. The life cycle assessment (LCA) approach coupled with the energy modelling of large building stocks could answer to this request. This paper analyses the main studies available in the literature that apply LCA to large building stocks. The research approach is usually performed in steps: the characterisation of the buildings, the energy modelling and the LCA study. In literature, very few studies performed a full LCA due to the high complexity considering large building stocks
Occupant behaviour (OB) modelling to support urban building energy simulation: an overview
No full textThe paper provides an overview of the current state of research on the topic of Occupant Behaviour modelling to support urban building energy simulation, describing the challenges arising when scaling from the building to the urban scale. Available modelling approaches and data sources are discussed and compared to provide readers with a brief modelling guide. Furthermore, research gaps and challenges that need to be addressed in future works are identified, to promote advancement in the field
An Overview Of Urban Building Energy Modelling (UBEM) Tools
No full textThe construction of energy-efficient buildings and the planning of suitable energy supply systems are fundamental undertakings to reach a more sustainable future. Decision-makers need evaluation criteria and possible scenarios to establish the best options to decrease cities’ energy consumption. Thus, in the last decade, several tools for Urban Building Energy Modelling (UBEM) have been developed to achieve this result. The aim of this paper is to give a practical overview of the different methods and approaches used by UBEM. The work compares the available and most relevant UBEM tools, to assess their potential and limits. The characteristics of the main UBEM tools are compared with the intent to create a brief selection guide for new users
Comparison of different clustering approaches on different databases of smart meter data
No full textVarious clustering methods have been applied to determine representative groups of buildings based on their energy use patterns. We reviewed and selected the most commonly used clustering methods, including kmeans, k-medoids, Self-Organizing Map (SOM) coupled with k-means and hierarchical, and our proposed deep clustering algorithm for comparative performance assessment using datasets of smart meters. After the data preparation (data cleaning, segmentation, and normalization), the clustering is run, firstly, letting the number of clusters free to be chosen by the optimization process, and then forcing it to be equal to the number of primary functions of buildings. Depending on the purpose of clustering, e.g., to identify daily 24-hour load shape, to identify primary building use type (e.g., office, residential, school, retail), the optimal number of clustering can vary greatly. Thus, based on the final aim, forcing somehow the number of clusters is the most followed and suggested for engineering purposes. The k-means, the k-medoid, and the hierarchical algorithms show the best results, in all cases. While for the nature of the databases the additional step of adding a SOM to the k-means algorithms does not show improvements in terms of evaluation metrics. The direct comparison of the different algorithms gives a clear overview of the existing main clustering approaches and their performance in capturing typical use patterns in typical smart meter databases. The resulting cluster centroids could be used to better understand and characterize the energy use patterns of different buildings and building typologies with the final aims of benchmarking or customers segmentation
Integrating Occupant Behaviour into Urban-Building Energy Modelling: A Review of Current Practices and Challenges
No full textUrban-Building Energy Modelling (UBEM) tools play a crucial role in analysing and optimizing energy use within cities. Among the available approaches, the bottom-up physics-based one is the most versatile for urban development and management applications. However, their accuracy is often limited by the inability to capture the dynamic impact of occupants’ presence and actions (i.e., Occupant Behaviour) on building energy use patterns. While recent research has explored advanced Occupant Behaviour (OB) modelling techniques that incorporate stochasticity and contextual influences, current UBEM practices primarily rely on static occupant profiles, due to limitations in the software itself. This paper addresses this topic by conducting a thorough literature review to examine existing OB modelling techniques, data sources, key features and detailed information that could enhance UBEM simulations. Furthermore, the flexibility of available UBEM tools for integrating advanced OB models will be assessed, along with the identification of areas for improvement. The findings of this review are intended to guide researchers and tool developers towards creating more robust and occupant-centric urban energy simulations
La censura imperfetta. La satira di Richard Aldington nell’Italia fascista
No full textThrough the epistolary dialogue between the British author Richard Aldington and his
translator Alessandra Scalero, this article sheds some light on the editorial events that led
to the publication of Women must work and All men are enemies, and to the rejection of
Death of a Hero and The colonel’s daughter. Considered by Luigi Rusca – Mondadori’s codirector – “particularly important”, these books, as well as their author, are now largely
forgotten, even if during the Thirties Italian readers were fascinated by Aldington’s biting
satire. Exponent of British Imagism, Richard Aldington was closed to the Fabian Society’s
vision of the world which pervaded all his works, built around the themes of women’s
emancipation and social consequences of the First World War. The “heterodoxy” of such
contents made the translation activity particularly complex; the author himself was not
always available to soften the tone, accepting cuts and changes
The ‘Rest Cure’ Revisited: Resisting the Neoliberal Myths of Individualism and Self-Betterment in Ottessa Moshfegh’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation (2018)
No full textThe aim of this presentation is to explore how My Year of Rest and Relaxation (2018)––American author Ottessa Moshfegh’s most acclaimed novel––exposes and opposes, by thematically engaging with the outdated medical practice of the ‘rest cure’, the hyper-individualistic myths of self-betterment and wellness inherent to the US neoliberal context. A customary medical treatment during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the rest cure was primarily prescribed to women who were diagnosed with typically ‘female’ mental disorders, such as hysteria or neurasthenia; however, as American author Perkins Gilman already revealed in her semi-autobiographical short story The Yellow Wallpaper (1892), this cure was frequently detrimental to the patients who, instead of healing, generally manifested ulterior negative physical and psychological side-effects. Nowadays, the rest cure is considered an outdated medical treatment that (fortunately) no longer holds any value nor is prescribed. Yet, it is my intention to argue that, by revisiting the theme of the rest cure, Moshfegh’s novel not only questions quintessentially American myths of individualism, personal empowerment, and wellness, but it also engages with a specific American literary tradition of representation of female madness (thus, entering into dialogue with Perkins Gilman’s short story). Set in New York City in 2000 and 2001, My Year of Rest and Relaxation depicts the emotional spiral of an unnamed female narrator in her twenties who, hoping for recovery and physical/psychological rebirth, attempts to sleep for an entire year. Past feminist readings of fictional female madness (or, mental illness), typically rooted in psychoanalytical discourses, were usually oriented towards the criticism of patriarchalism (Gilbert & Gubar 1979). This presentation, however, whilst drawing from Foucault’s (1961) correlation between madness and power, intends to adopt a posthuman feminist perspective––a philosophical approach that, being materially grounded, insists on the embodied and embedded nature of subjectivities, as theorized by Braidotti (2022)––to shed light on the criticism to and the practices of resistance to these dominant American neoliberal myths as represented by the novel
Ewolucja człowieczeństwa. Francesca Ferrando, Philosophical Posthumanism. (Theory in the New Humanities)
No full textPhilosophical Posthumanism is a unique intellectual proposition – one in which Francesca Ferrando not only presents and expands but also celebrates posthumanist thought. The monograph is an open invitation to explore new horizons by de-familiarizing classical humanist thought embedded within the Western civilization. Explicitly deconstructing classical humanism, Ferrando offers her readership a versatile insight into the complexity of the polyphony of new voices including, but not limited to, Posthumanism, Transhumanism, and Antihumanism – contributing to the discourse, which, as the author affirms, is tantamount to the “philosophy of our time.”Filozoficzny posthumanizm to wyjątkowa propozycja intelektualna – taka, w której Francesca Ferrando nie tylko prezentuje i rozwija, ale też celebruje myśl posthumanistyczną. Monografia jest otwartym zaproszeniem do odkrywania nowych horyzontów poprzez od-swajanie klasycznej myśli humanistycznej, osadzonej w cywilizacji zachodniej. Wyraźnie dekonstruując klasyczny humanizm, Ferrando oferuje swoim czytelnikom wszechstronny wgląd w złożoność polifonii nowych głosów, w tym m.in. posthumanizmu, transhumanizmu i antyhumanizmu – współtworząc dyskurs, który - jak twierdzi autorka - jest tożsamy z “filozofią naszych czasów”
An Analysis of Building Occupancy Patterns Based on Time Use Survey Data
No full textUnderstanding occupant behavior (OB) is crucial for accurate building performance simulations. Most existing tools rely on a single, static set of user schedules, overlooking the inherent variability, and diversity of human behavior. This leads to inaccurate energy predictions and limitations in scaling simulations to urban contexts. This study explores the daily occupancy patterns of individuals across diverse building types using data from the 2013 Italian Time Use Survey. Cluster analysis identifies 18 recurrent patterns distinct for weekdays, Saturdays, and Sundays, further investigated through sociodemographic correlations. This innovative approach focuses on individuals’ daily movements across urban spaces, not just single building types, providing versatile results for diverse case studies and urban scale applications
Transport properties at the boundaries of Fermi liquid: iron-based and high-Tc superconductors
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