Thermal-active systems between innovation and research in architecture

Proposed contribution focuses on thermal-active systems in architecture and places itself in the environmental technology design known as Active House: an approach promoting the building enclosure to a central role for its purposes which releases a number of technological design possibilities for both the new construction and regeneration; this approach looks at aspects such as: the quality of construction, management, the durability and the satisfaction of the inhabitants. Research on these components has been evolving over the last decades by testing elements able to change the results according to external microclimate conditions in order to maintain stability in terms of energy consumption also in relation to the building structure as a whole and as a function of the amount of people occupying it. Unlike other components, benefits of thermal-active systems are not just about energy saving and thermal comfort, but concern the concept of innovative design of building which are cost-effective and psychologically convenient. This approach represents a new model for sustainability, based on the assumption that component responses are not rigid, but modulated to different possibilities. The text explores the different fields of application, conceptual and technological design line of both opaque and transparent thermo-active systems, ranging from the study and development of accumulation and thermodynamic systems to the elements designed for cooling which try to benefit from evaporative processes.