Impact of a Retrofitting Project on Thermal Comfort and Energy Efficiency of a Historic School in Miliana, Algeria

ABSTRACT

The French colonial architecture heritage in Algeria, in which the users did not use either heating, cooling active systems or artificial lighting, was classified as sustainable architecture before time. This old architecture nowadays needs to be rebuilt due to natural and men effects on it. Among these heritages, the secondary school in Miliana located in the north of Algeria. The present work deals with the effects of rehabilitation act on building behavior such as thermal and visual comfort inside its spaces. In order to estimate the inside thermal and visual comfort, three main methods were used. Firstly, field measurements followed by numerical simulation evaluations of the mentioned comfort were conducted during the using period of the building. Secondly, a qualitative evaluation of comfort was done after the completion of the rehabilitation works, by interviewing the users to set the values of thermal and visual comfort needed in the school’s classrooms by the users. Thirdly, based on the comfort values required in classrooms, a numerical simulation was performed to find the best rehabilitation solutions to fulfill the comfort conditions required.

KEYWORDS:

• Architecture heritage
• school rehabilitation
• sustainable building
• thermal and visual comfort

Acknowledgments

This research has been carried out within the framework of Laboratory ETAP, Institute of Architecture and Urban Planning (I.A.U), University of Blida, Algeria. The study would not have been possible without the support of Naceur SAHEL, headmaster Moussa MOKEDDEM, staff members mainly Moussa OULDSAID, teachers, and pupils of the secondary school Mohamed ABDOU, who gave us the opportunity to conduct this research. The authors would like to thank the LAE Research Laboratory, of the Polytechnic School of Architecture & Town Planning, Algiers, for help with survey instruments and the CNERIB (Centre National d’Etudes et Recherches Intégrées au Bâtiment) for help to determine the thermal conductivity and specific heat of material samples using a CT-Metre.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.