eERG at work
Milan’s Campus – 11b Building (2024-25)
11b Building is located in the major campus of Politecnico di Milano. It was built in 1934 as a service building to Piscina Romano, a public swimming pool (1928-37). Totally renovated under eERG supervision, now hosts the CRAFT competence center anti-fragile territories of the Department of Architecture and Urban Studies (DAStU).
The renovation project regards about 200 square meters on three stories. The energy requalification aims to considerably reduce the energy demand for heating and cooling.
The building is an heritage asset, so it was not possible to alter the outside. Only the roof was insulated from the outside, while most of the walls were insulated from the inside, using recycled textile materials, as waste from the major Italy’s textile processing area in Tuscany.
Small actuators were installed to operate windows and entrance doors in order to activate night ventilation during the hot or intermediate seasons, so to naturally cool the mass of the building during the night when it absorbed heat during the day, thus stabilizing the internal temperature. Natural ventilation is supported by small air extractors placed in the highest part of the building’s volume when natural forcing is not sufficient.
Solar radiation is going to be controlled by screening the two large upper windows with two green courtains (load-bearing structure and deciduous climbing plants), in order to shade the sun during the summer, while letting radiation in when in winter. Finally, the air movement generated by bladed fans brings a significant contribution to summer comfort (up to 3 degrees of reduction in perceived temperature) and allows winter savings by reducing the thermal stratification of the air.
The entire system is controlled via a Building Management System based on the open KNX protocol to be able to communicate with any brand of actuators, with predictive controls (taking into account weather forecasts and occupancy in the following days) developed by eERG-lab of DAStU, which will carry out detailed measurements of comfort variables and energy performance, and Post Occupancy Evaluation with standardized interviews.
