Energy evaluations of an innovative multi-storey wooden near Zero Energy Building designed for Mediterranean areas

In order to respect the energy savings directives, worldwide designers look toward more sustainable buildings, especially with tower configurations to reduce the footprint in urban environments. The implementation of multi-storey buildings with a massive employment of wooden materials represents a feasible solution; however, in Mediterranean areas the seismic risk renders the design process very challenging. Consequently, designers often prefer hybrid structures where a reinforced concrete core guarantees structural safety whereas the wooden elements used for the building envelope confer efficient energy performances. Furthermore, in warm climates the attainment of the near Zero Energy Building (nZEB) is a difficult target because in the presence of insulated envelopes the cooling requirements could negatively affect the building energy consumption. In this paper, the energy performance of an innovative multi-storey wooden nZEB expressly designed to meet the requirements of the Mediterranean areas, are presented. In particular, the structural safety was attained by combining a timber frame with a precise layout of cross laminated timber (CLT) panels. Once the structural behaviour was verified, a parametric analysis developed in TRNSYS allowed determination of the best building-plant configuration for the achievement of the nZEB target.