The Cultural-E goal is going a step beyond Nearly Zero Energy Buildings (nZEBs) towards the future of Plus Energy Buildings (PEBs). The team is approaching this topic by looking at climate and cultural differences in the use of residential buildings around Europe. The project is building four new Plus Energy Buildings in France, Germany, Italy and Norway. Cultural-E isalso producing design tools, smart technologies, methodologies and policy recommendations, freely available for all stakeholders along the value chain.
About Cultural-E
Research applied to the construction sector is more and more demanding nowadays in terms of energy efficiency, carbon emissions, sustainable resource use, life-cycle management, and indoor environmental comfort. Climatic factors, such as local temperature, weather, sun orientation, relation with the surroundings are integral parts of the design process because, inevitably, they influence the daily habits and how we consume energy. Studies have shown that a Norwegian uses a different amount of energy for cooking than a French, and an Italian heats his/her house in a different way than a German.
Cultural-E is establishing guidelines for designing PEBs in Europe taking into account these socio-cultural and climatic differences on order to enable a comprehensive optimisation of value/cost ratio of PEBs.
The project lasts 5 years and is building four multifamily housing demonstration cases in:
- Residenza I Girasoli (Castenaso, Italy), for the Mediterranean area
- Lille area / Leers (France), for the Oceanic area
- Ostfildern-Ruit (Ostfildern, Germany), for the Continental area
- Eiksveien 116 / Bærum (Norway), for the Sub-Arctic area
The project is coordinated by Eurac Research, a research centre headquartered in Bozen (Italy), and includes 17 participants, such as local authorities, SMEs, technology providers, designers, European universities, construction companies and European umbrella associations.
If you want to know more about our partners, you can check our Team page.
Project objectives
- To define cultural peculiarities related to European climates that strongly impact building energy consumption
- To define a framework for the performance evaluation of Positive Energy Buildings
- To develop climate and cultural tailored solution sets and technologies for Positive Energy Buildings
- To understand the variables that building users bring to buildings, and provide interventions designed to shift energy using practices
- To identify and valuate the co-benefits (on top of financial benefits) from Positive Energy Buildings and proposed technologies
- To demonstrate the feasibility, reliability and replicability of technology solution sets
- To promote a European “ecosystem of policies” favourable for the realization of new Positive Energy Buildings
The project is coordinated by Eurac Research, a research centre headquartered in Bozen (Italy), and includes 17 participants, such as local authorities, SMEs, technology providers, designers, European universities, construction companies and European umbrella associations.
If you want to know more about our partners, you can check our Team page.
