Quality in relation to indoor climate and energy efficiency - An analysis of trends, achievements and remaining challenges

Since the oil crisis of the seventies, the interest given to buildings physics, indoor climate and energy use has strongly increased. The building envelope and HVAC systems in modern buildings are often completely different from those typically found in buildings of the sixties and seventies. In general, we often consider the quality of todays buildings substantially higher. To what extent is this impression of improved quality fact or fiction? Is it valid for all technologies and is there a substantial improvement in quality of the indoor climate? In cases where the quality is not as high as one might expect, what are the reasons for such lack of quality? Is it mainly for technical reasons, or other reasons? What can we learn from the past? And finally, what are the possibilities for an improvement of the quality. This study intends to discuss these various issues and to give clear, well-argued evaluations and recommendations. The global objective of this thesis can be described as follows. to make a critical analysis of trends, achievements and remaining challenges concerning the quality of the built environment and of building technology with respect to indoor climate and energy efficiency The study aims to describe general trends at international level with as major example the situation at Belgian level. Especially with respect to indications for improvements, the Belgian context is the reference one.