About

Lisa Domenica Iulo is a professor of architecture and the director of the Hamer Center for Community Design at the Penn State Stuckeman School. She is a registered architect, professional planner, and LEED-Accredited Professional whose work and research focus on building and planning for a more sustainable future. Her expertise includes residential green building practices, affordable housing, energy efficiency, and strategies for implementing renewable energy at both the building and community scales. Since joining Penn State's architecture faculty in 2003, she has been dedicated to integrating ecological planning and green building practices into architectural education. Iulo teaches courses across the curriculum, including urban design, comprehensive building design studios, and seminars on LEED® and sustainable design, fostering collaborative and integrative learning. Her professional work has been recognized nationally and internationally, and she has contributed to numerous projects and publications related to sustainable architecture and community design.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Political Science
• Engineering
• Environmental science
• Ecology
• Geography
• Civil engineering
• Environmental resource management
• Psychology
• Business
• Engineering management
• Environmental planning
• Physical geography
• Meteorology
• Mechanical engineering
• Archaeology
• Medicine
• Human–computer interaction
• Architectural engineering

Selected publications

• Determinants of U.S. residential energy consumption at national and state levels: Policy implications

  Energy Policy · 2025-03-30 · 7 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Quantifying the Enhanced Performance of Multifamily Residential Passive House over Conventional Buildings in Terms of Energy Use

  Buildings · 2024-06-20 · 6 citations

  articleOpen access

  In response to escalating energy demands and global warming concerns, the Passive House Standard has emerged as a solution in residential construction, aiming to drastically reduce energy consumption and operational costs primarily through high-performance building envelopes. While a considerable volume of the literature has focused on the Passivhaus Institute (PHI) standards, predominantly in European contexts, there is a gap in research on the Passive House Institute US (Phius) standards, particularly in North American climates. This study conducts a quantitative comparative analysis of two adjacent multifamily residential buildings in Central Pennsylvania, Climate Zone 5A—one built using conventional construction methods and the other following Passive House (PHIUS+ 2015) certification standards—to validate the energy efficiency improvements attributed to Passive House designs. A comparative analysis of the whole building energy use over two years reveals that the Passive House building consumes approximately 50% less energy than its conventional counterpart in terms of whole building energy use and the national median recommended benchmark metric defined by the Energy Star Portfolio Manager. These findings emphasize the potential for significant energy savings and greenhouse gas reductions in residential buildings, highlighting the necessity for policymakers and governments to incentivize the adoption of Passive House standards to achieve environmental sustainability and reduce energy costs for society.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• A novel parametric workflow for simulating urban heat island effects on residential building energy use: Coupling local climate zones with the urban weather generator a case study of seven U.S. cities

  Sustainable Cities and Society · 2024-06-06 · 34 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Strengthening opportunities to integrate informal resilience practices in formal flood resilience planning

  International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction · 2024-04-21 · 6 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Collaborative governance challenges in energy efficiency and conservation: The case of Pennsylvania

  Utilities Policy · 2024-02-06 · 8 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Strengthening Opportunities to Integrate Informal Resilience Practices in Formal Flood Resilience Planning

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2023-01-01

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• A Review of the Energy Performance Gap between Predicted and Actual Use in Buildings

  Building Simulation Conference proceedings · 2023-09-04 · 13 citations

  reviewOpen access

  It has become a scientific consensus that buildings are one of the most critical sectors to achieving zero emissions, efficiency, and resiliency, thus mitigating and adapting to the impacts of climate change. Building performance is the means to communicate energy efficiency and carbon emissions, as well as detect performance issues and improvement measures. The traditional approach to assessing building performance is modeling the building performance with physics-based computer simulation engines and using the simulated results as the indicator of compliance, labeling, and certification related to energy-efficiency codes and standards. A significant drawback of this design-only simulation approach is that designs of buildings and completed buildings differ, and with them also the design-phase simulation and the actual use. Studies have indicated that there is a substantial gap between the computer-predicted performance at the design stage and the actual performance of buildings once constructed. This gap suggests that the in-use building does not align with the expected performance targets. The performance gap could lead to skepticism in high-performance building concepts, undermining public confidence in the building energy efficiency and decarbonization movement. Growing research attention has been drawn to this problem in recent years. However, the presented understanding of the performance gap and hence its significance remain incomplete and inadequate.With the purpose of enlightening the latest research status and future research directions, this paper reviews existing literature on this performance gap problem and yields an in-depth discussion on the magnitude and reasons for the performance gap and ongoing strategies to close it. Furthermore, unlike other review articles on this problem, this paper discusses the application of state-of-the-art techniques, statistic regressions and machine learning, in improving the prediction accuracy of building performance in addition to those used in traditional physics-based simulation engines.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Urban Microclimate, Outdoor Thermal Comfort, and Socio-Economic Mapping: A Case Study of Philadelphia, PA

  Buildings · 2023 · 22 citations

  • Computer Science
  • Geography
  • Environmental science

  Urban areas are often warmer than rural areas due to the phenomenon known as the “urban heat island” (UHI) effect, which can cause discomfort for those engaging in outdoor activities and can have a disproportionate impact on low-income communities, people of color, and the elderly. The intensity of the UHI effect is influenced by a variety of factors, including urban morphology, which can vary from one area to another. To investigate the relationship between outdoor thermal comfort and urban morphology in different urban blocks with varying social vulnerability status, this study developed a geographic information system (GIS)-based workflow that combined the “local climate zone” (LCZ) classification system and an urban microclimate assessment tool called ENVI-met. To demonstrate the effectiveness of this methodology, the study selected two different urban blocks in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania–with high and low social vulnerability indices (SVI)–to compare their microclimate conditions in association with urban morphological characteristics such as green coverage area, sky view factor (SVF), albedo, and street height to width (H/W) ratio. The results of the study showed that there was a strong correlation between tree and grass coverage and outdoor air and mean radiant temperature during hot seasons and extremely hot days, which in turn affected simulated predicted mean vote (PMV). The effects of greenery were more significant in the block associated with a low SVI, where nearly 50% of the site was covered by trees and grass, compared to only 0.02% of the other block associated with a high SVI. Furthermore, the investigation discovered that reduced SVF, along with increased albedo and H/W ratio, had a beneficial impact on the microclimate at the pedestrian level within the two studied urban blocks. This study provided an effective and easy-to-implement method for tackling the inequity issue of outdoor thermal comfort and urban morphology at fine geographic scales.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Healthful, Sustainable Design in Community-Engaged Architecture Education

  World sustainability series · 2023-01-01 · 1 citations

  book-chapterSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Small-scale testing of air barrier systems adhered to sheathing boards under in-plane cyclic loading simulating a seismic event

  Case Studies in Construction Materials · 2023-11-19

  articleOpen access

  Envelope air leakage is a large contributor of energy loss in modern high-performance construction. Building enclosure designers along with the building science community are emphasizing the importance of incorporating air barrier products in the envelope design. Furthermore, regulators are reassessing the allowable air leakage limits prescribed in local codes, to reduce unintentional infiltration. Although voluntary, Passive House building standards inform methods and targets for achieving minimal air leakage values to meet certification. Commercial air barrier products often satisfy the airtightness requirements during and immediately following construction. However, seismic events could potentially damage the air barrier product and compromise the envelope’s air tightness. This paper presents the findings of an experimental program conducted to test commercially available air barrier products under in plane cyclic loading. A cyclic loading profile was designed to simulate a seismic event. Selected air barrier products were adhered to small-scale sheathing panels and tested after curing. Multiple combinations of sheathing board material and air barrier tapes were tested. The tested sample groups represent the most common air barrier systems used in the industry, incorporating 3 M Construction Seaming Tape, Siga Wigluv 60, Prosoco R-Guard Joint and Seam Filler, and Zip System Tape. The failure load and failure displacement were recorded for each test, along with the corresponding failure mode. The results of the experimental program suggest that 0.5-inches [1.27 cm] of in plane vertical displacement could completely compromise the air barrier layer due to the delamination or tear of the air barrier sealant. • The Air Barrier Cyclic Testing Protocol was developed to test air barrier systems. • Seismic displacements may compromise the building’s air tightness. • Not all air barrier tapes exhibit the same behavior when subjected to relative displacements. • Liquid applied membranes perform differently than pressure applied tapes under relative displacements.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Robert E. Nicholas

  Pennsylvania State University

  19 shared

• Lara Fowler

  Pennsylvania State University

  19 shared

• Klaus Keller

  Dartmouth College

  18 shared

• Aashna Arora

  Susquehanna River Basin Commission

  16 shared

• Casey Helgeson

  Pennsylvania State University

  16 shared

• Nastaran Tebyanian

  Susquehanna River Basin Commission

  16 shared

• Lacey Goldberg

  Pennsylvania State University

  16 shared

• Nancy Tuana

  Pennsylvania State University

  16 shared

Awards & honors

• 2014 Penn’s Wood Fellow, College of Arts and Architecture no…
• 2011 Award of Recognition for contributions to interdiscipli…
• 2014 BP Solar Performance Award
• PVNews Editors’ Choice Award
• Overall Winner, Green Building Award (projects $5 million an…