Life-cycle optimization of building performance: a collection of case studies

Abstract

The building sector is one of the most impacting on the energy demand and on the environment in developed countries, together with industry and transports. The European Union introduced the topic of nearly zero-energy building (nZEB) and promoted a deep renovations in the existing building stock with the aim of reducing the energy consumption and environmental impacts of the building sector. The design of a nZEB, and in general of a low-energy building, involves different aspects like the economic cost, the comfort indoor, the energy consumption, the life cycle environmental impacts, the different points of view of policy makers, investors and inhabitants. Thus, the adoption of a multicriteria approach is often required in the design process to manage some potential conflicting domains. In detail, one of the most suitable approaches is to integrate the preliminary building design (or renovation) phase in a multi-objective optimization problem, allowing to rapidly compare many alternatives and to identify the most adapt interventions.