Metodologie di sviluppo e di valutazione nella produzione industriale di sistemi di involucro ad alta efficienza energetica – Metodologies for the development and evaluation in industrial production of building skin systems with high energetic efficincy

Increasing interest in environmental issues and the knowledge that the energy demand directly or indirectly connected to architecture amounts almost 50% of the non-renewable energy consumption in the world, has led numerous European Industries to develop approaches for evaluating and optimizing the eco-compatibility and energy performance of systems and components prior to their market launch. The increasing demand for high quality architecture and the varying understanding of the European directive “Energy performance of buildings” (2002/91/CE) in different European countries, made it necessary to evaluate the energy performance relative to changing environmental conditions, besides LCA of building materials and systems. As a consequence many European research centres and manufacturers - leaders in design of building systems, components and building skin in particular - have acquired simulation software to support the development of products. Additionally they installed test-buildings to monitor, evaluate and optimize prototypes of building skin parts at full scale based on their operative performance. These test-rooms allow, besides the control of traditional parameters like stability, durability and resistance to external influences, the evaluation and optimization of parameters influencing internal climatic conditions (i.e. temperature, humidity, lighting and natural ventilation) in relation to external climatic conditions and their variation during the day and the year in order to guarantee the well-being of the user and a limited consumption of non-renewable energy resources. The use of such methodologies led to the development of innovative building systems and components with a high ecological and energetic efficiency and simultaneously to the initiation of a new research area in Europe: Climadesign. This work illustrates the test-rooms of the main research centres and industries in Europe and intends to present innovative materials, systems and components for a building skin with high energetic efficiency, which are after a performance evaluation in test-rooms currently being produced in industries in northern Europe.