Low-energy Design Techniques for a Sustainable Future

The paper presents a discussion of the issues surrounding the design of sustainable lowenergybuildings. The main focus is towards naturally ventilated and mixed-modebuildings (where mechanical cooling is only used when thought to be essential). Becausethe conditions in these buildings will vary from day to day it is important to understandhow people react and adapt to their environment. Design guidance is changing and theconcept of occupant adaptation has become an accepted approach to the assessment ofcomfort in free running buildings. This paper provides a brief summary of recentdevelopments in this area and of the climatic data required to assess the performance ofthese building types. Low-energy design strategies are discussed and case studiesprovide examples. Temperatures within free running buildings are always closely linkedto those outside and because the climate is changing, and temperatures will probablyincrease, the future will offer greater challenges to the designers of low-energy buildings.These issues are demonstrated by predictions of the performance of some case studybuildings under a climate changer scenario. The examples also demonstrate some of theimportant principles associated with low-energy design.