DESIGN METHODOLOGY FOR SUSTAINABLE BUILDINGS: A CASE STUDY

This paper presents a case study in which a design methodology on a building scale, with the objective of realizing sustainable nearly zero energy buildings, is implemented. From one side, it includes the principles of bio-climatic design controlled with the aid of computer models and, on the other, it uses the criteria of the LEED certification system for the design of sustainable buildings. These principles and criteria are applied in the decision making process, by using an integrated methodology. The criteria taken into consideration become input data as important as the other data, which come from the analysis of the climate data and the usersí requirements. For what concerns the criteria to be applied for the realization of sustainability, the credits of the certification system are applied from the beginning of the design phase. The case study concerns the process of planning a mountain dew located in the alpine area in the North-East of Italy. In this case study the sustainability criteria taken into consideration are those of the LEED environmental certification system. The application of the LEED protocol criteria directed the research in terms of formal choices, technological and building productsí choices. This paper suggests that such an approach should become an ordinary procedure, independently on the certification system applied. In synthesis, the study proposes a new design method that introduces sustainability criteria in current procedure.