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Architecture and Indoor Environmental Quality
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Architecture and Indoor Environmental Quality

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Green Building".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (26 March 2023) | Viewed by 15927

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Paola Ricciardi

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture, University of Pavia, 27100 Pavia, Italy
Interests: indoor environmental quality in classrooms and offices; thermal comfort; acoustics of worship places; environmental noise analysis; thermal and acoustical properties of material; circular economy; waste material; sustainable building component; energy saving; lighting
Dr. Elisa Belloni

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Engineering, University of Perugia, 06125 Perugia, Italy
Interests: energy production and efficiency in buildings; thermal and electrical loads management in buildings; artificial neural networks; electric power systems; smart grids; renewables and storage systems; renewable energy communities; smart cities and mobility; energy economy; environmental impact of energy systems; electric vehicles; public lighting systems; lighting technology and innovative lighting systems (laser and LED technology)
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Indoor environmental quality is a very important challenge that can impact health and wellbeing as well as communication aspects, related to a good intelligibility of the acoustic message and visual and thermal comfort. It has been widely demonstrated that a comfortable environment enhances productivity for workers and students. Globally, it is seen that the potential health and productivity benefits remain to be implicated in the total cost of design. At present, building facility managers are showing an interest by ameliorating indoor air, and new designs are being used to build comprehensive databases of occupant perceptions.

In this context, a number of key issues need to be taken into account: thermo-hygrometric indoor conditions, sound generation and propagation, occupants’ perception, and quality of indoor air and lighting. These topics can also be approached by studying new building design and architecture.

This Special Issue aims to collect papers on indoor comfort and health. Both reviews and application-specific research papers are welcome. Review papers should present comprehensive reference information and the state-of-the-art in the subjects considered. Information on new building service components or lightening devices available on the market and/or recently developed in the literature would be welcome.

Papers selected for this Special Issue will be subject to a rigorous peer review procedure with the aim of rapid and wide dissemination of research results, developments, and applications. 

Prof. Dr. Paola Ricciardi
Dr. Elisa Belloni
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Indoor environmental quality
  • Sustainable architecture
  • Indoor thermal comfort
  • Acoustic comfort
  • Visual comfort
  • Air quality
  • Building performance
  • Energy savings
  • Dynamic simulations
  • Global and local comfort index

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Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

26 pages, 6819 KiB  
Article
Indoor Air Quality Improvement in Public Toilets at Railway Stations in China: A Field and Numerical Study
by Jinghua Yu, Congcong Qian, Jingang Zhao, Junwei Tao, Kangxin Leng and Xinhua Xu
Sustainability 2023, 15(11), 8720; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15118720 - 29 May 2023
Viewed by 2793
Abstract
This study investigated the air quality and ventilation systems of 22 public toilets in 10 railway stations in China. Approximately 80% of public toilets meet the standard for ammonia concentration in Class I toilets, while 20% exceed the standard. It was found that [...] Read more.
This study investigated the air quality and ventilation systems of 22 public toilets in 10 railway stations in China. Approximately 80% of public toilets meet the standard for ammonia concentration in Class I toilets, while 20% exceed the standard. It was found that the concentration of pollutants is mainly related to the number of toilet users and the ventilation system. In 20% of public toilets, the change in ammonia concentration was delayed by about 1 to 2 h with the change in hourly service number. In order to improve the air quality, a design method for calculating the number of toilet cubicles was proposed. Results show that the service capacity of the cubicle per hour (SCCH) of a female toilet is 12, the SCCH of male toilets is related to the ratio of squatting pans to urinals (RSU), which is suggested to be 1:1~1:0.8, and the corresponding SCCH is 16~20. Then, the effect of different ventilation forms was simulated by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) 2019 software. The results show that the bottom exhaust was better than the top exhaust and that the fresh air supply system is unnecessary. The recommended ventilation rate for toilets is 20 air changes per hour (ACH). The scale design method of toilets proposed in this paper was meant to address the gender imbalance and avoid queuing and provides a reference for the renovation and design of public toilets. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Architecture and Indoor Environmental Quality)
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22 pages, 4975 KiB  
Article
Energy and Economic Savings Assessment of Energy Refurbishment Actions in Italian Residential Buildings: Comparison between Asset and Tailored Calculation
by Domenico Palladino and Silvia Di Turi
Sustainability 2023, 15(4), 3647; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15043647 - 16 Feb 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1622
Abstract
Residential buildings have become one of the leading sectors in the energy refurbishment process towards the clean energy transition. Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs), based on the asset rating calculation method, are often used to quantify the energy performance in standard conditions before and [...] Read more.
Residential buildings have become one of the leading sectors in the energy refurbishment process towards the clean energy transition. Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs), based on the asset rating calculation method, are often used to quantify the energy performance in standard conditions before and after renovation, but their energy outcomes can significantly differ from the actual energy consumption and savings. More consistent results can be obtained by adopting a “tailored” approach, capable of considering more the actual building operation conditions and users’ behaviour. In this framework, the study evaluates the heating energy needs of Italian representative multi-family houses in all the climatic zones and five retrofitting scenarios with both asset and tailored ratings. Finally, a cost–benefit analysis, based on energy savings and interventions costs, is also carried out to assess the affordability of the refurbishment actions depending on the adopted calculation methods. The analysis of retrofitting scenarios highlighted that asset energy outcomes are generally slightly greater than the tailored ones (differences of around 3–13% on average), but the affordability of the chosen energy efficiency measures is significantly overrated. It could underline the need to adopt the tailored approach for more accurate energy savings assessment and economic evaluation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Architecture and Indoor Environmental Quality)
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17 pages, 3665 KiB  
Article
Development of a Decisional Procedure Based on Fuzzy Logic for the Energy Retrofitting of Buildings
by Linda Barelli, Elisa Belloni, Gianni Bidini, Cinzia Buratti and Emilia Maria Pinchi
Sustainability 2021, 13(16), 9318; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13169318 - 19 Aug 2021
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1901
Abstract
This paper concerns the development of an automatic tool, based on Fuzzy Logic, which is able to identify the proper solutions for the energy retrofitting of existing buildings. Regarding winter heating, opaque and glazing surfaces are considered in order to reduce building heat [...] Read more.
This paper concerns the development of an automatic tool, based on Fuzzy Logic, which is able to identify the proper solutions for the energy retrofitting of existing buildings. Regarding winter heating, opaque and glazing surfaces are considered in order to reduce building heat dispersions. Starting from energy diagnosis, it is possible to formulate retrofitting proposals and to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention considering several aspects (energy savings, costs, intervention typology). The innovation of this work is represented by the application of a fuzzy logic expert system to obtain an indication about the proper interventions for building energy retrofitting, providing as inputs only few parameters, with a strong reduction in time and effort with respect to the software tools and methodologies currently applied by experts. The novelty of the paper is the easy handling properties of the developed tool, which requires only a few data about the buildings: not many such methods were developed in the last years. The energy requirements for winter heating before and after particular interventions were evaluated for a consistent set of buildings in order to produce the required knowledge base for the tool’s development. The identified appropriate inputs and outputs, their domains of discretization, the membership functions associated to each fuzzy set, and the linguistic rules were deduced on the basis of the knowledge determined in this was. Therefore, the system was successfully validated with reference to further buildings characterized by different design and architecture features, showing a good agreement with the intervention opportunities evaluated. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Architecture and Indoor Environmental Quality)
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20 pages, 4492 KiB  
Article
Experimental Winter Monitoring of a Light-Weight Green Roof Assembly for Building Retrofit
by Fabiana Frota de Albuquerque Landi, Claudia Fabiani and Anna Laura Pisello
Sustainability 2021, 13(9), 4604; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13094604 - 21 Apr 2021
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2404
Abstract
Green roofs are a recurrent solution for improving environmental quality in buildings. Such systems can, among other things, reduce the urban heat island effect, improve indoor thermal comfort and visual quality, and reduce energy consumption in buildings, therefore promoting human comfort. This work [...] Read more.
Green roofs are a recurrent solution for improving environmental quality in buildings. Such systems can, among other things, reduce the urban heat island effect, improve indoor thermal comfort and visual quality, and reduce energy consumption in buildings, therefore promoting human comfort. This work presents the winter monitoring of a light-weight green roof assembly with the potential to be implemented in extensive urban areas. The green roof monitoring was compared to those of previous bituminous and cool-coating applications. Results show that the system was able to decrease heat losses maintaining a positive energy flow from solar radiation gains and a more constant indoor temperature. In a well-insulated construction, the impact during the cold season was discreet. However, compared to the reference building, a slightly lower indoor air temperature (about 1 °C) was registered. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Architecture and Indoor Environmental Quality)
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24 pages, 3386 KiB  
Article
Assessment of Indoor Environmental Quality in Budget Hotels Using Text-Mining Method: Case Study of Top Five Brands in China
by Zhifeng Shen, Xirui Yang, Chunlu Liu and Junjie Li
Sustainability 2021, 13(8), 4490; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13084490 - 17 Apr 2021
Cited by 15 | Viewed by 3095
Abstract
Guests’ evaluation of indoor environmental quality (IEQ) is important for identifying environment quality problems in hotels and improving service quality. This paper aims to identify IEQ problems in budget hotels in China and improve them. Specifically, 2.06 million online reviews of budget hotels [...] Read more.
Guests’ evaluation of indoor environmental quality (IEQ) is important for identifying environment quality problems in hotels and improving service quality. This paper aims to identify IEQ problems in budget hotels in China and improve them. Specifically, 2.06 million online reviews of budget hotels were used to assess IEQ issues in China’s budget hotels in four areas: acoustic environment, luminous environment, indoor air quality (IAQ) and thermal environment. The influences of the season, region and type of customers on the IEQ evaluation were also explored, and the main causes of IEQ problems were also identified. The research results show that the IEQ complaint rates of budget hotels are relatively high. In particular, complaints about the acoustic environment are more common. Differences in seasons and climate zones have significant effects on complaints about the acoustic environment, thermal environment and IAQ. Different types of customers have different concerns about hotel IEQ, among which solo travelers and traveling couples have higher requirements for IEQ. The occurrence of IEQ problems significantly reduces a hotel’s online rating, with IAQ and the thermal environment having the greatest impacts, but the causal factors that trigger IEQ problems are relatively concentrated. The findings of this paper can provide a reference for assessing IEQ problems in hotel buildings and guide hotel managers to adopt targeted IEQ improvement programs to promote sustainable development in the hotel industry. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Architecture and Indoor Environmental Quality)
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15 pages, 4634 KiB  
Article
Research on Indoor Thermal Comfort and Age of Air in Qilou Street Shop under Mechanical Ventilation Scheme: A Case Study of Nanning Traditional Block in Southern China
by Xianfeng Huang and Chen Qu
Sustainability 2021, 13(7), 4037; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13074037 - 5 Apr 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2407
Abstract
In hot summers, air conditioning (AC) and mechanical ventilation (such as fans) are used as cooling modes that strongly influence the resultant indoor environment, like thermal comfort and air quality in the shops of a Nanning arcade street (qilou). The air circulation mode [...] Read more.
In hot summers, air conditioning (AC) and mechanical ventilation (such as fans) are used as cooling modes that strongly influence the resultant indoor environment, like thermal comfort and air quality in the shops of a Nanning arcade street (qilou). The air circulation mode in shops greatly affects the indoor thermal environment and level of air freshness. The approaches for effectively improving the indoor thermal comfort and air quality are developed in qilou street shops with air-conditioner in a humid and hot region in southern China. Consequently, the purpose of this study is to assess different ventilation schemes in order to identify the best one. By using two indices, i.e., the predicted mean vote (PMV) and the age of air (AoA), in situ measurement and numerical simulation are conducted to investigate humans’ thermal comfort in extreme summer. Then, the indoor thermal comfort and AoA levels in summer under three different ventilation schemes (upper-inlet–upper-outlet, upper-inlet–bottom-outlet, and side-inlet–side-outlet) are comparatively analyzed through numerical computations of the indoor thermal environment. The results show that the upper-inlet–upper-outlet mode of the AC ventilation scheme led to the creation of a favorable air quality and comfortable thermal environment inside the shop, which will help designers understand the influence of the ventilation scheme on the indoor thermal comfort and health environment. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Architecture and Indoor Environmental Quality)
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