BUILDING ENERGY ASSESSMENT AND URBAN FORM

Nowadays buildings assume a key role in the Italian strategies for energy savings to 2020 and to 2050. More than 80% of buildings have been built before the ‘70s when any regulation on energy savings was still present. In the past, to make the city livable, the urban morphology has always be considered taking into account the climate, the buildings’ density and characteristics, the type of inhabitants and their social condition. On the contrary, recently in the urban planning process the morphological aspects are no more included even if they influence the energy consumption, the thermal comfort of the urban spaces and the district air quality. The aim of this study is to identify the correlation between thermal energy consumption for space heating and urban variables. The city of Turin is suitable for this analysis because has different districts built in different periods and consequently characterized by different urban forms and urban spaces. In the analysis, 300 residential buildings sited in a district of the city of Turin, of which the monthly space heating real energy consumption for three seasons is known, have been used as sample.. By using a GIS tool, the district has been divided into different urban textures considering their urban characteristics. In particular, the considered urban morphology variables are the building density, building heights, building coverage ratio, the aspect ratio, the average albedo coefficient and the sky view factor. The results of this study show that the measured energy consumption of the single building depends on the physical building features (f.i. thermal insulation level, the compactness, the energy system efficiency etc.) and some urban morphology variables, such as the urban density, the proximity of the buildings and their main cardinal orientation. This conclusion may support urban planners in the spatial definition of new urban areas avoiding higher building energy consumption, lower air quality levels and more generally to improve the livability of urban spaces. Moreover, these results can be considered as a “preliminary” energy savings measures at no cost.