Effects of urban compactness on the building energy performance in Mediterranean climate

This work explores the double effect of urban compactness on building energy performance in a Mediterranean climate, namely the increase of urban heat island (UHI) intensity and the decrease of solar radiation availability on building façades. The energy demand of a test apartment has been calculated under varying conditions of UHI intensity and solar radiation for different urban textures. Results show robust relationships between the energy demand and the ‘site coverage ratio’ of the buildings. This demonstrates that compact urban textures are more energy efficient than less dense urban patterns in a Mediterranean climate. © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the scientific committee of the CISBAT 2017 International Conference – Future Buildings & Districts – Energy Efficiency from Nano to Urban Scale.