Chiara Tonelli

Numerical modelling of structural cooling in Mediterranean climate

ABSTRACT Despite the growing interest in recent times, buildings passive cooling in the Mediterranean area is a large topic that has not yet been fully explored. In the assessment of structural cooling, that is a passive strategy based on natural ventilation and thermal masses cooling, a dynamic analysis is required in order to investigate the inertial response of buildings. For this reason, it seems interesting to investigate the relationship between simplified physical--mathematical models (multi-zone), currently very popular, and finite element numerical models (CFD), which solve the equations of thermofluid dynamics and return a detailed response from the scientific and computational point of view. This paper aims to highlight the limitations and potentialities of these models, in order to evaluate possible methods of integration of both approaches and related software, in terms of an explicitly temporal–spatial multiscale approach, to obviate each others shortcomings while providing an accurate evaluation of the inertial response and its effect on the buildings energy efficiency.

Designing resilience: a contribution to the City Resilience Framework

In a time of rapid social and demographic change, growing exposure to risk factors due to climate change, resource shortages, migration strain and adverse economic conditions are sources of stress and continuous instability in urban contexts. Arup conceived the City Resilience Framework for the Rockefeller Foundation. ‘Housing’ is the only form of construction included within this framework. It is one of the action areas in its strategy for improving urban resilience. This article seeks to provide a methodological contribution, hypothesizing requisites for resilience, preventative procedures and ex-post validation that moves beyond an emergency approach to foster the resilience of residential construction and its measurability in all phases of the construction process.