Feasibility of municipal waste reuse for building envelopes for Near Zero-Energy Buildings

This paper deals with the experimental stage of an Italian research aimed at testing the feasibility of municipal waste reuse for the designing of building envelopes for Zero-Energy Buildings. The first stage dealt with the designing of the single components, whilst the stage described in the present contribution is about the project for a pilot didactic class for the “Mira Porte” Primary school, located in the town of Mira (Venice, Italy). It is the result of a research agreement between the Interdepartmental Centre for Territory, Building, Conservation and Environment of the Sapienza University of Rome (CITERA) and the Municipality of Mira. Energy efficiency of public buildings and the creation of safe and healthy schools are central topics in current national and local Italian politics, topics which include incentives and funds. The paper describes the main architectural, technological and plant characteristics of the classroom project. The building is an NZEB, configured as an additional independent volume, placed in the courtyard of the existing school. It is composed of a room for 25 students and an adjoining winter garden which has both a bioclimatic and a didactic function. The main feature of the project is the use of prefab building components made from solid urban waste, in particular wooden pallets and tyres, instead of traditional building materials, so as to contribute to a decreasing demand for energy and improve eco-friendly waste management. The present experiment aims at demonstrating the authentic behavior of the components once they have been assembled into a built structure and the overall functioning of the building structure and its systems.