Contents

1.Sustainability................................................................................................................................ 2

2. Sustainable Housing................................................................................................................... 5

3. Potential contribution of housing to sustainability ..................................................................... 6

4. Urbanization and urban growth .................................................................................................. 7

5. Low income housing Strategies. ................................................................................................. 8

4.1 Self-help Housing Strategies. ................................................................................................ 8

4.2. Turner’s self-help concept .................................................................................................... 8

4.3. Aided self-help housing ..................................................................................................... 10

4.4. Self-help housing cooperatives .......................................................................................... 11

6. Urbanization and environmental challenges.......................................................................... 11

7. Balancing environment with urban growth............................................................................ 12

8. Building sustainable communities ......................................................................................... 14

9. Design guidelines for sustainable housing ............................................................................ 14

10. The sustainable housing estate .............................................................................................. 15

11. Technical factors in energy efficient housing design ............................................................ 17

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Lecture Note Compiled by: Alemu M. 1
 1. Sustainability

Sustainability is based on a simple principle:- Everything that we need for our survival and
feeling of comfort, either directly or indirectly, is in our natural environment, humans and nature
can exist in productive harmony, that permits fulfilling the social, economic and other
requirements of present and future generations. So Sustainable architecture uses research results
about the environment, the biology and human ecology and it tries to use these results in
the building technology.

The sustainability can be defined as meeting the needs of today without compromising the needs
of future generations.

Some key terms of sustainability

Sustainable development “Development that meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” (Brundtland,
1987)
Sustainable design “Creating buildings which are energy efficient, healthy,
comfortable, flexible in use and designed for long life.” (Foster and Partners, 1999)
Sustainable construction “The creation and management of healthy buildings based
upon resource efficient and ecological principles.” (BSRIA, Centre for Construction
Ecology, 1996)

Along these points, sustainability and the sustainable development itself have three important
pillars: Economy, Environment, and Society. Which together form a unit.

The following (Figure 1.1) illustrates the theory of sustainability along the three dimensions of
sustainability.

Social sustainability: - Technological innovations can be said to be sustainable only if they are
accepted by the users and are beneficial to their well-being. Proper awareness of the technology is
a factor which helps in making the technology acceptable.

The materials or technology, those requiring decentralized production can help in enabling the
users in self-building and result in local level employment and income generation.

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This will provide direct benefits in upgrading the quality of life of those who couldn’t have
afforded a ‘standard’ house; the technique can also be considered as socially sustainable.

 Employment generation
 Housing solution that is Affordable for those who can’t afford adequate house.
 Acceptable by the user.
 Decentralized production
Example, People with a low income do not want to live in houses that are labelled for low income
people, because then everybody would know those who live in these houses, are poor.

Figure 1.1 the three pillars of sustainability.

Economical sustainability: - Technological options which demands minimum infrastructure,

basic resources and unskilled labor requirements improves the affordability of sustainable
constructions only if enough accessibility to materials and labor.

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Given conditions of availability of local labor, the technique can prove to be really low cost and
extremely cost-effective for the quality of construction achieved. As the technique is labor-
intensive and not material-intensive, the technique is very cost-effective. In this technique, the
manufacture and supply of high quality building material and ceramic products used in building
are an integral part of the technique. Houses become suppliers of products to the local area, rather
than the conventional houses that are consumers of building materials. The surrounding structures
and secondary development also sees value addition in the products that are brought into the local
economy.

One should not only look at the price of the house, but other expenses associated with living in
that house, for example services, rates and taxes.

An assessment of the economic capability of the target group that will include looking at how well
they can afford all the expenses linked to the house should be done.

 Low-cost technology
 Labor intensive
 Value addition
 Creation of small scale industry for production of building materials

Environmental sustainability:- Technological innovations can be said to environmentally

sustainable only if it either contributes to or maintain the quality of environment rather than
degrading it by utilizing non-renewable resources or producing materials which are harmful to the
environment.

The reductions in waste, pollution, carbon emission, etc. are the main factors that need to be
considered for environmental sustainability.

 Energy efficiency
 Active design features
 Water efficiency
 Building maintenance

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2. Sustainable Housing

No society is balanced and in harmony with nature unless housing is sustainable. Housing, as
against individual houses, is central to perceptions of quality of life; attractive homes in well
managed estates are as important as education and job security to urban satisfaction. Professional
institutes have a duty to serve society in the provision of decent housing. This means housing that
is desirable, well maintained, and free of crime and of low energy design. It is also professionally
unacceptable to design housing that is energy inefficient, encourages crime, does not provide for
disabled access and ignores opportunities for recycling of waste or water.

Housing, employment, education and leisure should not be separately zoned activities but
integrated into attractive mixed use neighborhoods. Physical separation has to be replaced by
social integration.

As useful starting point is the Brundtland Commission definition of 1987 which describes
sustainable development as ‘development that meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The Brundtland approach
is resource based, and this, because of the growing realization of global warming, has increasingly
been interpreted in the construction industry as a question of low energy design. However; energy
efficiency is not the only issue with regard to housing, and for many tenants of social housing
schemes, the priority is staying warm, living in safe neighborhoods and keeping water bills down.

One may, therefore, define sustainable housing as ‘housing that meets the perceived and real needs
of the present in a resource efficient fashion whilst providing attractive, safe and ecologically rich
neighborhoods’. Resource efficient is not the same as zero impact but it does imply the Brundtland
contract between current resource usage and future demand.

Sustainability is a process; sustainable development is the product. The process must, in the field
of housing, address five distinct fields:

The conservation of natural resources (land, energy, water)

The sensible re-use of man-made resources
Maintenance of ecosystems and their regenerative potential
Equity between generations, peoples and classes
Provision of health, safety and security.

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Sustainable housing has the potential to produce good quality housing at a price that is affordable
both in the short and long term. Thus, sustainable housing must aim at economic, social and
environmental sustainability from planning to implementation phase and at the same time result
in housing that is affordable, accessible and environmentally less damaging.

A sustainable housing has remained difficult to define, yet it should be coherent to certain
characteristics of sustainable development:-

(1) Help for the very poor because they are left with no option other than to destroy their
environment,

(2) The idea of self-reliant development, within natural resource constraints,

(3) The idea of cost-effective development, meaning thereby that development should not degrade
environmental quality, nor should it reduce productivity in the long run,

(4) The issues of disease control, appropriate technologies, food security, clean water and shelter
for all,

(5) The notion that people-centered participatory initiatives are needed; human beings in other
words, are the resources in the concept.

From this perspective the sustainable housing policy should incorporate three objectives: - The
first of these is that future policies must provide the basis for household improvement. The second
objective of the policies which could result in sustainable housing improvement is concerned with
the empowerment of poor people. The third objective of such policies must be to psychologically
give the lower segment of the urban society a feeling of self-worth. Thus, in order to be sustainable,
housing initiatives must be economically viable, socially acceptable and affordable, technically
feasible and environmentally-friendly.

3. Potential contribution of housing to sustainability

It is pertinent to note that housing sector can significantly contribute to sustainability because of
its close association with environmental aspects:

1. Buildings consume large amounts of natural and man-made resource in construction,

maintenance and continued use by society.

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2. Buildings are a fixed asset with a long operational lifespan.
3. Buildings are among the fundamental necessity for a good quality of life, and thus have
implications beyond housing affecting transport, health, employment and community.
4. Buildings are amenable to numerous ways in which recycled materials can be reused for
construction.
5. Large number of innovations are available for efficiently operating the buildings including use
of recycled material for construction, wastewater treatment and use, energy efficiency, solar
heating, passive solar heating, creating urban green spaces in proximity to compact housing.

1.7 Key interactions in climate change. Brian Edwards BRE

4. Urbanization and urban growth

In 1950, developing nations accounted for less than 40% of the world’s urban population. By 2005
that figure reached 70%. It is projected that urban population in developing nations will continue
to grow reaching 80% by 2030. By 2050, 93% of the urban population growth will occur in
developing countries. One of the major challenges faced by cities today is the growing number of
urban dwellers living in slum conditions. About one third of the world urban population live in
these conditions and if populations continue to grow it is estimated that 889 million people will
live in slums by 2020.

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Urbanization is the process through which cities and towns develop and grow. It includes the
movement of people from rural to urban areas and movement of people among cities. It is also the
development of urban economies and urban social and Political systems (UN-Habitat, 2002). More
than half of the world’s population now lives in towns and Cities. More of the growth will take
place in developing countries. The way urban settlement develops and grows differs in different
countries. The factors which shape the pattern of urbanization are namely: Globalization,
demography, democratization, communication technology, economic transformation and social
and cultural changes. All of these have influenced the pattern of urbanization in turn influences
the approach for housing development.

5. Low income housing Strategies.

In 1950s and 1960s under modernization theory the response was controlling the urbanization
process and focusing on urban growth by improving impact of urbanization on housing. Slums and
squatter settlements were seen as forces holding back the progress towards modernization. The
response was to eradicate or to leave them as they were.
5.1 Self-help Housing Strategies.

Turner and other advocates of self-help argued self-help mechanisms as a possible alternative to
the failing government-driven low-income housing program. It is believed that turner was the most
influential person of the self-help concept.
5.2. Turner’s self-help concept

Turner (1976) raised three main issues concerning self-help concepts in housing. The first concept
was the concept of dweller control. He argued dwellers has to control the major decisions and has
to be free to make their own contribution to the design, construction and management of their
housing. If dwellers control major decision, both the process and the environment produced will
stimulate Individual and social well-being. When people have neither control over, nor
responsibility for key decisions in the process of housing, dwelling environments may instead
become a barrier to personal fulfillment and a burden on the economy.

The Second concept was the value of housing. Turner says the most important thing about housing
is not what it is, but what it does in people’s lives. Turner’s third concept says that deficiencies

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and imperfections in your housing are infinitely more tolerable if they are your responsibility than
if they are somebody else's. It is about economy of housing (Turner, 1976).

The simplest way of doing this in housing is to divide the process of decision-making into three
easily recognizable sets of operations:

1. Planning and designing

2. Construction and building operations

3. The management and maintenance of what is built,

Even to provide a temporary home, a dwelling must gave its users access to institutions, and
amenities on which their livelihoods depend; it must provide a minimum shelter from climate and
neighbors; and the users must have tenure long enough (Turner, 1976).

Turner comes with idea of self-help housing with argument of value of housing, economy of
housing and authority over housing then he traces principles and practices from the arguments.

Value of housing: Turner argues what matters in housing is what it does for people rather than
what it is. “A house can be a home if and only if it is minimally accessible, provides minimum
shelter, and a minimum security of tenure” (Turner, 1976; 97). It is illogical to state housing
problem in terms of deficits of units to some material standard rather people’s housing needs must
always be stated in terms of priorities. By variable nature of three universal housing needs access,
shelter, and tenure, Turner says on the issue of value of housing the choice is between the values
of what procedures and products do for people and their environment, and the material values of
the things themselves. In other words, it is the issue of use value versus market-value (exchange
value) (Turner, 1976).

Economy of housing: Turner argued the economy of housing is a matter of resource of personal
rather than centrally controlled, and he says only if the people controls the material available and
locally accessible resources be effectively used (Turner, 1976).

Authority over housing: Turner argues housing and other services has to be autonomous rather
than heteronomous. He also argued that this autonomy is not being absolute. It depends on access
to essential resources. But the central issue is who decides, and who provides. The influences of
Turner’s idea of self-help were that: squatter settlements were seen as normal residents, self-help

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becomes part of housing policies worldwide. Despite this he did not promote absolute isolation of
any key stakeholder. Yet his ideas are criticized by Burgess.

Criticism of turner’s self-help: Burgess argues that because commercial products and labor are
invested in the production of self-help houses there is always market value. Turner wrongly
assumes that use value dominates over market value and fails to appreciate their interrelations.
Burgess says what usually makes self-help housing programs cheaper is not absence of profits, but
rather the labor contribution (sweat equity) of the future users (Burgess, 1978).

In Burgess’s opinion, Turner’s individualistic view of self-help housing is not sufficiently

inclusive. It views self-help housing as a process exclusive of the immediate socio-political context
in which it takes place. This debate of self-help housing helps to draw attention to shelter problems
of the poor and acknowledge housing right of the poor internationally .International conferences
like Vancouver conference in 1976 accepted the idea of self-help aimed for improving the socio
economic living conditions of the poor households.

This alternative housing strategy was adopted as a major component of financing of the housing
programs in developing countries.

5.3. Aided self-help housing

In this concept of self-help, the government became responsible to provide some of housing
elements or aspects to make the house affordable by allowing individual or collective initiatives
of households to house themselves .The role of the state is to support by providing land, tenure
and basic services. Out of this aided self-help housing can be seen from product and process
characteristics.

Product characteristics: self-help housing as a product could be seen as incomplete structure,

and most importantly that it is minimal in its size or level of completion, and designed with the
intention that residents add space to it, or sub-divide it, after occupation.

Process characteristics: Housing as process will include input of self-help and contractor during
the different design and construction phases; the degree of freedom and choice granted to
households, and the point at which households become involved; the types of financing packages
available to residents.

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5.4. Self-help housing cooperatives

The simplest form of self-help construction is for an individual household to construct its own
house and the other is through cooperative. The basic reason for building through self-help
construction is to reduce costs of houses .When it becomes through cooperative form it further
reduces the cost of the house. Self-help housing cooperatives were considered useful instruments
which low-income households could get opportunity and improve the quality of their lives while
accessing affordable housing. Housing cooperatives adopt two methods they either construct
houses or they advance loans to individuals who in turn construct their houses (Ntema, 2011).
Advantages of self-help housing cooperatives:

The three advantages of self-help cooperative housing are: First, it gives participation of
beneficiaries in providing their own housing. In a direct way it provides them the opportunity to
participate in the housing development. It provides opportunities for marginalized groups to have
experience of participating in wider decision making and to take control of their own lives.
Secondly, it mobilizes the skills of the community and its financial resources. Thirdly, the
cooperative mobilize additional resources into the housing delivery system (UNCHS (Habitat),
1989).

6. Urbanization and environmental challenges

The rapid urbanization has put pressure on the finite resources and is characterized by severe
shortage of basic services like potable water, well laid-out drainage system, sewerage network,
sanitation facilities, electricity, roads and waste disposal. These in turn result in to numerous
environmental and health impacts that must be addressed. The green cover and water bodies have
been destroyed to give way to the rapidly developing urban centers. Modern buildings in cities
have high levels of energy consumption in air-conditioning and lighting. Thus, unplanned and
unsustainable urban development has lead to severe environmental pressures. These challenges
are many, but can be summarized as:-

Slum development: The polarization of growth towards metro cities and mega cities poses a
greater challenge to provide housing in urban areas, which are rapidly becoming areas of
crowded habitations without basic amenities.

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 Wastewater generation and water pollution: Adequate quantities of water are required for healthy
living: for drinking, cooking and washing. Because of the population growth and urbanization the
gap between per capita water supply and demand is getting bigger. This is putting pressure on
water resources of the area.
Land resource and vegetation degradation and destruction: The higher density of housing is
putting pressure on land resource and vegetation which is leading to reduction of green cover and
further loss of green infrastructure.
Reduction in biodiversity and forests and green Cover: The rapid clearing of trees and converting
parks for giving way to housing is leading to decreasing green belt.
Traffic related air and noise pollution: This explosive growth in the number of vehicles is a big
problem in many cities.
Sewage generation and pollution of urban water bodies: The lack of sanitation and sewage
treatment is the biggest contributor of water pollution. Local water bodies and rivers are used as a
dumping ground for untreated water from many urban areas and industrial clusters.
Solid waste generation: Solid waste management means proper collection, transfer, recycling and
disposal of solid wastes. In many cities the solid waste disposal is inefficient or non-existing. In
such areas waste ends up to the illegal dump on streets, open spaces, ponds, lakes, wastelands,
drains or rivers.
Climate change: Modern buildings have high levels of energy consumption because of
requirements of air-conditioning and lighting. This leads increasing release of greenhouse gases,
resulting in to contributions to climate change.

7. Balancing environment with urban growth

To balance environment with urban growth—or at a minimum, to arrive at trade-offs—we have to

draw on several concepts which often have overlapping ideas. These concepts provide us
networked and intricately linked action points that would need to be integrated to achieve a balance
between urbanization and environment. These include: Sustainable communities, Sustainable
cities, Livable cities, Green cities, Prosperous cities, Eco-cities, Healthy cities and, resilient cities.
In order to achieve the desired outcome that encompasses the above stated dimensions, following
policy options and actions are suggested:

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1. Green infrastructure creation and management: Urban green infrastructure comprise of all
natural, semi-natural and artificial networks of multifunctional ecological systems within,
around and between urban areas, at all spatial scales. Green infrastructure can provide
numerous ecosystem services such as purification of air and water, pollution control,
mitigation of floods and droughts, re-generation of soil fertility, moderation of temperature
extremes, carbon sequestration, climate change mitigation and enhancing the landscape
quality. Deliberately planned, developed, and maintained green infrastructure has the potential
to guide urban development by providing a framework for economic growth and nature
conservation across urban systems.
2. Wastewater treatment, recycling and appropriate use: Urban systems create vast quantities of
wastewater through inefficiencies and poor management of water systems. The wasting of
water poses sustainability challenges, depletes energy reserves, and undermines human water
security and ecosystem health. Approaches for reusing wastewater and minimizing its
generation are urgently required. If applied in combination, these options make the most of
scarce freshwater resources, serve the varying water needs, and confer a variety of
environmental benefits. However, their widespread adoption will require changing how
freshwater is sourced, used, managed, and priced.
3. Waste management: Managing solid waste is one of biggest challenges of the urban areas in
developing countries. In spite of heavy expenditure by civic bodies, management of municipal
solid waste remains one of the most neglected issues of urban development in developing
countries.
4. Green transportation: It is not urbanization alone which affects environmental sustainability,
but also how people move about the city. Countries that rely on private transport use more
energy per passenger kilometer than countries with high levels of public and non-motorized
transport modes. Good land use policies can also encourage the trend of using mass
transportation system. Compact cities, such as Vienna and Madrid, have significantly higher
population density and higher public transport use than more sprawling cities. Therefore, the
issues which need to be considered are good quality and affordable mass transportation system,
road infrastructure, fuel quality and traffic planning to make city transportation eco-friendly.
5. Affordable housing: With increasing concentration and growth of economic and commercial
activities and influx of population in Indian cities, the demand for affordable housing delivery

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 is intense, resulting in the proliferation of slums. Affordable housing to the poor sections of
the society in ever growing cities is much needed to avoid development of slums. Amelioration
of affordable housing delivery and control in growth of slums is likely to depend on policies
that ensure the satisfaction of certain core economic principles such as the household stock and
flow principle. It must be understood, however, that housing affordability is a complex issue
that should not be assessed in terms of financial attributes and economic viability alone. In
order to increase quality of life and community sustainability the environmental and social
sustainability of housing must also be taken into consideration along with provisioning of civic
amenities.

8. Building sustainable communities

Architects, house builders, local authorities, housing associations, lenders and others involved in
providing housing have a key role to play in promoting developments that will sustain
communities.
The construction, design, location and mix of tenure and type of housing can all be critical to the
long term quality of life for the communities who will live there, including energy use and
environmental impact.
But we must all make greater efforts to build community consultation and participation into all
stages of the development process—from drawing up plans to handing over keys, and beyond. If
people are given a sense of ownership—a feeling that they belong and are part of the community,
able to contribute to decisions affecting their lives and the lives of their families, friends and
neighbors —communities will become more sustainable.

9. Design guidelines for sustainable housing

The attainment of sustainable housing is a growing ambition for all in the construction industry.
No society is balanced and sustainable unless housing addresses difficult issues such as social
exclusion, crime and employment opportunities as well as the usual priorities of energy and
environmental performance. Along with job security and education, housing is central to the
public’s perception of quality of life.
However; since housing is multi-faceted, the attainment of sustainable housing requires teamwork
between the professions in the construction industry. Collaboration between architects and
planners, between the public and private sectors, between users and providers, designers and
contractors is essential if sustainable housing is to become a reality.

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Sustainable housing is a matter of both the design and management of the housing stock. A decent
home of whatever type is central to social cohesion, personal wellbeing and the creation of
successful communities.
Whereas sustainable development balances economic growth with environmental capacity, the
task of building sustainable communities involves finding ways of integrating social, economic
and environmental goals. Communities of the future will need to live more in equilibrium with
nature than in the past. This requires rethinking how we design buildings, how we lay out estates,
how towns connect with their surroundings and interrelate with natural resources. Action is
required of us all—government, professions, industry, communities and individuals.

Lifestyle change cannot be imposed but it can be encouraged by good design. It is relatively easy
to evolve new ideas but too often in the construction industry old ideas get in the way of
implementing fresh thinking. Design holds the key to unlocking future potential and to presenting
new ideas in a way that breaks down barriers to change. There is no future for sustainable housing
without a culture change in society.
The DETR report Building a Sustainable Future: Homes for an Autonomous Community, reviews
some of the issues involved in sustainable housing. It argues that sustainable communities might
include measures such as:
• The interconnection of work, housing, community and leisure facilities
• The provision of opportunities for local employment new housing design compatible with
more sustainable lifestyles.
These measures have the potential to provide stable, self-reliant communities. As for the houses,
the report suggests that these are likely to be super-insulated, of high thermal mass, airtight in
construction and made from building materials based upon nontoxic, low embodied energy
principles. In addition, the sustainable house will (just as in the co-authors’ Robert and Brenda
Vale’s own house) feature water collection from the rain, sewage treatment on site using reed beds
and composting techniques, waste recycling and local energy generation.

10. The sustainable housing estate

The sustainable house is dependent upon integrated design and this is equally true of sustainable
communities where the principles underpinning the individual house are multiplied several times
over at the level of the housing estate, questions of land use policy, density of development,
integration of transport, social mix, ownership and tenure mix, all become important. Decisions
made at the planning level will inevitably affect construction decisions.
One thing is certain of sustainability and that is that lifestyles will need to change. At first, change
will be by persuasion, but later compulsion may be needed. Ultimately legislation will be the motor

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of lifestyle change. At the master planning level lifestyles will need to adapt to denser layouts, less
land use segregation, more social interaction, less private transport access and very much altered
housing design. For instance, the maximizing of passive solar gain will result in a preference for
southern orientation of dwellings with houses looking different on opposite sides of the road
(Figures 13.1 and 13.2). Blocks may be more widely spaced (for solar aperture) but higher and
denser in layout since heat loss is critical, future housing will use terraced and flatted forms as
against detached and semi-detached.
Housing layout too will incorporate measures to improve the microclimate. Courtyard layout may
be preferred—possibly using south facing courts—with dense tree planting providing shelter at
the edge of estates or summertime shading near to houses. Places exposed, such as the periphery
of the estate or rooftops, will probably exploit passive energy sources such as the wind and sun.
Housing of the future will not be functionally separate and isolated as in the past but constructed
within neighborhoods or blocks containing other land uses. The close integration of different
functions into overlapping zones of activity will drastically alter the face of housing. Existing
residential neighborhoods will come under pressure to absorb other land uses within garden space
or lofts whilst new housing areas will not be monocultures as in the past the change opens up
opportunities for innovative design with the emphasis upon the small builder not large contractor;
and on site specific not universal solutions
Sustainable housing estate planning

– concentrate development in mixed use neighborhoods

– use terraced or flatted solutions
– exploit CHP opportunities
– use development clusters related to public transport
– integrate with cycle or walking routes
– exploit solar layouts
– provide shelter
– integrate energy estate planning with safe streets policies
– ensure mixed use and mixed tenure
– exploit aesthetic potential of high density
Since passive solar gains can make an important contribution to reducing energy consumption in
housing (by as much as 18% without house type change) orientation of dwellings should be up to
30° either side of south. Coupled with this the area of glazing should be restricted to the north and
enlarged to the south. As glazing areas are partly a function of room needs, this results in houses
of differential layout according to aspect. A delicate balance, however has to be struck between
solar gain, heat loss, daylight need, and double or triple glazing. Also the fabric should be able to
absorb and store the passive gains by incorporating high thermal mass.

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Site layout for maximizing solar gain has implications for plan and section. To achieve solar
penetration between houses an unobstructed angle of 10° is needed on south elevations. This is
particularly true where roof mounted photovoltaic panels are used. Housing layout with a
preference for a southerly aspect requires care in planting design to avoid reducing the solar
benefits by poor landscape design and to create shelter Wind tunnels are the result of parallel
alignments and in residential areas—particularly in northern locations— windbreaks are needed.

Reducing transport CO2 emissions

– Vehicle efficiency improvements
– City traffic management
– improved public transport
– Lower speed limits
– encourage journeys on foot or cycle
– remove company car incentives
– Integrate land uses
– Compact development without zoning

11.Technical factors in energy efficient housing design

The sustainable house offers enhanced comfort, lower energy or water bills, greater self-reliance,
improved health, and a more harmonious relationship with nature, seasons and daily cycles.
Utopian it may be, but the sustainable house of the future combines spiritual values with good
building science. Three factors in particular are emerging as essential construction requirements
of the sustainable house:
• Thickness of perimeter fabric
• Airtightness linked to high levels of insulation
• Efficient boiler systems.
They are related and need to be considered as aspects of integrated design for the low energy
house. The three factors represent key issues for the designer or developer and relate directly to
material choices, energy strategies and lifecycle upgrading of housing.
The Building Research Establishment (BRE) through its arm BRECSU has sought recently to
focus attention upon the three topics in order to demonstrate that via an integrated package of
fabric, heating and ventilation measures, low energy housing can be achieved at little or no
additional cost.

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