The CRiStAll project has reached the end of its journey!

Let’s read the third newsletter to find out!

As part of the dissemination and outreach activities of the CRiStAll project, three local workshops were held in early 2026 to present the project framework and showcase the research activities, methodologies, and results.

The Turin workshop was held at Politecnico di Torino. Speakers, including Ilaria Ballarini, Vincenzo Corrado, Mamak P. Tootkaboni, and Matteo Piro, introduced the CRiStAll project and discussed key themes such as the legislative and regulatory context of UHI, urban archetypes for UHI analysis, future climate data, and resilience strategies.

The Bolzano workshop was held at the Agenzia per l’Energia Alto Adige – CasaClima stand during the 2026 Klimahouse Fair. After an introduction to the project, Giovanni Pernigotto presented work on urban archetypes and urban building energy modelling. Furthermore, Marco Manzan focused on future weather files and the combined impact of climate change and UHI.

The Trieste workshop was held at the Università degli Studi di Trieste and was organized by Marco Manzan and Raffaela Cefalo. After Ilaria Ballarini presented the project, the event illustrated regional experiences and research in the field of urban climate modelling, adaptation and mitigation strategies. A translation service allowed people from neighbouring Slovenia to participate as well.

Overall, the workshops provided an important opportunity for dialogue among researchers, public institutions, and practitioners, strengthening the exchange of knowledge and perspectives.

A sincere thank you to the Comune di Torino, Regione Piemonte, and Links Foundation for their participation; to the Agenzia per l’Energia Alto Adige – CasaClima for hosting the Bolzano session and to Ulrich Klammsteiner for moderating it; to ARPA FVG, the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region,ATER Trieste; andto all participants for the constructive and engaging discussion.

The CRiStAll project hosted the webinar “Urban Heat Island and Climate Change: Models, Archetypes and Mitigation Strategies” on Tuesday, 17 February 2026 (10:00–12:00) via Microsoft Teams,with 56 participants.

Alongside an overview of the CRiStAll project, the webinar brought together experts from universities and research institutions to discuss the Urban Heat Island (UHI), emphasising the need to assess and manage the phenomenon at territorial scale through reliable climate models, robust analytical tools, and mitigation strategies that reduce impacts on the built environment.

Full details are available in the flyer.

The CRiStAll project team participated in the REHVA HVAC World Congress – CLIMA 2025, focused on “Decarbonized, healthy, and energy-conscious buildings in future climates.”

During the conference, the team had the opportunity to present key findings from the CRiStAll project, particularly on the development of urban archetypes and their energy performance assessment under Urban Heat Island (UHI) effects in both current and future climate conditions.

The paper, presented by Matteo Piro, is titled “A methodology for the assessment of the Urban Heat Island effect by exploiting the urban archetype approach,” and is co-authored by Ilaria Ballarini, Matteo Piro, Vincenzo Corrado, Giovanni Pernigotto, Gregorio Borelli, and Andrea Gasparella.

We’ve passed the halfway mark of our journey!

The second newsletter of the CRiStAll project highlights our recent progress!

What have we done in the first six months of the CRiStAll project?

Let’s read the first newsletter to find out!

Time for a quick update about the CRiStAll dissemination activities! In the last summer, we have been quite active in raising awareness on the issue of Urban Heat Island and discussing how UBEM tools can support the identification of mitigation measures.

In the framework of the Building Simulation Applications (BSA )2024 conference , which took place in Bolzano from June 24th to 26th, we organized the 4th Student School on Building Performance Simulation Applications, this edition dealing with the “Study of the Urban Heat Island effect: from weather data to UBEM simulations with building archetypes” .

This school brought together several experts on UBEM simulations, building archetypes, Urban Heat Island, and weather files for building performance simulations (Prof. G. Evola from the University of Catania, dr. L. Carnieletto from the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Prof. A. Zarrella, dr. J. Vivian and dr. E. Prataviera from the University of Padova, Prof. Ilaria Ballarini from the Polytechnic University of Torino, Prof. Marco Manzan from the University of Trieste, and Prof. Giovanni Pernigotto from the Free University of Bolzano).

Almost 50 PhD and master-degree students and researchers from Italy and from several countries around the world participated in the BSA School, underling the interest on the Urban Heat Island phenomenon and the need of proper tools to mitigate its effects on our cities.