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The intervention measures in historic buildings, if planned and implemented correctly, provide enormous cultural, economic, environmental and social benefits. Moreover, performing the improvements at an urban level, for groups of buildings that hold similar significance and preservation status, would ensure the uniformity of intervention works and result in time- and money-saving than treating each building separately. Nevertheless, maintenance and adaptation interventions in historic buildings have a high level of difficulty. Specific protection statuses and considerable constraints for change lead to additional restrictions that need to be maintained. This added complexity, along with the demanding targets of energy efficiency in the building stock, are among the challenges that need to be faced for the present and future generations. The Zero Emission Refurbishment (ZER) method, applied here as an example to a historic block in the city of Trondheim in Norway, shows the reduction potential of the carbon footprint before undergoing large-scale interventions. The method includes legislative conservative requirements and the environmental impact of the actions to select the most adequate intervention measures. It is flexible and comprehensive and can be applied to diverse built environments. The overall carbon footprint of the intervention measures, linked with the operational energy improvement after the completion of the works, serve as an indicator for the estimation of renewable energy generated from the neighbourhood and therefore, for the transition to a low carbon society by developing sustainable historic neighbourhoods with zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
Arian Loli; Chiara Bertolin. Application of the Zero Emission Refurbishment method at a district scale. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 2021, 62, 102393 .
AMA StyleArian Loli, Chiara Bertolin. Application of the Zero Emission Refurbishment method at a district scale. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction. 2021; 62 ():102393.
Chicago/Turabian StyleArian Loli; Chiara Bertolin. 2021. "Application of the Zero Emission Refurbishment method at a district scale." International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 62, no. : 102393.
There is growing concern about the threat posed by climate change to cultural heritage, notably to World Heritage properties. Climate change is triggering changes in rainfall patterns, humidity and temperature, as well as increasing exposure to severe weather events that can negatively impact on cultural heritage materials and structures by enhancing the mechanical, chemical and biological processes causing degradation. In response to this climate change challenge, the Climate for Culture (CfC) project, funded by the European Commission, investigated the impacts of climate change on the European cultural heritage through the use of a high-resolution regional climate model that projected future changes in climatic conditions, and simulated the future conditions of the interiors of historical buildings and their impacts on the collections they hold using building simulation tools. This paper compares the climate change impacts on cultural heritage identified by the CfC project with semi-structured interviews with experts working on cultural heritage preservation in Norway, Italy and the UK. Hence, the perceptions of the cultural heritage community on the impacts of climate change on heritage assets are first explored, which are then compared with the risk matrices produced by the CfC project as a decision-support tool to inform managers involved in the preservation of cultural heritage. In addition, the learning strategy underpinning examples of climate change adaptive measures applied to cultural heritage is discussed. Through the identification of the current learning strategy in the case study sites, this research highlights the lack of dissemination of the outcomes of scientific research to managers of cultural heritage in the context of adaptation to climate change impacts.
Elena Sesana; Chiara Bertolin; Arian Loli; Alexandre S. Gagnon; John Hughes; Johanna Leissner. Increasing the Resilience of Cultural Heritage to Climate Change Through the Application of a Learning Strategy. Communications in Computer and Information Science 2019, 402 -423.
AMA StyleElena Sesana, Chiara Bertolin, Arian Loli, Alexandre S. Gagnon, John Hughes, Johanna Leissner. Increasing the Resilience of Cultural Heritage to Climate Change Through the Application of a Learning Strategy. Communications in Computer and Information Science. 2019; ():402-423.
Chicago/Turabian StyleElena Sesana; Chiara Bertolin; Arian Loli; Alexandre S. Gagnon; John Hughes; Johanna Leissner. 2019. "Increasing the Resilience of Cultural Heritage to Climate Change Through the Application of a Learning Strategy." Communications in Computer and Information Science , no. : 402-423.
Within the built environment, historic buildings are among the most vulnerable structures to the climate change impact. In the Scandinavian countries, the risk from climatic changes is more pronounced and the right adaptation interventions should be chosen properly. This article, through a multidisciplinary approach, links the majority of climate-induced decay variables for different building materials with the buildings’ capacity to change due to their protection status. The method tends to be general as it assesses the decay level for different building materials, sizes, and locations. The application of the method in 38 locations in the Scandinavian countries shows that the risk from climatic changes is imminent. In the far future (2071–2100), chemical and biological decays will slightly increase, especially in the southern part of the peninsula, while the mechanical decay of the building materials kept indoors will generally decrease. Furthermore, the merge of the decay results with the protection level of the building will serve as a good indicator to plan the right level and time of intervention for adapting to the future climatic changes.
Arian Loli; Chiara Bertolin. Indoor Multi-Risk Scenarios of Climate Change Effects on Building Materials in Scandinavian Countries. Geosciences 2018, 8, 347 .
AMA StyleArian Loli, Chiara Bertolin. Indoor Multi-Risk Scenarios of Climate Change Effects on Building Materials in Scandinavian Countries. Geosciences. 2018; 8 (9):347.
Chicago/Turabian StyleArian Loli; Chiara Bertolin. 2018. "Indoor Multi-Risk Scenarios of Climate Change Effects on Building Materials in Scandinavian Countries." Geosciences 8, no. 9: 347.
Integrating multi-criteria approaches for reducing greenhouse gas emissions while, at the same time, ensuring long-term maintenance of existing buildings, is a challenge that needs to be faced by both the present and future generations. The core objective of this paper is to integrate a life cycle approach within the framework of building conservation principles to help decision makers dealing with “green” maintenance and adaptation interventions of historic buildings. The proposed approach identifies conservation principles to respect, it considers low, medium, high levels of intervention, and it analyses the impact of interventions in terms of emissions and energy consumptions that should be compensated – while the historic building is in use – with on-site renewables. The method, in the whole, allows the comparison of different intervention scenarios and the selection of the most sustainable one over a long-term management perspective of the historic building. The benefits are twofold: under the conservative perspective, for helping in choosing the right time of interventions, in reducing the decay rate, in using materials that endure longer and are compatible with existing fabrics; under the environmental perspective, for helping in reducing the carbon footprint, in supporting conservation needs through a minimal intervention approach, and in encouraging materials reuse and renewable energy systems.
Chiara Bertolin; Arian Loli. Sustainable interventions in historic buildings: A developing decision making tool. Journal of Cultural Heritage 2018, 34, 291 -302.
AMA StyleChiara Bertolin, Arian Loli. Sustainable interventions in historic buildings: A developing decision making tool. Journal of Cultural Heritage. 2018; 34 ():291-302.
Chicago/Turabian StyleChiara Bertolin; Arian Loli. 2018. "Sustainable interventions in historic buildings: A developing decision making tool." Journal of Cultural Heritage 34, no. : 291-302.
The design of new buildings, and even more the rehabilitation of existing ones, needs to satisfy modern criteria in terms of energy efficiency and environmental performance, within the context of adequate safety requirements. Tackling all these needs at the same time is cumbersome, as demonstrated by several experiences during recent earthquakes, where the improvement of energy performance vanished by seismic-induced damages. The costs of energy retrofitting must be added to the normal losses caused by the earthquake. Even though the minimum safety requirements are met (no collapse), the damage due to earthquake might be enough to waste the investment made to improve energy efficiency. Since these measures are often facilitated by corresponding incentives, the use of public funding is not cost effective. The application of the existing impact assessment methods is typically performed at the end of the architectural and structural design process. Thus, no real optimisation can be achieved, because a good structural solution could correspond to a poor environmental performance and vice versa. The proposed Sustainable Structural Design method (SSD) considers both environmental and structural parameters in the life cycle perspective. The integration of environmental data in the structural performance is the focus of the method. Structural performances are considered in a probabilistic approach, through the introduction of a simplified Performance Based Assessment method. Finally, the SSD method is implemented with a case-study of an office-occupancy building, both for precast and cast-in-situ structural systems, with the aim to find the best solution in terms of sustainability and structural performance for the case at hand.
Marco Lamperti Tornaghi; Arian Loli; Paolo Negro. Balanced Evaluation of Structural and Environmental Performances in Building Design. Buildings 2018, 8, 52 .
AMA StyleMarco Lamperti Tornaghi, Arian Loli, Paolo Negro. Balanced Evaluation of Structural and Environmental Performances in Building Design. Buildings. 2018; 8 (4):52.
Chicago/Turabian StyleMarco Lamperti Tornaghi; Arian Loli; Paolo Negro. 2018. "Balanced Evaluation of Structural and Environmental Performances in Building Design." Buildings 8, no. 4: 52.
Nowadays, restoration interventions that aim for minimum environmental impact are conceived for recent buildings. Greenhouse gas emissions are reduced using criteria met within a life-cycle analysis, while energy saving is achieved with cost-effective retrofitting actions that secure higher benefits in terms of comfort. However, conservation, restoration and retrofitting interventions in historic buildings do not have the same objectives as in modern buildings. Additional requirements have to be followed, such as the use of materials compatible with the original and the preservation of authenticity to ensure historic, artistic, cultural and social values over time. The paper presents a systematic review—at the intersection between environmental sustainability and conservation—of the state of the art of current methodological approaches applied in the sustainable refurbishment of historic buildings. It identifies research gaps in the field and highlights the paradox seen in the Scandinavian countries that are models in applying environmentally sustainable policies but still poor in integrating preservation issues.
Arian Loli; Chiara Bertolin. Towards Zero-Emission Refurbishment of Historic Buildings: A Literature Review. Buildings 2018, 8, 22 .
AMA StyleArian Loli, Chiara Bertolin. Towards Zero-Emission Refurbishment of Historic Buildings: A Literature Review. Buildings. 2018; 8 (2):22.
Chicago/Turabian StyleArian Loli; Chiara Bertolin. 2018. "Towards Zero-Emission Refurbishment of Historic Buildings: A Literature Review." Buildings 8, no. 2: 22.