Abstract
In current building design, the integration of local renewable energy sources (RES) rarely regards the mutual influences among building functions, components and related performances, neither interaction with electric or thermal grids. Furthermore, the building is usually conceived as a stand-alone entity, without considering the potential interaction with the surroundings except the one directional connection with sources infrastructure. The modelling approach of this paper scales the design from single building to cluster level, promoting an innovative optimization method applicable in the early design stage, in order to help in the choice of effective design strategies for maximizing the matching between local energy production and consumption at cluster scale.