Methodology of energy efficient building refurbishment: Application on two university campus-building case studies in Italy with engineering students

• A critical overview on retrofitting methodologies is proposed.
• A methodology of energy efficient building refurbishment is defined and tested.
• The methodology application were conducted with students of university laboratory.
• Two university campus-building case studies in Italy were analyzed.
• The performance analyses were carried out using numerical simulations.

Politecnico di Milano (POLIMI) has launched since 2011 the project “Città Studi Sustainable Campus” to improve the university’s sustainability performances within three main principles: building refurbishment, sustainable campus development and integration of facilities, research and education. The paper aims to discuss these issues, focusing on the energy efficient refurbishment on two university campuses in Milan, Italy. A Methodology for Energy Efficient Building Refurbishment (MEEBR) has been identified and tested on two case studies with students of the Integrated Design Refurbishment Laboratory of Building Engineering Faculty at POLIMI. In particular, the performance energy analyses were conducted on two university building case: the first at POLIMI campus, and the second located in the Università degli Studi di Milano (UNIMI) campus. These analyses were carried out using numerical simulations, considering the increasing important role which software are playing in refurbishment building design process also in early design phase. This preliminary experience with students on MEEBR application, with also the overview on building refurbishment methodologies, show that case study examples can help to: increase consideration of the integrated research approach and improve sustainability performance in historical buildings taking into account also the user’s participation of a university campus. The comparison of the energy assessment methodology, of the two software used for the analyses (CENED+ and Sefaira), leads to the statement that it is essential from the beginning, selecting a program in function of the particular job and the outputs that you want to reach with the tool.