Building description and climate

Villa Zagala is located at 34.6° South, 58.5° West, and 26 m over sea level, in “Great Buenos Aires”. There are neighbouring buildings, such as a hospital and a geriatric house and a church that conditionates the orientation of the new building. The climate variables in winter and summer are shown in Table 1. The outdoor air temperatures and wind velocities were obtained from the National Meteorological Service and the mean solar irradiance on horizontal surface was estimated from correlations (Righini et al., 2004).

Table 1. Meteorological data of Villa Zagala, for a winter (July) a summer (January) month.

Month

Min Temp (°C)

Mean Temp (°C)

Max Temp (°C)

Solar Irradiance (MJ/m2)

Wind velocity (km/h)

July

6,2

10,7

16,2

7,93

7

January

17

22,9

28,6

23,62

9

The floor view and two facades are shown in Figures 1 and 2. The original project was a conventional design commonly used by the Ministry of Social Development (MDS) team in these buildings with slight adaptations depending on the site. Due to functional reasons, the CIC building is divided in two independent sectors, named Health and Development, with a covered area around 325 m2 each one. The Health Sector has a large vertical surface oriented to North in order to maximize the solar collection. Originally the vertical envelope was a plastered hollow ceramic wall (0.18m thick), with indoor partitions of 0.15m thick hollow ceramic bricks. The roof was a metal sheet with a gypsum ceiling. This project was modified in order to minimize the thermal losses through the building envelope by improving the thermal insulation of walls and roofs with a polystyrene sheet (0.05m thick), the subfloor with insulating aggregates and double glazing in windows. Reduction of the air leakages through the opening frames, avoiding overheating in summer through solar control devices as overhangs, shading devices, etc., forced and natural ventilation, and daylighting, were also included. Solar and low-energy devices as solar water heating, photovoltaic panels, and low-energy consumption lights, will be installed in the building.