Antonio Ciervo

Windows are key elements of the building’s system; they connect workers with the outdoor environment, influence daylight penetration, sound insulation, and thermal exchanges of façades, but they also moderate the workers’ well-being and productivity. This research investigates how the window-to-wall ratio, as well as the position and orientation of mullions, in movable offices affect the combination of workers’ perceptual and emotional responses. A smart co-working prefabricated movable office was modelled in virtual reality to include dynamic visual elements and acoustic stimuli. Experiments were performed in a laboratory under controlled thermal conditions involving 32 volunteers. The Igroup Presence and Emotional Salience Questionnaires were used to collect subjective responses. ANOVA analysis and post hoc test with the Bonferroni correction were used for data elaboration. Results revealed that window design affects emotional salience. High window-to-wall ratio and no mullions achieved the highest scores. Increasing the number of mullions, particularly when they obstruct key visual elements, reduced the positive emotional salience rating. Horizontal mullions diminish the outdoors’ spatial perception, interrupting visual continuity and restricting users’ capacity to recognise variations in the views. Finally, the results suggest some valuable insights and suggestions that can help designers improve window design and people’s well-being and satisfaction.

This study introduces a predictive model based on artificial neural networks (ANNs) for estimating the dynamic performance of commercially available sensible thermal energy storage (STES) systems. The model was trained and validated using high-resolution experimental data measured from two vertical cylindrical tanks (0.3 m³ each) including internal heat exchangers and operating under both heating and cooling modes. A comprehensive sensitivity analysis was conducted on 28 ANN architectures by varying the number of hidden neurons and input delays. The optimal configuration, designated as ANN5 (12 neurons, delay = 1), demonstrated superior accuracy in predicting temperature profiles and energy exchange. Validation against an independent dataset confirmed the model’s robustness, achieving normalized root mean square errors (NRMSEs) between 0.0022 and 0.0061 for the hot tank and between 0.0057 and 0.0283 for the cold tank. Energy prediction errors were within −3.87% for charging and 0.09% for discharging in heating mode, and 7.08% for charging and 0.13% discharging in cooling mode, respectively. These results highlight the potential of ANN-based approaches for real-time control, forecasting, and digital twin applications in STES systems.

As remote and hybrid work models continue to grow, the design of workspaces and their surrounding environments has gained even more importance. This study explores the impact of window design on the restorative potential of Prefabricated Movable Buildings (PMBs) of smart/co-working located in small villages. Using Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR), seven window configurations, varying in size, frame ratio, and number of glass panes, were evaluated. Participants’ sense of presence, defined as the subjective feeling of ‘being there’ in the virtual environment, and perceived restoration, referring mainly to the psychological (attention and emotions) and physiological (stress) resources recovery, were assessed using, respectively, Igroup Presence Questionnaire (IPQ) and the Perceived Restorativeness Scale (PRS). The overall IPQ results suggest that the virtual environment in this study provides a “High” sense of presence, highlighting the validity of IVR to evaluate architectural designs. The PRS results found that larger, uninterrupted windows with a higher Window-to-Wall Ratio and lower Frame Ratio significantly enhance participants’ perceived restoration. Restoration effects were also higher when offices were located in small villages rather than in business districts. These results highlight the importance of incorporating large windows in smart/co-working spaces within culturally rich small villages to promote worker well-being and office sustainability.

Introduction: Processes of redefinition of work, already in place in the pre-pandemic era, with the advent of COVID-19, have become widely required. A “model of work” that uses new technologies and the development of existing ones to improve workers’ performance and satisfaction has emerged. Smart working has changed how people work and, as a result, spaces must also change to support them. The use of prefabricated movable buildings (PMB) could represent an opportunity to create smart (and co-) working spaces in a regenerative contest. Small villages with historical, architectural, and naturalistic elements and slow-life features are potential platforms where vacation and work could merge easily. This paper aims to establish if working in movable offices, like the PMBs, which provide a high level of visual and acoustics interaction with the surroundings, and which is positioned in small villages’ squares, can affect workers’ sense of restoration and working performance.Methods: In a laboratory setting, in the SENS i-Lab, a videowall and a 3D spatial audio system were used to compare, in terms of restorativeness and self-reported cognitive performance, the effects of a high-rise building context of a City Business District (CBD), i.e. the control scenario, and of two typical squares of small Italian villages with historic buildings, without (HIS) and with water elements (HIS-W).Results: The findings of the experimental sessions showed that when working in close contact (visual and auditory) with historical or water elements, where life flows slowly, workers perceived a higher sense of restoration while job performance was unchanged.Discussion: Implementing smart working policies in small villages that encourage the use of energy-efficient prefabricated movable buildings and that offer a high level of visual and acoustic interaction with the surrounding environment may represent a promising strategy to foster the development of the local economy and contrast the depopulation of small villages, improving the worker well-being and the reducing the impact of their activities of the environment.

The WHO defines threshold values of PMs. Different studies where wearables are used also to monitor PMs. With the main goal of developing a new wearable monitoring system for research purposes based on low-cost sensors and open-source hardware and considering the wide variety of low-cost sensors available on the market today, we focused on evaluating the measurement performance of a particular type of low-cost PMS, the Plantower PMS A003I. It was connected to an Arduino Micro, which served as the microcontroller and data logger. The low-cost system was used in a direct comparison with a calibrated DustTrak DRX as the reference instrument. The test was conducted in a real office in four different sections of monitoring activity on four different days. The result of the proposed method suggests that it is possible to use low-cost sensors to evaluate indoor air quality in terms of PM levels.

Worldwide, smart/co-working spaces are growing significantly, and prefabricated movable buildings for such an application could (i) save energy, CO₂ emissions, and costs; (ii) enhance the worker’s perceived sense of surroundings; and (iii) support the rebirth of small villages with high regenerative potential. Innovative prefabricated movable building configurations to be used as an office for smart/co-working by a maximum of 6 persons have been designed and analyzed based on simulation data. In particular, 10 case studies corresponding to building configurations differing in terms of innovative energy-efficient measures related to the building envelope (smart windows operated under various control logics) and the energy systems serving the building (photovoltaic panels, small wind turbines, and electric storages) have been modeled and simulated by applying detailed dynamic simulation models via the simulation software TRNSYS. The performance of the 10 case studies has been compared from energy, environmental, and economic points of view with respect to a baseline system characterized by conventional building envelope and energy systems, with the aim of assessing the proposed measures and identifying the most efficient configuration. The simulation results highlighted that: (i) all the proposed alternative configurations allow to save primary energy (from 10.3% up to 100%), equivalent CO₂ emissions(from 10.3% up to 100%), and operating costs (from 8.5% up to 100%) with respect to the baseline building; (ii) the building configurations including the smart windows only are not economically feasible in terms of simple pay-back (SPB) period, while the building configurations equipped with photovoltaic panels and/or electric storages and/or wind turbine represent a suitable investment thanks to an SPB lower than 15.2 years; (iii) a stand-alone building configuration for smart/co-working with energy demands totally covered by means of renewable sources can be obtained by combining smart windows, photovoltaic panels, electric storages and wind turbine.

In this paper 5 different case studies of solar hybrid heating and cooling networks serving 5 different school buildings assumed as representative of the 5 provinces of the Campania region (southern Italy) have been modelled, dynamically simulated and analyzed by means of the software TRNSYS over a 5-year period. The plants are based on the operation of solar thermal collectors coupled with a seasonal borehole thermal energy storage; the solar field is also integrated with photovoltaic panels coupled with an electric energy storage; a solar-powered adsorption system is used for covering the cooling requirements. Specific weather data files have been developed for each city based on 1-year in-situ hourly measurements to accurately take into account the influence of climatic conditions on systems’ performance; the effects of thermo-physical properties of underground associated to the different locations have also been taken into consideration according to measured data available in the literature. The proposed systems have been compared with conventional Italian heating and cooling plants from energy, environmental and economic points of view in order to assess the potential benefits, highlight the effects of both weather data and characteristics of underground as well as promote the diffusion of solar systems for Italian applications.