Users' behaviours, management and technical solutions: A fundamental integration for low carbon buildings. The case of Roma Tre university

"Introduction. Considering that buildings are responsible for more than 40% of energy consumption, energy situation is critical and European legislative framework is more and more restrictive, a good way to reconcile economy logics with sustainability ones seems to be the “bearable” management of the existing building estate. This is possible by monitoring building performances and energy consumptions, and by evaluating management strategies and users’ behaviours. This paper presents a web platform apt to operate such procedures. This tool started from the English CarbonBuzz, elaborated by Aedas and University College of London, and evolved into a new version apt to meet the Italian situation and detect “proofs” of the actual effectiveness of design solutions.. Theoretical background. The environmental degradation and life quality low standards signal that the well-balanced relation between building and dwelling is jeopardized. If dwelling represents the aim (according to Heidegger, literally the way men live), building is the artificial action men take to transform natural environment in relation to life demands (Losasso, 2005). The actions men take to shape their habitat are ruled and steered by technological processes that, processing matter, energy and information give back products and “organisms” in which incoming and outgoing matter and energy flows act. A new operational approach considers that reliable data are combined with the attention paid to the evaluations given by users (Gupta e Chandiwala, 2010). The study of users’ perceptions and behaviours supplies designers, and then producers, with meaningful feedback that enable them to detect solutions meeting users’ requirements better and reducing the gap between expected and actual building performances. The users’ participation to the process takes them to build a stronger link with the premises, a sense of belonging and consequently to feel responsible and keep congruent behaviours (Risser et al., 2006). Italy, compared to other countries such as the UK, lacks a suitable benchmarking, aimed at monitoring comparative performances, and Post Occupancy Evaluation protocols, apt to evaluate building performances after a time from their occupancy. The real transition to a green building economy can become effective only overcoming the mere sustainable design (a necessary but not sufficient condition) and aiming for a sustainable dwelling (Dall’O’, 2011).. Methods. Starting from the English platform, the Italian version modified and implemented some aspects that were different. Though they both respected the general principles in accordance with European directives, some peculiarities regarding: national rules, climatic and geographic conditions, building and equipment systems, management and way of living buildings took to elaborate specific parameters for the design and in use phase (towards a specific year of reference). A methodology for collecting the data was devised and applied to some buildings of Roma Tre University, in order to test the first version of the platform. A technical classification, based on some building aspects and on the energy certifications at design stage, was made. These data were confronted with effective energy consumptions bills, surveys and enquiries involving managers and users.. Results . An early database of the case studies was created; morphology, technology, system and management variety allowed to carry out a double control: on the one hand to compare parameters of consumption with CO2 emissions in a sample of buildings with the same end use; on the other hand to compare design and in use data, concerning the monitoring of effective bills for the single building. By these analyses, in a more in depth phase, it is possible to distinguish the energy end uses and to understand where and how to take action in order to improve buildings efficiency, as well as to involve actively users by crowd sourcing procedures, complementary to other interview methods. . Conclusions. The research enables both teams, English and Italian, to draw conclusions regarding the methodology to detect energy consumptions systematically, the implementation of environmental mitigation measures, the consideration of needs and behaviours of users, just for their being at the core of the design and evaluation process. . Reference. Gupta R. e Chandiwala S., Understanding occupants: feedback techniques for large-scale low carbon domestic refurbishments, in “Building Research & Information”, 38:5, 530-548,2010. Losasso M., “La dimensione sostenibile nel progetto architettonico”, in M.Losasso, a cura di, Progetto e innovazione, CLEAN 2005,p.30. Risser R., Schmeidler K., Steg L., Forward S., Martincigh L., Assessment of the quality of life in cities. Environmental conditions and mobility, in: Urbani Izziv, vol. 17,No. 1-2\/06,The forgotten modernism of cities. .