Publications related to On the Symbiosis of People and Building : The Perfect Slum

An explorative method to support design decisions based on carbon constraints and daylight sufficiency needs

The global construction industry contributes to 37% of carbon emissions associated to both building operations and construction. To help achieve the net-zero targets set by 2050, it is mandated to achieve a 50% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030. As we ...

EPFL2024

Spatial Modeling for Building Design Evaluation: from Visual Landscape Quality Assessment to Devaluation Risk Estimation

Adam Robert Swietek

Zoning reform is a crucial tool for cities to adapt to contemporary challenges. However, its implementation remains challenging. Property owners, with a vested interest in the value of their neighborhoods, are sensitive to local developments and the potent ...

EPFL2024

Embodied Carbon Premium for Cantilevers

David Michael Volpe Ruggiero, Paola Costanza Miglietta

This study addresses the critical need for sustainable architectural designs within the context of climate change and the significant role the built environment plays in greenhouse gas emissions. The focus of this paper is on understanding the influence of ...

2024

A VR-based workflow to assess perception of daylit views-out with a focus on dynamism and immersion

Marilyne Andersen, Caroline Karmann, Yunjoung Cho

Amongst the elements often overlooked in existing studies, dynamic movement and temporal changes in the content of views-out have been suggested to have a high potential to improve its perceived quality and occupant satisfaction. Moreover, in past and ongo ...

IOP Publishing2023

Autodigit-RAD: Towards an automation of the radon’s concentration dataflow in a new and innovative building

Sebastian Duque Mahecha, Sergi Aguacil Moreno

Radon is a noble, natural, and radioactive gas coming mainly from the ground which might accumulate indoors and lead each year to 200-300 deaths from lung cancer in Switzerland. A brand new and innovative living lab will be built as of 2023 in Fribourg (Sw ...

2023

In Quest of Meaning: Revisiting the discourse around “non-pedigreed” architecture

Vasileios Chanis

The title of the current contribution is “In quest of meaning: revisiting the discourse around ‘non-pedigreed’ architecture”. As a brief introduction, I would like to project the following two images. One is Villa Arpel, while the other is the district of ...

2023

Community-based reconstruction and simulation of a full-scale model of region CA1 of rat hippocampus

Henry Markram, Felix Schürmann, James Gonzalo King, Srikanth Ramaswamy, Juan Bautista Hernando Vieites, Alexis Arnaudon, Eilif Benjamin Muller, Michael Reimann, Huanxiang Lu, Ying Shi, Marwan Muhammad Ahmed Abdellah, Vishal Sood, Jean-Denis Georges Emile Courcol, Werner Alfons Hilda Van Geit, Lida Kanari, Juan Luis Riquelme Roman, Michael Emiel Gevaert, Pramod Shivaji Kumbhar, Liesbeth Maria L Vanherpe, Armando Romani, Cyrille Pierre Henri Favreau, Michele Migliore, Mohameth François Sy, Szabolcs Kali, Judit Planas Carbonell, Genrich Ivaska, Sàra Sàray, Carmen Alina Lupascu, Rosanna Migliore, Audrey Mercer, András Ecker, Alberto Antonietti, Cristina Colangelo, Anna-Kristin Kaufmann, Julian Martin Budd, Elisabetta Giacalone, Thomas Brice Delemontex, Davide Bella, Fabien Petitjean, , , , ,

In the Quest for Meaning: Revisiting Modernism’s debate around non-pedigreed architecture

Vasileios Chanis

In architectural historiography, it is widely accepted that in the aftermath of WWII, Modern Architecture found itself in the trouble of redefining its quest, its meaning, and its purpose; a crisis of the Modern before the Post-Modern. Thus, in this partic ...

2022

Design of a Hyperloop System MockUp

Mario Paolone, Malicia Leipold, Tony Govoni, Denis Tudor

The thorough development of the hyperloop system does require the availability of reduced-scale models. They can be used for the fast prototyping of various components, as well as for studying critical phenomena that takes place in this peculiar transporta ...

IEEE2022

Reconstruction of the Hippocampus

Henry Markram, Felix Schürmann, Armando Romani, Michele Migliore

The hippocampus is a widely studied brain region thought to play an important role in higher cognitive functions such as learning, memory, and navigation. The amount of data on this region increases every day and delineates a complex and fragmented picture ...

Springer2022

Impact of the ventilated air-space behind traditional (passive) and BIPV (active) façades on the thermo-hydrodynamic performance of the building wall structures

Mohammad Rahiminejad

For many decades, ventilated cavities in wall assemblies of buildings have been essential for creating moisture-resilient constructions by allowing airflow within the air gap to promote drying. In addition to that, the airflow in the cavity can contribute ...

EPFL2022

Effectiveness of passive climate change adaptation measures in Switzerland: A climate-based analysis on natural ventilation and overheating risks reduction in dwellings

Sergi Aguacil Moreno, Daniel Zepeda Rivas

Building energy codes have been implemented in Switzerland as well as across the world to reduce building energy consumption, however, due to the progressive effect of climate change phenomena and the precipitate change in occupancy patterns due to the glo ...

2021

Field evaluation of thermal and acoustical comfort in eight North-American buildings using embedded radiant systems

Caroline Karmann

We performed a post-occupancy assessment based on 500 occupant surveys in eight buildings using embedded radiant heating and cooling systems. This study follows-up on a quantitative assessment of 60 office buildings that found radiant and all-air buildings ...

2021

Thermal resistance of ventilated air-spaces behind external claddings; definitions and challenges (ASHRAE 1759-RP)

Mohammad Rahiminejad, Dolaana Khovalyg

The presence of an air-space within a building envelope is known to have a varying contribution to the overall thermal performance of the wall assembly due to the combined effect of convection and radiation in the air cavity. In particular, the thermal res ...

2021

Active renovation strategies with building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV). Application on an early 20th century multi-family building

Emmanuel Rey, Sergi Aguacil Moreno

Tomorrow's cities are already largely built, as much of the existing building stock – with a low level of energy performance – will still be standing in 2050. Urban renewal processes therefore play an essential role towards the sustainable transition of Eu ...

2020

Modern Schools in Angola, 1961-1975: Design with Climate and Heritage

Maria Margarida Gonçalves Quintã

The architectural production of Angola between 1961 and 1975 forms the basis of the current study. Taking into consideration that buildings' environmental performance is, at one time, one of the most central aspects of the Modern Movement legacy and a pres ...

EPFL2019

Review on ventilation rates in the ventilated air-spaces behind common wall assemblies with external cladding

Mohammad Rahiminejad, Dolaana Khovalyg

For many decades, ventilated cavities in wall assemblies of buildings have been essential for creating moisture resilient constructions by allowing airflow within the air gap to promote drying. In addition to that, the airflow in the cavity can enhance the ...

2021

Energy, indoor air quality, occupant behavior, self-reported symptoms and satisfaction in energy-efficient dwellings in Switzerland

Dusan Licina, Shen Yang

We performed the first large-scale investigation of indoor air quality (IAQ), energy and occupant behavior and satisfaction, in 650 energy-efficient dwellings in western Switzerland. The investigation included comparative assessment of 217 green-certified ...

2020

How building energy models take the local climate into account in an urban context – A review

Dasaraden Mauree

The urban context is often simplified or neglected in Building Energy Models (BEMs) due to the difficulties of taking accurately into account all the heat fluxes emanating from the environment. Oversimplifying the urban context can impact the accuracy of t ...

2019

Application of Association Rules to Determine Building Typological Classes for Seismic Damage Predictions at Regional Scale: The Case Study of Basel

Pierino Lestuzzi, Yves Sylvain Gilles Reuland, Lorenzo Diana

Assessing seismic vulnerability at large scales requires accurate attribution of individual buildings to more general typological classes that are representative of the seismic behavior of the buildings sharing same attributes. One-by-one evaluation of all ...

2019