Abstract:
The building envelope is the physical boundary between the confined environment and the external environment and it provides the fulfillment of the requirements related to safety, well-being (in relation to the factors involved, such as air temperature, humidity, lighting and noise), usability, appearance, management, new elements and materials integration and environmental protection. Even in the case envelopes retrofit, it is possible to adopt commissioning procedures aimed at the quality of the process, formulated on the basis of a need-performance framework. The paper brings some considerations about the relationship between performance enhancement and performance compliance in the energy and environmental retrofit of existing building envelopes, explaining the building envelope commissioning process (BECx) and defining a need-requirement framework to be adopted during the pre-design, design, construction and operation phases. A final attention is given to the integration of the BECx process within the historical heritage.
