Amelioration and retrofitting of educational buildings

Following a seismic event that occurred years ago in Central Italy, the public opinion was growing and growing a concern on the adequacy of educational buildings all across Italy. This activated several political decisions and a consequent technical effort is in progress. Technically speaking one has to manage the classical problem of retrofitting existing buildings. However, the legal environment goes across national codes, targeted guidelines and the professional need of achieving pragmatic solutions based on ethical and social acceptation schemes.This paper introduces the topic in its worldwide exception and focuses then on some operative aspects in the Italian situation. It outlines the consolidated steps along this technical process and emphasizes the weak aspects one meets when going across the designers＇ reports.

Online Energy Measure and Analysis System for Large-Scale Public Buildings

Large-scale public buildings have high energy density, which on average consume 5 to 15 times more electricity than residential buildings. In Beijing, those public buildings account for about ten percent of the total building area, but their energy consumption （except heating） amounts to more than thirty percent of the total. Few electric meters are installed in those public buildings, however, making it more difficult to monitor how the energy is used.

Architectural Research and Reutilization of Lvshun Public High School Site

Public high school in Lvshun is a typical example of modern school architecture in Dalian during the Japanese colonial period. This paper summarises the historical background, development and current situation of the old site of public high school in Lvshun by approaches such as historical literature research and present situation surveying. Then, it analyses the characteristics of public high schools in Lvshun in four aspects: architectural scale, plane function, architectural style and material structure. After that, the school is judged to have four dimensions of value: historical, technological, and cultural and use value. In the end, this paper explores the protection and reuse of the building from the aspects of authenticity, suitability and integrity. It is intended to provide a theoretical basis for the protection and reutilization of modern architectural heritage.

Assessment of energy utilization and leakages in buildings with building information model energy

Given the ability of building information models （BIM） to serve as a multidisciplinary data repository, this study attempts to explore and exploit the sustainability value of BIM in delivering buildings that require less energy for operations, emit tess carbon dioxide, and provide conducive living environments for occupants. This objective was attained by a critical and extensive literature review that covers the following： （1） building energy consumption, （2） building energy performance and analysis, and （3） BIM and energy assessment. Literature cited in this paper shows that linking an energy analysis toot with a BIM model has helped project design teams to predict and create optimized energy consumption by conducting building energy performance analysis utilizing key performance indicators on average thermal transmitters, resulting heat demand, lighting power, solar heat gains, and ventilation heat losses. An in-depth analysis was conducted on a completed BIM integrated construction project utilizing the Arboleda Project in the Dominican Republic to validate the aforementioned findings. Results show that the BIM-based energy analysis helped the design team attain the world＇s first positive energy building. This study concludes that linking an energy analysis tool with a BIM model helps to expedite the energy analysis process, provide more detailed and accurate results, and deliver energy-efficient buildings. This study further recommends that the adoption of level 2 BIM and BIM integration in energy optimization analysis must be demanded by building regulatory agencies for all projects regardless of procurement method （i.e., government funded or otherwise） or size.

Life-Cycle and Seismic Fragility Assessment of Code-Conforming Reinforced Concrete and Steel Structures in Bucharest, Romania

In this article, the fragility of reinforced concrete and steel structures in Bucharest, a city of high seismic hazard, designed using the recent building codes in Romania, is assessed. A total of 24 reinforced concrete and steel structures with heights varying from five stories to 13 stories were analyzed. Their seismic fragility was evaluated using two procedures from the literature. In the first procedure(SPO2 FRAG), the fragility was derived based on the pushover curves using the SPO2 IDA algorithm, while in the second procedure(FRACAS), the fragility was derived from nonlinear time-history analyses. The analyzed structures were designed for three levels of peak ground accelerations, corresponding to mean return periods of 100,225, and 475 years. Subsequently, the damage assessment of the analyzed structures was performed using ground motions generated from a Monte-Carlo simulated earthquake catalogue for the Vrancea intermediate-depth seismic source. The damage degrees that were estimated using the SPO2 FRAG approach are higher than those estimated using the FRACAS approach. The life-cycle analysis of the structures shows that a further increase of the design peak ground acceleration for Bucharest is feasible from an economic point of view using the SPO2 FRAG results.However, based on the FRACAS results, the opposite conclusion can be drawn. Finally, generic lognormal fragility functions are proposed as a function of building height and structural system.