Energy-Environmental Efficiency in the Integrated Design of a School Building in Imola, Italy

The Municipality of Imola is strongly committed to environmental friendly and energy consciouspolicies both at urban planning level and public building design. In particular, the latest constructionplan of a new junior High School building has given a chance for checking an environmentally sound and energy conscious approach on the architectural and technological design development of an educational building. HVAC systems are well integrated to RES systems such as water and air solar collectors as well as earth heat exchangers, in a highly insulated and air tight building with aventilation heat recovery. This paper describes the main steps of the design process characterised by a deep integration between aesthetical, technological, and environmental performance options as well as the renewable energy sources-related features of the project. In addition, the contribution to the annual energy balance of the various passive and hybrid systems is shown as well as the energyenvironmental efficiency factor as a parameter to evaluate the GWP reduction.