Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science

and Technology Series

Editor-in-Chief: Robert A. Meyers

Vivian Loftness Editor

Sustainable Built
Environments
Second Edition
A Volume in the Encyclopedia of
Sustainability Science and Technology,
Second Edition
Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science
and Technology Series

Editor-in-Chief
Robert A. Meyers
The Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology series (ESST)
addresses the grand challenge for science and engineering today. It provides
unprecedented, peer-reviewed coverage in more than 600 separate articles
comprising 20 topical volumes, incorporating many updates from the first
edition as well as new articles. ESST establishes a foundation for the many
sustainability and policy evaluations being performed in institutions
worldwide.
An indispensable resource for scientists and engineers in developing new
technologies and for applying existing technologies to sustainability, the
Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology series is presented at
the university and professional level needed for scientists, engineers, and their
students to support real progress in sustainability science and technology.
Although the emphasis is on science and technology rather than policy, the
Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology series is also a com-
prehensive and authoritative resource for policy makers who want to under-
stand the scope of research and development and how these bottom-up
innovations map on to the sustainability challenge.

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/15436

Vivian Loftness
Editor

Sustainable Built
Environments
Second Edition

A Volume in the Encyclopedia of Sustainability

Science and Technology, Second Edition

With 388 Figures and 57 Tables

Editor
Vivian Loftness
Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA, USA

ISBN 978-1-0716-0683-4 ISBN 978-1-0716-0684-1 (eBook)

ISBN 978-1-0716-0685-8 (print and electronic bundle)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-0684-1
1st edition: © Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013
2nd edition: © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or
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There are dozens who I would and should dedicate this volume to,
from my partner in work and life, Volker, to my always
collaborative colleagues, to my always supportive kids, to the
sustainability leaders who have authored the chapters in this
Encyclopedia.
Yet, I really need to dedicate this volume to my father, Robert
L. Loftness, who inspired me to be a scientist and an
environmentalist and a writer and an architect and so much
more. He wrote his own encyclopedia, the Energy Handbook,
while leading the Washington, DC office of EPRI. He kept files of
critical research on every possible source of energy and energy
efficiency, and he welcomed my debates on the matched relevance
of efficiencies in energy demand in the built environment and
innovations in supply. Moreover, he was the gentlest, smartest,
most loving father one could ever have. To Dad.
Series Preface

Our nearly 1000-member team recognizes that all elements of sustainability

science and technology continue to advance as does our understanding of the
needs for energy, water, clean air, food, mobility, and health and the relation of
every single aspect of this vast and interconnected body of knowledge to
climate change. Our Encyclopedia content is at a level for university students,
professors, engineers, and other practicing professionals. It is gratifying for our
team to note that our online First Edition has been heavily utilized as evidenced
by over 500,000 downloads which of course is in addition to scientists’
utilization of the Encyclopedia and individual “spin-off” volumes in print.
Now we are pleased to have a Living Reference online which assures the
sustainability community that we are providing the latest peer-reviewed con-
tent covering the science and technology of the sustainability of the Earth. We
are also publishing the content as a Series of individual topical books for ease
of use by those with an interest in particular subjects, and with expert oversight
in each field to ensure that the Second Edition presents the state-of-the-science
today. Our team covers the physical, chemical, and biological processes that
underlie the Earth system including pollution and remediation and climate
change, and we comprehensively cover every energy and environment tech-
nology as well as all types of food production, water, transportation, and the
sustainable built environment.
Our team of 15 board members includes two Nobel Prize winners (Kroto
and Fischlin), two former Directors of the NSF (Colwell and Killeen), the
former President of the Royal Society (Lord May), and the Chief Scientist of
the Rocky Mountain Institute (Amory Lovins). And our more than 40 eminent
section editors and now book editors assure quality of our selected authors and
their review presentations.
The extent of our coverage clearly sets our project apart from other publi-
cations which now exist, both in extent and depth. In fact, current compendia
of the science and technology of several of these topics do not presently exist
and yet the content is crucial to any evaluation and planning for the sustain-
ability of the Earth. It is important to note that the emphasis of our project is on
science and technology and not on policy and positions. Rather, policy makers
will use our presentations to evaluate sustainability options.
Vital scientific issues include: human and animal ecological support sys
tems; energy supply and effects; the planet’s climate system; systems of

vii
viii Series Preface

agriculture, industry, forestry, and fisheries and the ocean; fresh water and
human communities; waste disposal; transportation and the built environment
in general and the various systems on which they depend, and the balance of all
of these with sustainability. In this context, sustainability is a characteristic of a
process or state that can be maintained at a certain level indefinitely even as
global population increases toward 9 billion by 2050. The population growth,
and the hope for increase in wealth, implies something like a 50% increase in
food demand by as early as 2030. At the same time, the proportion of the
population that lives in an urban environment will go up from about 47% to
60%. Global economic activity is expected to grow 500%, and global energy
and materials use is expected to increase by 300% over this period. That means
there are going to be some real problems for energy, agriculture, and water, and
it is increasingly clear that conflicting demands among biofuels, food crops,
and environmental protection will be difficult to reconcile. The “green revo-
lution” was heavily dependent on fertilizers which are manufactured using
increasingly expensive and diminishing reserves of fossil fuels. In addition,
about 70% of available freshwater is used for agriculture. Clearly, many
natural resources will either become depleted or scarce relative to population.

Larkspur, CA, USA Robert A. Meyers, Ph.D.

July 2020 Editor-in-Chief
Volume Preface

Despite the immediate challenges of a global pandemic, climate change

remains the existential threat of our century. We have completely tipped the
balance of ecosystems with extraction, consumption, and waste – with global
warming, climate disruptions, air and water pollution, and pandemics as the
consequences. Many believe the answer is in renewable sources that will
enable us to continue consumption at the levels we have grown accustomed,
despite serious global inequities in that consumption. They believe renewable
sources will allow the voracious demands in the building, transportation, and
industrial sectors to continue and even expand worldwide. This is not a vision
for a sustainable, ecologically balanced, and abundant future. Instead, we need
to discover innovative ways to live within the cycles of nature, enjoying the
diversity and dynamics of place. This is the fundamental tenant of sustainable
built environments.
This Encyclopedia has gathered 25 leading authors from around the world
to provide insight into the breadth of knowledge needed to fully define and
understand sustainable built environments. The chapters are grouped in four
major parts and ordered to build expertise across disciplines and scales of
practice.
For architects and designers as well as building construction and facilities
managers, new models and theories are critical to rebuilding the ecological
balance that is our planet. Five models of sustainable built environments are
introduced – Bioclimatic Design, Biophilic Design, Healthy Built Environ-
ments, Regenerative Design, and Resilient Design – with the sixth model
Cradle to Cradle Design captured in the last chapter of this Encyclopedia.
Each of these authors realize that the word sustainable is inadequate to describe
the rebuilding of ecological balance and abundance, and offer addenda to an
already rich set of goals captured in the green building movement worldwide.
After decades of focusing on sustainable buildings, the environmental
design community realized that design decision-making at the urban scale
was even more critical to rebalancing our ecosystem. It is critical to repair our
land use, soils, farms, and forests to reverse the disruption – mitigating climate
change through carbon sequestration and biodiversity building, and adapting
to the repercussions of climate change – floods, droughts, hurricanes, fires, and
more. Six leading practitioners offer expertise in urban design for sustainabil-
ity with chapters spanning from Sustainable Urbanism, Water and Sustainable

ix
x Volume Preface

Design, Green Infrastructures to Face Climate Change, and Greening Brown-

fields to Biodiversity in Cities and Biophilic Cities.
While sustainable urbanism is a critical precursor, buildings must also be
designed and renovated to become a critical partner in the ecological balance.
Nine leading researchers and practitioners provide deep expertise on Building
Design for Sustainability, beginning with building enclosure design to maxi-
mize natural conditioning and minimize energy demand with successively
enriched design detailing of Facades and Enclosures, Passive House (deep
conservation), Passive Solar Heating, Daylighting, and Natural Ventilation.
With environmental conditioning loads reduced to 20–40% of their former
levels, the design of mechanical systems can be dramatically improved as
explained in the two chapters on Sustainable Heating Ventilation and Air
Conditioning and Adaptive Comfort and Mixed-Mode Conditioning. While
a number of important entries should be added to address electric loads and
renewable energy generation at the building level, other volumes of the
Springer Encyclopedia on Sustainability help to fill this gap. Two additional
chapters in this part capture the potential of the fifth façade – the roof for
carbon capture and UHI reduction, and the sixth façade – foundations for
geothermal energy, towards creating a low energy, environmentally balanced
future.
The complexity and richness of design for sustainability must span the full
range of building scales from material to region, of building disciplines from
specifier to urban designer, and of building climates from drought to deluge,
tropic to arctic. This requires new forms of project delivery that celebrate
integrated design thinking. Five leading practitioners and researchers define
Integrated Delivery Processes, Rating Systems for Sustainability, Sustainabil-
ity Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design, Evidence-Based
Design, and the Role of Buildings in Materials Banking and Resource Reple-
tion. This closing chapter on Materials Passports raises the question of whether
every new or renovated project in the built environment should have a passport
capturing its contribution to a regenerative built environment at the material,
building, urban, and regional scale.
For the moment, this is the definitive encyclopedia on sustainability in the
built environment, written by world leaders in each subject area. These authors
have written the textbooks, the codes and standards, and the vision for a more
sustainable built environment, at every level – regional, urban, community,
building, and material. They have transformed practice, research, and educa-
tion in fundamental ways and it has been a privilege to work with them to
assemble this 2020 Encyclopedia of Sustainable Built Environments.

Pittsburgh, PA, USA Vivian Loftness, FAIA

September 2020 Volume Editor
Contents

Sustainable Built Environments: Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Vivian Loftness

Part I Models of Sustainable Built Environments . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Bioclimatic Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Donald Watson

Biophilic Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Catherine O. Ryan and William D. Browning

Sustainable and Healthy Built Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Vivian Loftness and Megan Snyder

Regenerative Development and Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Pamela Mang and Bill Reed

Resilient Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Alex Wilson and Mary Ann Lazarus

Part II Urban Design for Sustainability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

Sustainable Urbanism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Douglas Farr

Water and Sustainable Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

Herbert Dreiseitl

Green Infrastructures to Face Climate Change in an

Urbanizing World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Stephan Pauleit, Ole Fryd, Antje Backhaus, and Marina Bergen
Jensen

Greening Brownfields in Urban Redevelopment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

Juliane Mathey and Dieter Rink

Biodiversity in Cities, Reconnecting Humans with Nature . . . . . . . 251

Robbert P. H. Snep and Philippe Clergeau

xi
xii Contents

Biophilic Cities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275

Timothy Beatley

Part III Building Design for Sustainability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293

Facades and Enclosures: Building for Sustainability . . . . . . . . . . . 295

Volker Hartkopf, Azizan Aziz and Vivian Loftness
Passive House (Passivhaus) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
Katrin Klingenberg
Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351
Robert Hastings
Daylighting Controls, Performance, and
Global Impacts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383
Helmut Köster
Natural Ventilation in Built Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431
Tong Yang and Derek J. Clements-Croome
Sustainable Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning . . . . . . . . . . 465
Kevin Hydes and Jennifer Fosket
Adaptive Comfort and Mixed-Mode Conditioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . 481
Richard de Dear and Gail Brager
Green Roofs: Ecological Functions of the Fifth Facade . . . . . . . . . 495
Manfred Köhler and Andrew Michael Clements
Geothermal Conditioning: Critical Sources for
Sustainability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 519
Nina J. Baird

Part IV Sustainability Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 549

Sustainable Design and Construction, Integrated Delivery

Processes, and Building Information Modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 551
Laura Lesniewski and Bob Berkebile
Rating Systems for Sustainability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 573
Raymond J. Cole
Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building
Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 589
Khee Poh Lam
Evidence-Based Design for Indoor Environmental Quality
and Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 657
Charlene W. Bayer
Contents xiii

Materials Banking and Resource Repletion, Role of Buildings,

and Materials Passports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 677
Katja Hansen, Michael Braungart and Douglas Mulhall

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 703
About the Editor-in-Chief

Robert A. Meyers
President: RAMTECH Limited
Manger, Chemical Process Technology, TRW Inc.
Post-doctoral Fellow: California Institute of Technology
Ph.D. Chemistry, University of California at Los Angeles
B.A., Chemistry, California State University, San Diego

Biography

Dr. Meyers has worked with more than 20 Nobel laureates during his career
and is the originator and serves as Editor in Chief of both the Springer Nature
Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology and the related and
supportive Springer Nature Encyclopedia of Complexity and Systems Science.

Education

Postdoctoral Fellow: California Institute of Technology

Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry, University of California at Los Angeles
B.A., Chemistry with minor in Mathematics, California State University,
San Diego

Dr. Meyers holds more than 20 patents and is the author or Editor in Chief of
12 technical books including the Handbook of Chemical Production Pro-
cesses, Handbook of Synfuels Technology, and Handbook of Petroleum

xv
xvi About the Editor-in-Chief

Refining Processes now in 4th Edition, and the Handbook of Petrochemical

Production Processes, now in its second edition, (McGraw-Hill) and the
Handbook of Energy Technology and Economics, published by John Wiley
& Sons; Coal Structure, published by Academic Press; and Coal Desulfuri-
zation as well as the Coal Handbook published by Marcel Dekker. He served
as chairman of the Advisory Board for A Guide to Nuclear Power Technology,
published by John Wiley & Sons, which won the Association of American
Publishers Award as the best book in technology and engineering.
About the Editor

Vivian Loftness, FAIA, is an internationally renowned researcher, author, and

educator focused on environmental design and sustainability, climate and
regionalism in architecture, and the integration of advanced building systems
for health and productivity.
At Carnegie Mellon University, Professor Loftness holds the Paul Mellon
Distinguished Chair in Architecture, is one of 40 University Professors, and
served a decade as Head of the School of Architecture. With over 30 years of
industry and government research funding, she is a key member of Carnegie
Mellon’s leadership in sustainability research and education and contributor to
the ongoing development of the Intelligent Workplace – a living laboratory of
commercial building innovations for performance.
Her collaborative research is captured in over 100 journal articles, book
chapters, and books, as well in the 2013 and 2020 Springer Reference Ency-
clopedia of Sustainable Built Environments, for which she serves as Editor.
Professor Loftness has served on over 25 Boards of Directors, including
EPA’s NACEPT, DOE’s FEMAC, and the National USGBC, AIA, and ILFI
Boards. She has served on 12 National Academy of Science panels as well as
the Academy’s Board on Infrastructure and the Constructed Environment and
given four Congressional testimonies on sustainable design. Her work has
influenced national policy and building projects, including the Adaptable
Workplace Lab at the U.S. General Services Administration and the Labora-
tory for Cognition at Electricity de France.

xvii
xviii About the Editor

Professor Loftness has been recognized as a LEED Fellow; a Senior Fellow

of the Design Futures Council, the New Buildings Institute, and the Scott
Energy Institute; and one of 13 Stars of Building Science by the Building
Research Establishment in the UK. She received Awards of Distinction from
AIA Pennsylvania and NESEA, holds a National Educator Honor Award from
the American Institute of Architecture Students, and a “Sacred Tree” Award
from the US Green Building Council. Professor Loftness is a Bachelor of
Science and Master of Architecture from MIT.
Contributors

Azizan Aziz Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics, Carnegie

Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Antje Backhaus gruppe F, Berlin, Germany
Nina J. Baird Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics, Carnegie
Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Charlene W. Bayer Hygieia Sciences LLC, Johns Creek, GA, USA
Timothy Beatley School of Architecture, University of Virginia, Charlottes-
ville, VA, USA
Bob Berkebile FAIA, BNIM, Kansas City, MO, USA
Gail Brager University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
Michael Braungart EPEA Internationale Umweltforschung GmbH, Ham-
burg, Germany
Institute for Ethical and Transdisciplinary Sustainability, Leuphana University,
Lüneburg, Germany
William D. Browning Terrapin Bright Green, New York, NY, USA
Andrew Michael Clements Oikosteges Oikosystem Roofs, Northampton,
UK
Derek J. Clements-Croome School of Construction Management and Engi-
neering, University of Reading, Reading, UK
School of Engineering and Materials Science, Queen Mary University of
London, London, UK
Philippe Clergeau Department of Ecology and Biodiversity Management,
National Museum of Natural History, Paris, France
Raymond J. Cole School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, Uni-
versity of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Richard de Dear The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Herbert Dreiseitl DREISEITL consulting GmbH, Überlingen, Germany
Douglas Farr Founding Principal, Farr Associates, Chicago, IL, USA

xix
xx Contributors

Jennifer Fosket Social Green, Berkeley, CA, USA

Ole Fryd Landscape Architecture and Planning, Department of Geosciences
and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg
C, Denmark
Katja Hansen EPEA Internationale Umweltforschung GmbH, Hamburg,
Germany
Department of Civil, Geo and Environmental Engineering, Technical Univer-
sity of Munich, Munich, Germany
Volker Hartkopf Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics, Carne-
gie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Robert Hastings Danube University-Krems, Wallisellen, Switzerland
Kevin Hydes Integral Group, Oakland, CA, USA
Marina Bergen Jensen Landscape Architecture and Planning, Department
of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenha-
gen, Frederiksberg C, Denmark
Katrin Klingenberg Passive House Institute US, Chicago, IL, USA
Manfred Köhler University of Applied Sciences, Neubrandenburg,
Germany
Helmut Köster Köster Lichtplanung, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Khee Poh Lam Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics, School of
Architecture, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
School of Design and Environment, National University of Singapore, Singa-
pore, Singapore
Mary Ann Lazarus MALeco, Washington University, St. Louis, MO, USA
Laura Lesniewski AIA, BNIM, Kansas City, MO, USA
Vivian Loftness Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics, Carnegie
Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Pamela Mang Regenesis Group, Santa Fe, NM, USA
Juliane Mathey Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Devel-
opment (IOER), Dresden, Germany
Douglas Mulhall EPEA Internationale Umweltforschung GmbH, Hamburg,
Germany
Department of Civil, Geo and Environmental Engineering, Technical Univer-
sity of Munich, Munich, Germany
Department of Architectural Engineering + Technology, Delft University of
Technology, Delft, The Netherlands
Stephan Pauleit Center of Life and Food Sciences Weihenstephan, Technical
University of Munich, Freising, Germany
Contributors xxi

Bill Reed Regenesis Group, Arlington, MA, USA

Dieter Rink Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Leipzig,
Germany
Catherine O. Ryan Terrapin Bright Green, New York, NY, USA
Robbert P. H. Snep Alterra, Wageningen University and Research Center,
Wageningen, The Netherlands
Megan Snyder School of Architecture and Center for Building Performance
and Diagnostics, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Donald Watson FAIA, Trumbull, CT, USA
Alex Wilson Resilient Design Institute, Brattleboro, VT, USA
Tong Yang Department of Design Engineering and Mathematics, Faculty of
Science and Technology, Middlesex University, London, UK

Sustainable Built
Environments: Introduction
Vivian Loftness
Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics,
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh,
PA, USA
Article Outline
The Scale of the Sustainability Problem and the
Opportunity
Principles for the Design of a Sustainable Built
Environment
How Does This Broad Definition Translate into an
Encyclopedia for Sustainable Built
Environments?
Models of Sustainable Built Environments
(5 Chapters)
Urban Design for Sustainability (6 Chapters)
Building Design for Sustainability (9 Chapters)
Sustainability Practices (5 Chapters)
Conclusion for Sustainable Built Environments:
Policy Matters – The Market Will Not Take
Care of It
Renewable Energy Generation and Sustainable
Buildings
References
For the moment, this is the definitive encyclope-
dia on sustainability in the built environment writ-
ten by world leaders in each subject area. These
authors have written the textbooks, the codes and
standards, and the vision for a more sustainable
built environment, at every level – regional,
urban, community, building, and material. They
have transformed practice, research, and educa-
tion in fundamental ways, and it has been a priv-
ilege to work with them to assemble these
25 chapters.
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
V. Loftness (ed.), Sustainable Built Environments,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-0684-1_925
Originally published in
R. A. Meyers (ed.), Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology, © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC,
part of Springer Nature 2020, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2493-6_925-3
The Scale of the Sustainability Problem
and the Opportunity
The building sector is the biggest “player” in the
energy use equation and can have the greatest
impact on maximizing energy supply and mini-
mizing energy demand while providing measur-
able gains for productivity, health, and
environmental quality. In the USA, commercial
and residential buildings use 70% of total US
electricity and are responsible for over 38% of
total US greenhouse gas emissions [1] (Fig. 1,
CBPD).
It is critical for us to move away from diagrams
that imply electricity is an end use sector, dia-
grams which overwhelm online searches. For pri-
oritized investments in demand reduction, the
electricity “sector” must be distributed to the true
end use sectors – buildings, industry, transporta-
tion, and agriculture (Fig. 2a). The subdivision of
the building sector alone into subsectors
(residential and commercial) further masks the
importance of this sector for policy, research,
and investment as we strive to curtail global cli-
mate change (Fig. 2b).
Equally significantly, however, are other envi-
ronmental statistics related to the built environ-
ment: material use, water use, waste production,
manufacturing and transportation costs, and car-
bon impacts. Buildings use 40% of the raw mate-
rials globally and 14% of the potable water in the
USA. Building activity in the USA also contrib-
utes over 136 million tons of construction and
demolition waste (2.8 lbs/person/day) and 38%
of US greenhouse gas emissions [34].
These statistics underscore the impact of
buildings and the built environment on global
energy use and climate change, on water and
material use. Through land use policies and
actions, the built environment generated most
of the increases in automobile transportation
energy use in the last decades. The impact is
even more substantial when human and environ-
mental health, land use and community, as well
1
2 Sustainable Built Environments: Introduction

Sustainable Built Environments: Introduction, Fig. 1 The building sector is the greatest contributor to climate
change, exceeding both industry and transportation

Sustainable Built Environments: Introduction, building construction and operations (replacing 2a with
Fig. 2 CO2 and GHG charts must be corrected to clearly 2b and then 2c) [1, 2]
reveal that 39% of the environmental challenge is in

as indoor environmental quality are factored into • The role of the built environment on material
sustainability. In short, the scale of the sustain- depletion
ability challenge in the built environment must • The role of the built environment on mobility
include: and sustainable infrastructures

• The role of the built environment on global
energy use and climate change
• The role of the built environment on health and
indoor environmental quality
• The role of the built environment on water use
Principles for the Design of a Sustainable
Built Environment
Sustainable design is a collective process whereby
the built environment achieves unprecedented levels
Sustainable Built Environments: Introduction
of ecological regeneration through new and retrofit
construction, toward the long-term viability and
humanization of architecture. Focusing on environ-
mental context, sustainable design merges the natu-
ral, minimum resource conditioning solutions of the
past (daylight, solar heat, and natural ventilation)
with the innovative technologies of the present, into
an integrated “intelligent” system that supports indi-
vidual control with expert negotiation for resource
consciousness. Sustainable design rediscovers the
social, environmental, and technical values of pedes-
trian, mixed-use communities, fully utilizing existing
infrastructures, establishing “eco-districts,” and
recapturing indoor-outdoor relationships. Sustain-
able design avoids the further thinning out of land
use and the dislocated placement of buildings and
functions caused by single use zoning. Sustainable
design introduces materials and assemblies fully
integrated into a circular economy of materials as
biological or technical nutrients. Finally, sustainable
design offers architecture of long-term value through
“forgiving” and modifiable building systems,
through life cycle instead of least-cost investments,
and through timeless delight and craftsmanship.
A sustainable built environment depends on a
number of critical principles:
1. An integrative, human-ecological design
approach
2. Changing approaches to land use and commu-
nity fabric
3. The effective use of natural, local, and global
resources to reduce infrastructure loading and
maximize infrastructure use
4. The design of flexible systems, integrated for
comprehensive performance delivery
5. The use of regenerative materials and assemblies
6. The design for life cycle instead of first cost
7. The promotion of infrastructures for water,
energy, transportation, and connectivity to sus-
tainable neighborhood amenities
How Does This Broad Definition
Translate into an Encyclopedia for
Sustainable Built Environments?
A sustainable built environment spans dozens of
professions, from urban planning to architecture
3
to engineering to interior design to material sci-
ence to social science and beyond. Sustainable
built environments is a revolution for educational
pedagogy and content. Moreover, it requires a
level of trans-disciplinarity that challenges profes-
sional roles and creates new collaborative pro-
cesses. To profile the breadth of science and
engineering knowledge that is central to advanc-
ing sustainable built environments, multiple ency-
clopedia volumes would be needed to cover the
breadth of subjects: public policy and economics
of a sustainable built environment; architecture,
mechanical engineering, lighting engineering,
material engineering, water engineering, and
energy engineering; as well as urban design, land-
scape, and urban infrastructure engineering. By
necessity a single volume on sustainable built
environments must offer a sampling of the science
and technology expertise required.
This encyclopedia has gathered 25 leading
authors from around the world to provide insight
into the breadth of knowledge needed to fully
define and understand sustainable built environ-
ments. The 25 chapters are grouped in 4 major
sections and ordered to build expertise across
disciplines and scales of practice.
• Models of sustainable built environments
• Urban design for sustainability
• Building design for sustainability
• Integrated delivery processes for sustainability
The following sections introduce these chap-
ters within the broader knowledge base needed for
substantially advancing our built environment
from one that consumes and destroys to one that
generates and revitalizes.
Models of Sustainable Built
Environments (5 Chapters)
Architectural and urban theory critically needs to
embrace models of sustainable built environments
as central to our professional and artistic explora-
tions and to our collective future. The first set of
articles in this encyclopedia introduce five of the
enduring and emerging models for sustainable
4 Sustainable Built Environments: Introduction
built environments: bioclimatic, biophilic,
healthy, regenerative, and resilient. These leading
authors helped to define the fields and have writ-
ten and updated seminal encyclopedic entries.
We must begin by recognizing that entire civili-
zations have successfully prospered in highly
diverse and challenging climates without depleting
natural resources beyond the ability of those
resources to naturally regenerate. In large part, this
success has been achieved through highly respon-
sive, even intelligent building enclosures. Each cli-
mate commands a different strategy for natural
conditioning, as so eloquently introduced in Don
Watson’s entry on ▶ “Bioclimatic Design.” Emeri-
tus Professor of Yale University and former Dean of
RPI’s School of Architecture, Don Watson is a
preeminent practitioner and scholar on the subject
of Climate and Architecture and author of standards
and textbooks used worldwide, beginning with his
McGraw-Hill textbook Climatic Building Design:
Energy Efficient Building Principles and Practices
[3] through his most recent John Wiley textbook,
Design for Flooding: Architecture, Landscape, and
Urban Design for Resilience to Climate Change
[4]. Bioclimatic design embraces the imperative
that nature can and must be the dominant condition-
ing system, with mechanical conditioning as a well-
designed partner, in use only when needed. The
benefits of bioclimatic design go well beyond
energy savings to include environmental and sen-
sory richness in the spaces we occupy, climatic and
cultural diversity in the built environment, and sig-
nificantly enriched social lives.
A companion to bioclimatic design is
▶ “Biophilic Design,” in which nature is a domi-
nant sensory system for enriching the quality of
life. The authors, Catie Ryan and Bill Browning of
Terrapin Bright Green, are world leaders in the
theory, science, and practice of biophilic design,
leveraging expertise in high-performance design,
whole-systems thinking, bioinspired innovation,
and ecology [5]. Building on the foundational
work of E.O. Wilson and Stephen Kellert [6], this
chapter introduces Terrapin’s 14 patterns of
biophilic design with rich illustrations alongside
worldwide research on the benefits of biophilia
for health and well-being (https://www.terrapin
brightgreen.com/report/14-patterns/). Biophilic
design, in combination with bioclimatic design, is
essential to reconnecting people with their unique
environments leading to a healthy, prosperous, and
regenerative future for all.
Both bioclimatic and biophilic design are
driven to go beyond sustainability to enhance
quality of life, health, and well-being. The impor-
tance of physiological, psychological, and social
health as a model for design merits a chapter of its
own. In ▶ “Sustainable and Healthy Built Envi-
ronment,” Vivian Loftness and Megan Snyder
introduce a framework for ensuring that building
and communities are designed to achieve the
highest level of human health outcomes while
generating the lowest environmental footprint
[7]. Across 30 years of research and teaching in
the School of Architecture at Carnegie Mellon, the
authors have been developing a database of
research linking building components and sys-
tems, as well as land use approaches and infra-
structures, to health, productivity, quality of life,
as well as other economic outcomes of critical
importance to decision-makers.
While bioclimatic, biophilic, and healthy
models for sustainability focus on the human
impacts of the built environment, regenerative
design focuses on fully addressing the environmen-
tal impacts as well. Sustainable design models
continue to mature, from energy and water, to
indoor environmental quality and equity, to models
that embrace living buildings, restorative build-
ings, and regenerative buildings. Two international
leaders, Pamela Mang and Bill Reed, outline the
regenerative model for design in the chapter
▶ “Regenerative Development and Design.”
Building on the early principles of permaculture
and the regenerative design principles of John Lyle
[8] and David Orr [9], they have advanced regen-
erative design through their integrated practice
Regenesis, Inc. Co-author with the Seven Group
of The Integrative Design Guide to Green Building
published in 2009 [10] by John Wiley, Bill Reed
and Pamela Mang introduce the integrative, whole-
systems regenerative design process to ensure that
“projects and processes achieve the highest level of
performance across every sustainability metric –
and beyond, into regenerating the health of our
ecological systems [11].”
Sustainable Built Environments: Introduction
The outward spiraling models of sustainability
continue to evolve in the face of climate change,
leading to the fifth model of vital importance to
sustainable built environments – ▶ “Resilient
Design” – written by Alex Wilson and MaryAnne
Lazarus. Founded at BuildingGreen under Alex
Wilson’s leadership, the non-profit Resilient
Design Institute is dedicated to providing expertise
for “the intentional design of buildings, landscapes,
communities, and regions in order to respond to
natural and manmade disasters and disturbances –
as well as long-term changes resulting from climate
change – including sea level rise, increased fre-
quency of heat waves, and regional drought
(https://www.resilientdesign.org/).”
These five models for sustainability – biocli-
matic, biophilic, healthy, regenerative, and resil-
ient – as well the “Cradle to Cradle” model
captured in the final chapter of this encyclopedia
[25], are essential to design education, design
practice, public policy, and public and private
investment. They are also critical to setting the
stage for standards, research, and innovation to
ensure that the built environment is no longer the
cause of depleting resources and reduced health,
but a source of design responses for ensuring
restorative human and ecological futures.
Urban Design for Sustainability
(6 Chapters)
Most sustainable designers have long since real-
ized that if the urban design decisions are not
sustainable, the buildings themselves will not
make the decisive difference for human and eco-
logical futures. The design of land use and land-
scapes for regenerative sites, neighborhoods, and
entire regions has the potential to address a broad
range of environmental challenges: water short-
ages, flooding, brownfields, carbon sequestration,
habitats, access to food, and human health.
Through collaborative design, the building com-
munity should fully engage the science and tech-
nology of:
• Land use planning for farm and forest
preservation
5
• Land use planning for walkability and quality
of life
• Watershed planning
• Landscape design for net-zero water and aqui-
fer recharge
• Cool roofs and cool communities
• Landscape design for brownfield remediation
• Landscape design for climate mitigation and
carbon sequestration
• Building and landscape design for food, bio-
topes, and habitats
The six chapters in this section introduce crit-
ical shifts needed in urban design to ensure a
regenerative future that addresses the challenges
of energy, water, mobility, food, community,
and more.
The definitions must begin with land use plan-
ning. Douglas Farr of Farr Associates in Chicago
is the author of the book on Sustainable Urbanism
[12], evolving from his years of leadership as
chair of LEED ND and the board of the Congress
for New Urbanism. In the chapter ▶ “Sustainable
Urbanism,” he outlines key design actions for
sustainable land use and community design. He
contends that sustainable urbanism must embrace
walkable and transit-oriented living, integrated
with high-performance buildings and infrastruc-
tures. Compactness (density), completeness, con-
nectedness, and biophilia integrate human and
natural systems to dramatically improve energy,
water, waste, food, and mobility for a sustainable
future.
The architectural and urban design imperatives
for a sustainable future must be matched by the
landscape and engineering imperatives for the
underlying resources and infrastructures that sup-
port sustainable urbanism. The most demanding set
of design imperatives center on water. Global
demands for water are depleting freshwater avail-
ability at a rate that is alarming. While 70% of
global freshwater demand is for agriculture, the
20% freshwater used in the building sector is grow-
ing at a rapid rate – with the highest level of
inefficiency. As with energy, the greatest opportu-
nities for conservation at the lowest first cost and
the highest payback reside in the building sector.
UNEP illustrates this with charts that differentiate
6 Sustainable Built Environments: Introduction
water extraction and consumption per end use sec-
tor (see Fig. 3), highlighting the major opportuni-
ties for the building sector to dramatically reduce
its extraction demands through efficiency, gray
water, and black water innovations [13].
Herbert Dreiseitl, of Atelier Dreiseitl and
Ramboll, is the world’s leading water designer,
combining the skills of an artist with the expertise
of a landscape architect and a water infrastructure
engineer in innovative projects around the
world. As the author of Recent Waterscapes [14]
and Waterscape Innovations [15], his chapter
▶ “Water and Sustainable Design” introduces the
importance of comprehensively understanding
Sustainable Built Environments: Introduction,
Fig. 3 While agriculture represents the largest consumer
of freshwater worldwide, the greatest waste in freshwater
watershed, the natural path of rainfall and stream
flows given the topographic and geologic con-
struct of the land, flowing into rivers, lakes, wet-
lands, or the sea. To address the challenges of
deluge, drought, and contamination, the chapter
illustrates the power of green infrastructures and
blue-green infrastructures as an approach to
water management that protects, restores, and
emulates the natural water cycle. Combining nat-
ural and technical water systems that ensure the
creation of water-sensitive, regenerative cities,
the chapter introduces critical theory and prac-
tices, richly illustrated by projects in Asia,
Europe, and the USA.
use is the built environment, shown in the difference
between extraction and consumption
Sustainable Built Environments: Introduction
Green-blue infrastructures have an equally
important role to play in climate mitigation and
adaptation. In their chapter ▶ “Green Infrastruc-
tures to Face Climate Change in an Urbanizing
World,” Stephan Pauleit of the Center of Life and
Food Sciences at the Technical University of
Munich, and Ole Fryd, Antje Backhaus, and
Marina Bergen Jensen of the University of Copen-
hagen quantify the role of green infrastructures in
cities for climate adaptation and the potential for
climate mitigation, given the vulnerability of cit-
ies and their infrastructures to climate change.
They outline the combined challenges of hazard,
vulnerability, and exposure in relation to urban
heat, storm water management, flood manage-
ment, and carbon sequestration. The solution
sets are rich assemblies of urban morphology
solutions that mitigate climate change through
annual carbon sequestration rates as high as
130 kgCO2/ha, as well as adapt to climate change
through low-impact design, water-sensitive urban
design, and storm water management.
The challenge of shrinking cities in both
Europe and the USA, in which abandoned prop-
erties and vacant sites leave a “perforated” urban
fabric, is a major opportunity to create permanent
green spaces and green corridors, reintroducing
biodiversity, farm, and forest into the city. The
opportunity and approaches to re-naturalizing
vacant brownfields as green infrastructure – for
ecological upgrading, nature and species conser-
vation, climate change mitigation, and quality of
life improvements – are introduced in the chapter
▶ “Greening Brownfields in Urban Redevelop-
ment” by Juliane Mathey of the Leibniz Institute
of Ecological and Regional Development in Dres-
den and Dieter Rink of the Helmholtz Centre for
Environmental Research in Leipzig.
In addition to the benefit of climate change
mitigation and quality of life improvements,
blue-green infrastructures play a central role in
regenerating biodiversity in cities. Worldwide,
the diversity of plant and animal life is
diminishing rapidly, with the latest global Living
Planet Index of the World Wildlife Foundation
showing a decline of biological diversity of 60%
between 1970 and 2014 (http://www.livingpla
netindex.org/home/index).
7
In the chapter ▶ “Biodiversity in Cities,
Reconnecting Humans with Nature,” Robert
Snep of Wageningen University in the Nether-
lands and Pierre Clergeau of the Department of
Ecology and Biodiversity of the Museum of Nat-
ural History in Paris identify the wide range of
services provided by urban biodiversity that are of
vital importance for the quality of human life.
They propose a commitment to habitat corridors
and green space connectivity to ensure city envi-
ronments that support wildlife and plant diversity,
integrating wildlife and biodiversity regeneration
in sustainable city planning and design. They
define cities as a “Mosaic of Biotopes” – vital to
species diversity and survival.
The final chapter in this set is the seminal work
on ▶ “Biophilic Cities” by Timothy Beatley, the
Teresa Heinz Professor of Sustainable Communi-
ties in the Department of Urban and Environmen-
tal Planning at the University of Virginia. Author
of 15 books, his 2010 book Biophilic Cities: Inte-
grating Nature Into Urban Design and Planning
[16] and his 2017 Handbook of Biophilic City
Planning & Design [17] have been instrumental
in the global movement to bring the essential
elements of biophilic abundance to every city.
This chapter defines the inspiration and criticality
of biophilia in urban design for sustainability:
cities of abundant nature conserving and pro-
tecting biodiversity; cities embedded in nature
and natural systems; cities that understand the
healing powers of nature; and cities of wonder,
awe, and fascination.
Building Design for Sustainability
(9 Chapters)
Building design, renovation, and management is
the next level of critical action for human and
ecological restoration. The next nine chapters pro-
vide a compendium of expertise on the sweep of
design choices, from adaptive building enclosures
to adaptive mechanical systems, to embracing
daylight, natural ventilation, and sunshine, to
rethinking our roofs and foundations. In each
case, world leaders in research and application of
8 Sustainable Built Environments: Introduction
these disciplines have authored an invaluable
encyclopedic entry.
In ▶ “Facades and Enclosures: Building for
Sustainability,” Dr. Volker Hartkopf and Senior
Researcher Azizan Aziz build on each climate’s
imperatives to introduce the richness of design
responses for sustainable building design. Profes-
sor of Architecture and Director of the Center for
Building Performance and Diagnostics at Carne-
gie Mellon University, Volker Hartkopf has led an
industrial and government consortium dedicated
to advanced building systems integration for per-
formance through collaborative research, demon-
stration, and policy for over 30 years. This
leadership led to the construction of the Intelligent
Workplace, a living laboratory for innovation in
building materials, components, and integrated
systems for improving human comfort and health,
individual and organizational productivity, and
environmental sustainability [19]. This chapter
defines the enclosure science and design innova-
tions that are pivotal to ensure the highest perfor-
mance outcomes for each climate and building
type. With over 12 distinct fields of design from
plenum to clerestory and interior to exterior
layers, high-performance façades must balance
access to the natural environment for daylighting,
natural ventilation, thermal mass, and passive
solar heat, with heat loss/heat gain control, solar
control and enclosure advances for water manage-
ment, material integrity, and advanced systems
integration.
For most of the northern climates, heating is
the largest energy demand and carbon footprint
for buildings, arguing for design and retrofit inno-
vations that combine deep energy conservation
with the free energies of sunshine. The importance
of passive solar design began in the 1970s after
the first energy crisis, giving rise to today’s
Passivhaus standards emerging throughout
Europe, Scandinavia, and the USA. The chapter
on ▶ “Passive House (Passivhaus)” is authored by
Katrin Klingenberg, the Co-founder and Director
of the Ecological Construction Laboratory and the
Passive House Institute in the USA (PHIUS).
A long-term collaborator with the Passivhaus
Institute in Europe, she co-authored the book
Homes for a Changing Climate: Passive Houses
in the US [19], to emphasize both the potential of
passive house design to dramatically reduce or
eliminate thermal conditioning in homes and the
importance of climate-specific approaches to
balancing conservation and passive conditioning.
While based on deep energy conservation
through insulation and air tightness, the power of
solar energy for low-energy heating must not be
understated. The trajectory of the passive solar
design movement is richly illustrated in Professor
Robert Hastings ▶ “Passive Solar Heating in the
Built Environment.” Emeritus Professor of the
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and
Managing Director of Architecture, Energy and
Environment GmbH in Switzerland, Robert Has-
tings is a leader in the IEA Task 28-Solar Heating
and Cooling. A prolific author with a long list of
technical publications on energy efficiency, he
co-edited Solar Energy Houses: Strategies, Tech-
nologies and Examples published by Earthscan
[20]. This chapter is key to understanding the
systemic nature and diversity of passive solar
heating in use throughout Europe and North
America.
Lighting is the second largest energy demand
in buildings. Over 10% of all US energy is used
for lighting buildings, much of this during the
daytime when daylight is abundant. Effective day-
lighting can yield 30–60% reductions in annual
lighting energy consumption. Helmut Koester’s
entry on ▶ “Daylighting Controls, Performance,
and Global Impacts” addresses the design and
engineering innovations needed for ensuring day-
light’s massive contribution to energy and carbon
savings. The author of Dynamic Daylighting
Architecture: Basics, Systems, Projects published
by Birkhäuser Press [21], Helmut Koester intro-
duces the science and beauty of external and inter-
nal façade layers for effective daylighting and
view, as well as shading, glare, and brightness
contrast control. If complemented by cutting-
edge electric lighting and lighting control sys-
tems, the residual energy demands for lighting
would be less than 10% of today’s demand, an
amazing 6–8% reduction in our global carbon
footprint.
The rapid growth in building air conditioning
in the face of global warming makes natural
Sustainable Built Environments: Introduction
cooling and natural ventilation equally important
for a no or low carbon built environment. In
▶ “Natural Ventilation in Built Environment,”
Tong Yang and Derek Clements-Croome illustrate
the potential for natural ventilation and natural
cooling to ensure the highest level of thermal
comfort and air quality at the lowest energy
cost – through design and engineering innovation.
Editor of Intelligent Buildings International Jour-
nal and Emeritus Professor of the University of
Reading, Derek Clements-Croome is the CIB
Coordinator for WO98 Intelligent and Responsive
Buildings and editor of Naturally Ventilated
Buildings: Buildings for the Senses, the Economy
and Society, published by E & F N Spon [22].
While deep conservation and passive heating,
cooling, and daylighting are the critical first steps,
innovation in building mechanical systems for sus-
tainability is equally important. Kevin Hydes, CEO
of the Integral Group, and Jennifer Fosket of Social
Green introduce the breadth and importance of
sustainable mechanical engineering, and the
changes in practice that will be vital to a sustainable
future, in the entry ▶ “Sustainable Heating Venti-
lation and Air Conditioning.” They argue that “the
best mechanical system is one that you never need
to turn on” calling for dramatic changes in the role
of the mechanical engineers in practice. A founder
of the Canadian Green Building Council, Past
Chair of the Board of Directors of the USGBC
and the World Green Building Council, Kevin
Hydes is central to the transformative reference
Ecological Engineer from Ecotone Publishing
[23]. In this chapter, they demonstrate how build-
ing mechanical systems can be systematically
rethought for sustainability, embracing water-
based thermal conditioning, dedicated outside air
and displacement ventilation, energy recovery,
innovations in building automation, integrated pas-
sive conditioning and renewable energy, and
commissioning.
Integral to advanced HVAC design, innovative
architects and engineers are shifting to a hybrid
approach to space conditioning that uses natural
ventilation from operable windows (either manu-
ally or automatically controlled) or other passive
inlet vents, in combination with mechanical sys-
tems to provide the critical mix of air distribution
9
and cooling. Richard de Dear of the University of
Sydney and Gail Brager of the University of Cal-
ifornia at Berkeley have published widely on
adaptive comfort and led the movement to bring
adaptive comfort and mixed-mode conditioning
into mainstream codes and standards (ASHRAE
Standard for Natural Ventilation [24]). Their
chapter ▶ “Adaptive Comfort and Mixed-Mode
Conditioning” introduces the adaptive thermal
comfort models and proof sets, their integration
into mixed-mode buildings, and their implications
for environmental quality and energy use. A well-
designed mixed-mode building allows spaces to
be naturally ventilated during periods of the day or
year when it is feasible or desirable, and uses air
conditioning for supplemental cooling when nat-
ural ventilation is not sufficient through seasonal
changeover, concurrent, or zoned modes of oper-
ation (https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3f73w323,
https://cbe.berkeley.edu/research/adaptive-comfort-
model/). Mixed-mode conditioning enhances ther-
mal comfort and health while minimizing the sig-
nificant energy use, carbon footprint, and
operating costs of air conditioning.
Two additional perspectives are offered in this
set of entries on building systems for sustainabil-
ity – focused on the fifth façade, roofs, and the
sixth, foundations. Manfred Koehler of the Uni-
versity of Neubrandenburg and Andrew Michael
Clements of Green Roof Greece introduce the
imperative for rapid increases in extensive and
intensive green roofs as urban ecosystems in the
entry ▶ “Green Roofs: Ecological Functions of
the Fifth Facade.” They outline the main ecolog-
ical and environmental challenges to be met by
green roofs – addressing water cycles and urban
water management, urban heat and energy
demands, and losses in urban biodiversity – as
well as quantifying the measurable ecological
and economic benefits that are derived by wide-
spread greening of urban roofs.
While other volumes of the Springer Encyclo-
pedia offer definitive chapters on combined heat
and power, photovoltaics, and solar thermal sys-
tems at both the building and community level,
there is one renewable energy system that is fully
integrated into the building design and engineer-
ing – geothermal heating and cooling. Co-author
10
of a definitive text from the National Ground
Water Association, Carnegie Mellon Professor
Nina Baird brings the most cutting-edge knowl-
edge of the breadth and depth of the engineering
challenges and opportunities on open- and closed-
loop geothermal energy systems in the entry
▶ “Geothermal Conditioning: Critical Sources
for Sustainability.” From earth sheltering to earth
tubes, from horizontal and vertical borehole heat
exchangers, to aquifer and wastewater-based geo-
thermal systems, ground-coupled heating and
cooling systems are invaluable low energy and
low carbon solutions to conditioning individual
buildings, campuses, and entire communities.
Sustainability Practices (5 Chapters)
The final five chapters define the changes in deliv-
ery processes needed to ensure the integrated
design and engineering innovations for sustain-
ability. These authors contend that urban and
building sustainability will be critically dependent
on new forms of professional practice that:
• Engage the entire building delivery team at the
outset
• Set sustainability goals and meet global stan-
dards of excellence
• Effectively use performance simulation tools
throughout design, delivery, and operation
• Engage in post occupancy evaluation with
qualitative and quantitative feedback and con-
tinuous improvement
• Pursue closed-loop, Cradle to Cradle™ design
While each of these chapters defines significant
changes for delivering buildings and communi-
ties, they also represent theoretical models for
advancing sustainable practices, with as much
urgency as the six that began this volume of the
encyclopedia.
In ▶ “Sustainable Design and Construction,
Integrated Delivery Processes, and Building
Information Modeling,” Laura Lesniewski, a prin-
cipal in the leading sustainability firm of BNIM,
and Bob Berkebile a founder of this firm and
Sustainable Built Environments: Introduction
many sustainability standards in the USA, rede-
fine integrated practices for sustainability. With a
significant portfolio of LEED, net-zero, and Liv-
ing Building Challenge projects, they bring
important insight to the changes needed in profes-
sional practice for sustainability, from early multi-
disciplinary collaboration to the most advanced
building information modeling to embrace the
science and technology of sustainability. They
introduce sustainable design projects as a network
of commitments with overlapping and iterative
improvements to optimize the entire project
instead of subsystems.
Raymond Cole, Professor at the University of
British Columbia and Head of the Environmental
Research Group (ERG), provides a worldwide
overview of ▶ “Rating Systems for Sustainabil-
ity.” The chapter introduces sustainability assess-
ment methods at multiple scales, alongside
voluntary and regulatory standards and practices
from around the world. One of the leading experts
on sustainable building practices, Dr. Cole has
helped to forge the evolution in standards to
ensure broad environmental responsibilities for
designers – from energy to water to materials to
indoor environmental quality to land use – a
breadth that has been critical to defining sustain-
ability science and technology for the built
environment.
Dr. Khee Poh Lam, Dean of the School of
Design and Environment at the National Univer-
sity of Singapore (NUS), and Emeritus Professor
at Carnegie Mellon University, has written the
decisive entry on ▶ “Sustainability Performance
Simulation Tools for Building Design.” His lead-
ership in the development and application of
energy, lighting, and computational fluid dynam-
ics tools has refined building and urban projects
around the world, including a new Net-Zero cam-
pus building at NUS. His development of global
standards for interoperability, and design compli-
ance tools for sustainable practices, contributes to
this expert overview of computational tools and
their contributions to ensuring measured environ-
mental outcomes.
Sustainability in the built environment is
equally dependent on field data collection through
post occupancy evaluation (POE) for iterative and
Sustainable Built Environments: Introduction
continuous improvements in design and opera-
tion. Dr. Charlene Bayer provides an introduction
to these feedback loops in the chapter
▶ “Evidence-Based Design for Indoor Environ-
mental Quality and Health.” As Leader of the
Environmental Exposures and Analysis Group at
the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) and
Director of Georgia Institute of Technology’s
Indoor Environment Research Program,
Dr. Bayer brings over 30 years of experience to
definitions of indoor environmental quality. She
introduces the power of a field research-based
approach to facilities design “that treats the build-
ing and its occupants as a system and gives impor-
tance to design features that impact health,
well-being, mood and stress, safety, operational
efficiency, and economics.” The contributions of
Evidence-based Design (EBD) to ensuring sus-
tainable built environments are based on shifting
the focus from the designed performance to the
installed performance of integrated building sys-
tems and re-centering goals to focus on the pro-
ductivity and health of building occupants.
There is not a more significant closure to these
25 chapters than ▶ “Materials Banking and
Resource Repletion, Role of Buildings, and Mate-
rials Passports” by Katja Hansen, Michael
Braungart, and Douglas Mulhall. This chapter
fully bridges the four thematic areas by introduc-
ing the critical model for embodied energy and
materials that is redefining sustainable built envi-
ronments yet again. As the sustainable design
community moves toward carbon neutral build-
ings and communities, the impact of building
materials and their embodied energy have never
been more important. The manifesto Cradle to
Cradle [25] and more recently Upcycle [26] by
William McDonough and Michael Braungart are
two of the essential references for our time, chal-
lenging professionals to treat all materials as
industrial or agricultural nutrients in closed
cycles. Braungart, Hansen, and Mulhall bring the
full expertise of three university disciplines,
EPEA International Umweltforschung GmbH,
and McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry
(MBDC) to address the embodied carbon, health,
and raw materials used in an “economy that will
run out of materials before it runs out of energy.”
11
The authors begin with the goals that all materials
are designed to be nutrients in a circular economy,
yet expand the model to introduce material pass-
ports and nutrient certificates as essential to a
sustainable and regenerative future.
Conclusion for Sustainable Built
Environments: Policy Matters – The
Market Will Not Take Care of It
Energy, water, and materials are too cheap,
privatizing the profits while socializing the “exter-
nalities” of resource depletion, climate change, pol-
lution, and quality of life. In the USA, governments,
building owners, and consumers do not see energy
as a large enough component of their disposable
income to even evaluate the return on investing in
energy efficiency, much less water efficiency, or
other sustainability goals. Deregulation has reduced
the efforts of major utilities to pursue demand side
management and weatherization. At the same time,
power unreliability has led residential and commer-
cial building owners to purchase inefficient and
polluting standby power rather than consider the
significant opportunity to invest in energy efficiency
and renewable energy sources. Policy is critical
because the market will not act quickly or forcefully.
The contributions of buildings to the discharge of
four primary pollutants – NOX, SOX, CO2, and
particulates – should be fully recognized in the
cost of energy, to catalyze owners and occupants
to pursue more environmentally responsible build-
ings and building use patterns.
Federal and state energy efficiency standards, as
well as tax incentives, are key to finally balancing
investments between energy supply and energy
demand. Given the wasteful excesses in energy
use in the built environment, reducing demand
must instead be seen as a major energy source.
The McKinsey report “Unlocking Energy Effi-
ciency in the US Economy” was a revelation for
the energy world, finding that carbon reductions
through building energy efficiency are the lowest
cost per ton with the highest return on investment
of any greenhouse gas (GHG) action (Fig. 4, [27]).
Investments in “mining” this new energy supply
will yield greater economic benefit for a broader
12
Sustainable Built Environments: Introduction, Fig. 4 Carbon reductions through building energy efficiency are the
lowest cost per ton with the highest return on investment (http://www.mckinsey.com)
array of industries; provide significant gains in
reducing environmental pollution; and ensure a
longevity to energy “supply” that few other sources
can ensure.
Even though the return on investment for energy
efficiency dramatically exceeds that of creating new
sources, the US dollars in energy supply research and
development (R&D) are seven times the R&D dol-
lars for research in energy demand reductions
(https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2019/
03/f60/doe-fy2020-budget-in-brief_0.pdf). Yet
the modest national investments by the US
DOE in R&D for energy-efficient ballasts,
low-E windows, and refrigerator standards
reaped national benefits of $9,000, $7,000, and
$23,000 per $1 dollar invested [28]. In addition
to the obvious benefits of reduced energy
demand, dramatically accelerated national
investments and policies focused on building
energy efficiency will contribute to the
following:
• Reduced unnecessary annual energy
consumption
Sustainable Built Environments: Introduction
• Reduced emissions and climate change
impacts
• Increased peak power capacitance and reliabil-
ity (energy security)
• Improved health, human safety, and security
• Improved productivity
• Improved quality of life
• Increased exports of products and services
• Setting a proven example for emerging nations
with growing demands
Setting a proven example in mitigating climate
change through sustainable building and land use is
especially important for emerging economies that
often assume the need for expanding energy
demand alongside development. Greg Kats argues
in a study of the costs and financial benefits of
green buildings, “The vast majority of the world’s
climate change scientists have concluded that
anthropogenic emissions - principally from burn-
ing fossil fuels - are the root cause of global
warming. . . The US building sector is responsible
for about 35% of US CO2 emissions, the dominant
Sustainable Built Environments: Introduction
global warming gas” [29]. The actions needed
include massively improving building energy effi-
ciency, building land use, and infrastructure effi-
ciency – in the very near term. This can only be
achieved by immediate changes in policy, invest-
ment, and research at the national, regional, and
industrial level.
There is ample demonstration that energy effi-
ciency in buildings represents a major untapped
resource for energy supply. The development of
national standards and the removal of market bar-
riers can lead to significant reductions in energy
use from key building technologies through their
natural replacement cycle. Despite massive
increases in residential refrigeration, for example,
standards have effectively reduced energy
demand to 1947 levels ([30, 31], Fig. 5).
The lack of sustained investment in energy
demand research and development makes a 1997
study, undertaken by all five national laboratories
quantifying the potential, still actionable 20 years
later. They determined that building energy effi-
ciency could achieve 60% of the energy savings
needed to meet US targets under the Kyoto
Sustainable Built Environments: Introduction, Fig. 5 Driven by California, national standards led to significant
reductions in energy use from key buildings technologies – a major “source” of new energy for the USA
13
Protocol. With the addition of innovative com-
bined cooling, heat, and power technologies, a
further 170MTC could be achieved, meeting
100% of the 2010 goals through the building
sector alone [32].
Investing in building energy efficiency as a
new energy “supply” would dramatically surpass
production from new oil supplies and power plant
investments, as well as offer sustained “sources”
of energy that do not generate greenhouse gases.
Yet the combined budgets for building research
across US government agencies is less than 2% of
federally funded R&D, in no way commensurate
with the importance of the built environment to
our economy and quality of life [33]. Given this
paucity of research support, there are only a hand-
ful of university Ph.D. programs in the USA
focused on energy efficiency and environmental
quality in the built environment, an inadequacy
that leaves the US industry lagging in its ability to
innovate for building energy efficiency.
Over the longer term, expanded building R&D
budgets, industry- and university-based research,
and continuing national policies that focus on
14
building energy efficiency could trigger dramatic
improvements in energy and environmental qual-
ity in the built environment. Moreover, these
investments would ensure ancillary benefits
including the revitalization of existing buildings
and infrastructures, measurable gains in health
and productivity, and a positive influence on
energy-efficient growth in the built environment
of developing nations.
Renewable Energy Generation and
Sustainable Buildings
Innovation in sustainable buildings and commu-
nity design and operation must also be integral to
the supply side of the equation. In 2002, architect
Edward Mazria issued the 2030 challenge [34],
asking the global architecture and building com-
munity to adopt 60% energy savings goals by
2010, 70% by 2015, advancing each 5 years by
10% to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030 for all
new buildings and major renovations (http://
www.architecture2030.org/). The 2030 challenge
demonstrated that these targets can be accom-
plished by “implementing innovative sustainable
design strategies, generating on-site renewable
power, and purchasing renewable energy (up to a
20% maximum).” In the USA, over 500 architec-
tural firms have committed to these goals for their
entire portfolios, with projects representing a sav-
ings of 17.7mT of CO2e in 2018 alone (20.8
million acres of forest carbon sequestration).
Today, the challenge has been amended to reduce
embodied carbon emissions from all new build-
ings, infrastructure, and associated materials as
well – 50% by 2030 to zero by 2050.
While demand reduction is the critical first
step, sustainable alternatives to energy supply
must also be fully integrated into community and
building design. While these are the subject of
other volumes of this encyclopedia, buildings
and communities play a significant role in
decarbonizing energy supply through:
• Electrification of the built environment after
the lowest conditioning, process, plug, and
parasitic loads are achieved through conserva-
tion and energy cascades;
Sustainable Built Environments: Introduction
• Combined heat and power (CHP) and building
integrated CHP;
• Site and building integrated photovoltaics (PV)
• Site and building integrated solar thermal;
• Geothermal, aqua-thermal, and ground-
coupled HVAC.
In pursuing these innovative energy sources, it
is vital for the design community to aggressively
pursue both “exergy” and energy cascades. In
their PLEA 2004 paper, “Critical analysis of
exergy efficiency definitions applicable to build-
ings and building services,” Boelman and
Sakulpipatsin discuss the importance of matching
each type of energy (electricity, low and high
temperature thermal), and their energy potential,
to their thermodynamically optimal uses in build-
ings and building services [35]. Exergy begs the
question “if the Earth provides moderate temper-
ature cooling and the Sun provides moderate tem-
perature heating, can we design thermal
conditioning systems that use these sources
directly with maximum effect, leaving electricity
for more challenging tasks?”
At the same time, a sustainable built environ-
ment would use the building as a central element
in energy cascades, using the “waste” heat from
one process for the next demand and using the
building mass as a “battery” for thermal energy. In
conceiving the “Building as Power Plant,” Volker
Hartkopf suggests that each new building should
be a net energy exporter: first combining energy
efficiency with passive conditioning in an
“ascending” strategy of daylighting, natural ven-
tilation, passive cooling, and passive solar heating
and then integrating “cascading” energy uses,
with the waste heat from power generation cas-
cading to cooling energy, waste heat from cooling
cascading to heating energy, and waste heat from
heating cascading to hot water through the inte-
grated design of the building, including the man-
agement of peak loads and time shifts for each
energy source [36] (Fig. 6).
Given that buildings in the USA account for
70% of US electricity consumption, 40% of total
energy use, 38% of carbon dioxide (CO2) emis-
sions, 40% of raw material use, 30% of waste
output (136 million tons annually), and 14% of
potable water consumption and are significantly
Sustainable Built Environments: Introduction
Sustainable Built
Environments:
Introduction,
Fig. 6 Carnegie Mellon’s
vision for a “Building as
Power Plant” uses energy
cascades to meet power,
cooling, heating, and hot
water demands, matching
loads to optimize the
“exergy” of each source,
with excess energy for
export to the campus
grid [18, 36]
linked to health and competitiveness [37], it is
vital to invest in policy, research, and innovation
for more sustainable built environments.
While Sustainable Cities and Communities is
one of the key United Nations Sustainable Devel-
opment Goals [38] (UNSDG 11 https://sustainable
development.un.org/sdg11), this Springer volume
illustrates that the built environment is equally piv-
otal for almost every goal: clean water; affordable
and clean energy; decent work and economic devel-
opment; industry, innovation, and infrastructure;
reduced inequalities; responsible consumption and
production; climate action; life on land; and partner-
ships to achieve these goals. Working together, all
nations need to enact collaborative efforts to ensure
that decision-making in the built environment con-
tributes to a shared future of regenerative energy, air,
water, land, and material resources while ensuring a
sustainable quality of life for all.
References
1. U.S. EPA (2019) Draft inventory of U.S. Greenhouse
Gas Emissions and Sinks 1990–2018, EPA 430-P-20-
001, and EIA Annual Energy Outlook 2020. https://
www.eia.gov/outlooks/aeo/ and Annual Energy
Review http://38.96.246.204/totalenergy/data/annual/
index.cfm
2. Rock M, Saade M et al (2020) Embodied GHG emis-
sions of buildings – the hidden challenge for effective
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climate change mitigation. Appl Energy 258:114107.
Elsevier Publishing☆
3. Watson D, Labs K (1993) Climatic building design:
energy-efficient building principles and practices.
McGraw Hill, New York. ISBN 10: 007068488X
4. Watson D, Adams M (2012) Design for flooding:
architecture, landscape, and urban design for resilience
to flooding and climate change. Wiley, Hoboken.
https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118259870
5. Browning B, Ryan C (2020) Nature inside: a biophilic
design guide. RIBA, London ISBN-10: 1859469035
6. Kellert S, Heerwagen J, Mador M (2013) Biophilic
design: the theory, science, and practice of bringing
buildings to life. Wiley, Hoboken. ISBN: 978-0-470-
16334-4
7. Loftness V, Harktopf V (2002) Building investment
decision support (BIDS): cost-benefit tool to promote
high performance components, flexible infrastructures
and systems integration for sustainable commercial
buildings and productive organizations. The Austin
Papers. Building Green, Brattleboro VT. ISBN
1-929884-10-9
8. Lyle J (1996) Regenerative design for sustainable
development. Wiley, Hoboken. ISBN: 978-0-471-
17843-9
9. Orr D (2004) Earth in mind: on education, environ-
ment, and the human prospect. Island Press,
Washington, DC. ISBN-10: 1559634952
10. 7 group, Reed B (2009) The integrative design guide
to green building: redefining the practice of sustain-
ability. Wiley, Hoboken. ISBN-10: 0470181109
11. Mang P, Haggard B, Regenesis Group (2016) Regen-
erative development and design: a framework for
evolving sustainability. Wiley, Hoboken. ISBN:
978-1-118-97286-1
12. Farr D (2007) Sustainable urbanism: urban design
with nature. Wiley, Hoboken. ISBN 10: 047177751X
16
13. UNEP (2009) Vital water graphics: an overview of the
state of the world’s fresh and marine waters. State
Hydrological Institute/UNESCO, St. Petersburg/
Paris. http://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.
500.11822/20624/Vital_water_graphics.pdf
14. Dreiseitl H (2009) Recent waterscapes: planning,
building and designing with water, 3rd edn.
Birkhauser, Basel. ISBN-10: 3764389842
15. Dreiseitl H, Grau D (2014) Waterscape innovations.
Design Media Publishing, Hong Kong. ISBN-10:
9881296935
16. Beatley T (2010) Biophilic cities: integrating nature
into urban design and planning. Island Press,
Washington, DC ISBN-10: 1597267155
17. Beatley T (2017) Handbook of biophilic city planning
& design. Island Press, Washington, DC ISBN-10:
1610916204
18. Resnick D, Scott D (2004) Innovative university.
CMU Press, Pittsburgh. ISBN 10: 0887483763
19. Klingenberg K, Kernagis M, James M (2009) Homes
for a changing climate: passive houses in the U.-
S. Aspen, New York
20. Hestnes AG, Hastings R, Saxhof B (2003) Solar
energy houses: strategies, technologies, examples.
Earthscan, London. ISBN 10: 1902916433
21. Koster H (2004) Dynamic daylighting architecture.
Birkhauser Architecture, Basel. ISBN: 9783764367305
22. Derek C (1998) Naturally ventilated buildings: build-
ing for the senses, the economy and society. Spon
Press, New York. ISBN 10: 0419215204
23. Macauly D, McLennan J (2005) The ecological engi-
neer. Ecotone Publishing, Kansas. ISBN 10:
0974903345
24. Brager G, de Dear R (2001) Climate, comfort and
natural ventilation: a new adaptive comfort standard
for ASHRAE standard 55. https://escholarship.org/uc/
item/2048t8nn
25. McDonough W, Braungart M (2002) Cradle to cradle:
remaking the way we make things. North Point Press,
New York. ISBN 10: 0865475873
26. McDonough W, Braungart M (2013) The upcycle:
beyond sustainability – designing for abundance.
North Point Press, New York. ISBN10: 0865477485
27. McKinsey Report (2013) Pathways to a low carbon
economy: version 2 of the greenhouse gas abatement
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cost curve. https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/
McKinsey/Business%20Functions/Sustainability/Our%
20Insights/Pathways%20to%20a%20low%20carbon%
20economy/Pathways%20to%20a%20low%20carbon
%20economy.ashx
28. Rosenfeld AH (1999) The art of energy efficiency:
protecting the environment with better technology.
Annu Rev Energy Environ 24:33–82
29. Kats G (2009) Greening our built world: costs, bene-
fits, and strategies. Island Press, Washington,
DC. ISBN 10: 159726668X
30. Rosenfeld AH, McAuliffe P, Wilson J (2004) Energy
efficiency and climate change. In: Braungart
M (ed) Encyclopedia on energy. Cutler Cleveland,
Academic, Elsevier Science
31. Rosenfeld AH (2003) Improving energy efficiency
2–3% year to save money and avoid global warming.
In: Sessler Symposium, LBNL, 15 March 2003,
Berkeley
32. Inter-laboratory Working Group (1997) Scenarios of
US carbon reductions: potential impacts of energy
technologies by 2010 and beyond. LBNL 40533.
https://eta.lbl.gov/publications/scenarios-us-carbon-
reductions
33. USGBC (2007) A national green building research
agenda. http://www.usgbc.org/ShowFile.aspx?
DocumentID¼3402. Accessed 20 Mar 2020
34. Mazria E (2002–present) The 2030 challenge. http://
www.architecture2030.org/
35. Boelman EC, Sakulpipatsin P (2004) Critical analysis
of exergy efficiency definitions applicable to buildings
and building services. In: Plea 2004 – the 21st confer-
ence on passive and low energy architecture, Eindho-
ven, 19–22 Sept 2004
36. Hartkopf V et al (2002) Building as power plant. The
Austin papers. Building Green,. ISBN 1-929884-10-9
37. Loftness V (2000) Energy, productivity and the critical
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tainable Development Goal 11: make cities and human
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https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdg11
 Part I
Models of Sustainable Built Environments

Bioclimatic Design
Donald Watson
FAIA, Trumbull, CT, USA
Article Outline
Glossary
Definition of the Subject
Introduction
Principles of Bioclimatic Design
Practices of Bioclimatic Design
Bioclimatic Design of Atriums
Large-Scale Applications
Urban and Regional Scale
Future Directions: Design for Resilience to
Climate Change
Bibliography
Glossary
Terms and symbols frequently used in building
science and climatology
Celsius temperature ( C) refers to temperatures
measured on a scale devised in 1742 by Anders
Celsius, a Swedish astronomer. The Celsius
scale is graduated into 100 units between the
freezing temperature of water (0  C) and its
boiling point at normal atmospheric pressure
(100  C) and is, consequently, commonly
referred to as the centigrade scale.
Dew point temperature (DPT) is the tempera-
ture of a surface upon which water vapor
contained in the air will condense into liquid
water. Stated differently, it is the temperature at
which a given quantity of air will become
saturated (reach 100% relative humidity) if
chilled at constant pressure. It is thus another
indicator of the moisture content of the air.
Dew point temperature is not easily measured
directly; it is conveniently found on a
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
V. Loftness (ed.), Sustainable Built Environments,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-0684-1_225
Originally published in
R. A. Meyers (ed.), Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology, © Springer Science+Business Media LLC 2017
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2493-6_225-3
psychrometric chart if dry-bulb and wet-bulb
temperatures are known.
Dry-bulb temperature (DBT) is the tempera-
ture measured in air by an ordinary (dry bulb)
thermometer and is independent of the mois-
ture content of the air. It is also called “sensible
temperature.”
Fahrenheit temperature ( F) refers to the tem-
perature measured on a scale devised by G. D.
Fahrenheit, the inventor of alcohol and mer-
cury thermometers, in the early eighteenth cen-
tury. On the Fahrenheit scale, the freezing point
of water is 32  F, and its boiling point is 212  F
at normal atmospheric pressure.
Humidity is a general term referring to the water
vapor contained in the air. Like the word “tem-
perature,” the type of “humidity” must be defined.
Relative humidity (RH) is defined as the per-
cent of moisture contained in the air under
specified conditions compared to the amount
of moisture contained in the air at total satura-
tion at the same (dry bulb) temperature. Rela-
tive humidity can be computed as the ratio of
existing vapor pressure to vapor pressure at
saturation or the ratio of absolute humidity to
absolute humidity at saturation existing at the
same temperature and barometric pressure.
Wet-bulb temperature (WBT) is an indicator
of the total heat content (or enthalpy) of the
air, that is, of its combined sensible and latent
heats. It is the temperature measured by a ther-
mometer having a wetted sleeve over the bulb
from which water can evaporate freely.
Definition of the Subject
Bioclimatic design – combining “biology” and
“climate” – is an approach to the design of buildings
and landscape that is based on local climate. Biocli-
matic design techniques include solar heating and
sun shading, natural ventilation, and use of building
materials for thermal time lag and storage.
19
20
Resilient design is an extension of bioclimatic
design, adding precautionary measures to provide
health and safety to prepare buildings, communi-
ties, and regions for natural disasters and climate
change.
Introduction
In adopting bioclimatic approaches, the designer
endeavors to create comfort conditions in build-
ings by understanding the microclimate and
resulting design strategies that include natural
ventilation, daylighting, and passive heating and
cooling.
Examples of bioclimatic designs are found in
examples of indigenous and vernacular building
throughout the globe, evidence of genius loci, the
ways of living and working rooted in a particular
place and time. Now an established topic of build-
ing science research and architectural practice,
bioclimatic design can be applied to buildings,
landscapes, and urban and regional scales, as
part of the twenty-first century sustainability and
resilient planning goals.
Techniques of sun-tempering, solar shading,
and daylighting were amply represented in the
early twentieth century portfolios of Frank Lloyd
Wright, Tony Garnier, and Augustin Rey, in the
1920s Bauhaus manifestos of Hannes Meyer and
Marcel Breuer, in the late 1920s health-oriented
designs of Alvar Aalto and Richard Neutra, and in
“solar house” designs of the Keck brothers in
Chicago area in the late 1930s [1].
Olgyay and Olgyay used the term “bioclimatic
design” to define a methodology that matched
local climate variables to the achievement of
human comfort, applicable to architecture and
planning, promoted in a series of professional
and popular publications in the late 1940s and
1950s [2, 3].
When air-conditioning systems became widely
available in the 1950s and electricity was consid-
ered cheap and available, it became possible “to
cool a glass house in the desert.” Interest in bio-
climatic design waned and became less evident in
built work, although pioneering studies continued
in academic and architectural research centers in
Bioclimatic Design
Britain and the United States. The topic revived in
response to energy shortages of the 1970s. “Pas-
sive solar design” became the popular term to
incorporate elements of bioclimatic design, at
first emphasizing solar heating but soon broad-
ened to passive cooling and daylighting [4].
In the late 1980s, the United Nations Bruntland
Commission and the Rio Earth Summit of June
1992 gave international focus to the concept of
“sustainability,” including reduced reliance on
nonrenewable resources and threats to ecosystems
and the biodiversity of environments and cultures.
With emergence of such global environmental
concerns, the scope of bioclimatic design was
enlarged to include landscape, soil, water, and
waste nutrient recovery, designed to mimic and
restore the health of natural processes and ecosys-
tems, characterized by the term “regenerative
design” [5].
At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the
world confronts the evident trends of extreme
weather and climate change. Bioclimatic design
has gained additional relevance as the basis of
applying climate science to “passive
survivability” – defined by Alex Wilson as “a
building’s ability to maintain critical life-support
conditions if services such as power, heating fuel,
or water are lost” [6].
The challenge to reduce and eliminate where
possible the use of fossil fuels for carbon reduc-
tion further supports bioclimatic design. Biocli-
matic design provides the knowledge and
inspiration of nature to design for sustainability
and resilience in buildings, landscapes, cities, and
regions [7].
Principles of Bioclimatic Design
Six key variables have been identified in research
studies of human physiological comfort, in which
volunteer subjects are asked to report level of
comfort and discomfort: air temperature, ambient
radiant temperature, humidity, air velocity, dress,
and metabolic rate as a function of activity
level [8].
Common responses across all these variables
have established baseline conditions required for
Bioclimatic Design
human comfort. Studies indicate that the “comfort
zone” for humans does not vary, regardless of sex,
age, place of origin and residence, skin color, and
body form and weight. In other words, the human
“comfort” zone is relatively universal indepen-
dent of age, health, or sex. However, points
where research subjects report discomfort and
evidence thermal stress do vary, as a function of
many variables, including age, health, and accul-
turation. Comfort studies are the basis of the
design criteria of heating and cooling systems
for buildings, also applicable to bioclimatic
design.
The “resources” of bioclimatic design are the
natural flows of “ambient” energy in and around a
building – the “microclimate” created by the sun,
wind, precipitation, vegetation, and temperature
and humidity in the air and in the ground (Fig. 1).
• Conduction – from hotter object to cooler
object by direct contact.
• Convection – by flow of air between warmer
objects and cooler objects.
• Radiation – from hotter object to cooler object
within the direct view of each other regardless
Bioclimatic Design, Fig. 1 Paths of energy exchange at
the building microclimate scale. Bioclimatic design is
based upon understanding energy flows within and around
buildings (Ref. [4])
21
of the temperature of air between, including
radiation from the sun to the earth.
• Evaporation – the change of phase from liquid
to gaseous state: the sensible heat (dry-bulb
temperature) in the air is lowered by the latent
heat absorbed from air when moisture is
evaporated.
• Thermal storage – from heat charge and dis-
charge both diurnally and seasonally, as a func-
tion of its specific heat, mass, and conductivity.
Although not usually included alongside the
four classic means of heat transport, thermal
storage is helpful in understanding the heat
transfer physics of building climatology.
The strategies can be set forth as:
• Minimize conductive heat flow
This strategy is achieved by using insulation
and thermal breaks. It is effective when the
outdoor temperature is significantly different,
either lower or higher, than the interior comfort
range. In summer, this strategy should be con-
sidered whenever ambient temperatures are
within or above the comfort range and where
natural cooling strategies cannot be relied upon
to achieve comfort (i.e., whenever mechanical
air conditioning is necessary).
• Delay periodic heat flow
While the insulation value of building mate-
rials is well understood, it is not widely appre-
ciated that building envelope materials also can
delay heat flows that can be used to improve
comfort and to lower energy costs. Time lag
through masonry walls, for example, can delay
the day’s thermal impact until evening and is a
particularly valuable technique in hot arid cli-
mates with wide day-night temperature varia-
tions. Techniques of earth sheltering and earth
berming also exploit the long-lag effect of sub-
surface construction.
• Minimize infiltration
“Infiltration” refers to uncontrolled air leak-
age around doors and windows and through
joints, cracks, and faulty seals in the building
envelope. Infiltration (and resulting
“exfiltration” of heated or cooled air) is con-
sidered the largest and potentially the most
22
intractable source of energy loss in a building,
once other practical measures have been taken.
• Provide thermal storage
Thermal mass inside the insulated envelope
is critical to dampening of the swings in air
temperature and in storing heat in winter and as
a heat sink in summer.
• Promote solar gain
The sun can provide a substantial portion of
winter heating energy through elements such
as equatorial-facing windows and greenhouses
that include other passive solar techniques
which utilize spaces to collect, store, and trans-
fer solar heat.
• Minimize solar gain
The best means for ensuring comfort from
the heat of summer is to minimize the effects of
the direct sun by shading windows from the
sun, or otherwise minimizing the building sur-
faces exposed to summer sun, by use of radiant
barrier, and by insulation.
• Minimize external airflow
Winter winds increase the rate of heat loss
from a building by “washing away” heat and
thus accelerating the cooling of the exterior
envelope surfaces by conduction and also by
increasing infiltration (exfiltration) losses. Sit-
ing and shaping a building to minimize wind
exposure or providing windbreaks can reduce
wind impacts and heat loss.
• Promote ventilation
Cooling by airflow through an interior may
be propelled by two natural processes, cross-
ventilation (wind driven) and stack-effect ven-
tilation (driven by the buoyancy of heated air
even in the absence of external wind pressure).
A fan (using photovoltaic for fan power) can be
an efficient way to augment natural ventilation
cooling in the absence of sufficient wind or
stack-pressure differential.
• Promote radiant cooling
A building can lose heat if the mean radiant
temperature of the materials at its outer sur-
faces is greater than that of its surroundings,
principally the night sky. The mean radiant
temperature of the building surface is deter-
mined by the intensity of solar irradiation, by
the material surface (film coefficient), and by
Bioclimatic Design
the emissivity of its exterior surface (its ability
to “emit” or reradiate heat). This contributes
only marginally if the building envelope is well
insulated.
• Promote evaporative cooling
Sensible cooling of a building interior can
be achieved by evaporating moisture into the
incoming airstream (or if an existing roof has
little insulation, by evaporative cooling the
exterior envelope such as by a roof spray.)
These are simple and traditional techniques
and most useful in hot dry climates if water is
available for controlled usage. Mechanically
assisted evaporative cooling is achieved with
an economizer-cycle evaporative cooling sys-
tem, instead of, or in conjunction with, refrig-
erant air conditioning.
The “comfort range” as defined in research
studies is within a small range of temperature
and humidity conditions, roughly between
68–80  F (20–26.7  C) and 20–80% relative
humidity (RH), referred to on the psychrometric
chart as the “comfort zone.” Other variables
include environmental indices – radiant tempera-
ture and rate of airflow – as well as clothing and
activity (metabolic rate). While such criteria
describe relatively universal requirements in
which all humans are “comfortable,” there are
significant differences in and varying tolerance
for discomfort, that is, the limits in which stress
is felt, which vary depending upon age, sex,
health, cultural conditioning, and expectations.
Givoni [9] and Milne and Givoni [10] offer a
design method using the “Building Bioclimatic
Chart,” modified by Arens [11]. (Fig. 2)
Adopting the psychometric chart format, the
Building Bioclimatic Chart displays the parame-
ters for bioclimatic design strategies that can
achieve human comfort in a building interior. If
local outdoor temperatures and humidity fall
within specified zones, the designer is alerted to
opportunities to use specific bioclimatic design
strategies to create effective interior comfort.
Typical meteorological year (TMY) summa-
ries contain climatic data for all 8,760 h in a
“typical” year, available for most locations in the
United States and increasingly available for major
Bioclimatic Design
Bioclimatic Design, Fig. 2 Building Bioclimatic Chart. The chart indicates parameters of climatic conditions favorable
for bioclimatic design (Refs. [9, 10, 11])
regions and cities worldwide. Each file contains
one complete year of hourly data, including direct
(beam) solar radiation, total horizontal solar radi-
ation, dry-bulb temperature, dew point humidity,
wind speed, and cloud cover [12].
Climate Consultant is a computer-based pro-
gram that can be downloaded at no cost from the
web [13]. Part of a career-long project of UCLA
Professor Emeritus Murray Milne to develop pub-
lic domain energy design tools, the software plots
temperatures, wind velocity, sky cover, percent
sunshine, beam, and horizontal irradiation. It
includes 3-D plots of temperature, wind speed,
and related climatic data cross-referenced to bio-
climatic design practices presented in Watson and
Labs [4].
Climate Consultant graphs include the Build-
ing Bioclimatic Chart for Atlanta (Fig. 3), with
summaries of percent annual hours of heating and
cooling requirements, along with effective biocli-
matic strategies, listed below in rank order of
23
percent annual hours of potential need and effec-
tiveness. The designer can thus assess the relative
effectiveness and priorities of options, also sub-
ject to local energy costs, reliability, and building
uses:
26.8% Heating, add humidification if needed
(2346 h)
25.4% Internal heat gain (2223 h)
17.2% Dehumidification (1504 h)
14.0% Sun shading of windows (1228 h)
11.2% Cooling, add dehumidification if needed
(979 h)
11.1% Comfort (968 h)
09.9% Passive solar direct gain low mass (866 h)
08.5% Passive solar direct gain high mass (747 h)
03.4% High thermal mass (299 h)
02.9% High thermal mass night flushed (252 h)
02.3% Two-stage evaporative cooling (198 h)
02.2% Direct evaporative cooling (189 h)
02.0% Natural ventilation cooling (174 h)
24
Bioclimatic Design, Fig. 3 Climate Consultant display
of the Building Bioclimatic Chart for Atlanta
GA. Representative bioclimatic chart generated by Climate
01.2% Fan-forced ventilation cooling (107 h)
01.1% Wind protection of outdoor spaces (94 h)
00.0% Humidification only (0 h)
Practices of Bioclimatic Design
Bioclimatic techniques can be set forth as a set of
design opportunities, adapted from Watson and
Labs [4].
Windbreaks (Winter)
Two design techniques serve the function of min-
imizing winter wind exposure:
• Use neighboring landforms, structures, or veg-
etation for winter wind protection.
• Shape and orient the building shell to minimize
winter wind turbulence (Fig. 4).
Bioclimatic Design
Consultant. The box “Design Strategies” tabulates the per-
cent hours per year that bioclimatic design strategies are
effective, compiling TMY3 data set (Ref. [13])
Thermal Envelope (Winter)
Isolating the interior space from the hot summer
and cold winter climate, such as:
• Use attic space as buffer zone between interior
and outside climate.
• Use basement or crawl space as buffer zone
between interior and grounds.
• Use vestibule or exterior “wind shield” at
entryways.
• Locate low-use spaces, storage, utility, and
garage areas to provide climatic buffers.
• Subdivide interior to create separate heating
and cooling zones.
• Select insulating materials for resistance to
heat flow through building envelope.
• Apply vapor barriers to the warm side of build-
ing envelope assemblies to control moisture
migration.
Bioclimatic Design 25

Bioclimatic Design, Fig. 4 Sea Ranch, California. Landscape planting, roof slopes, and fencing designed for wind
protection. Esherick, Homsey, Dodge, and Davis, architects and planners, with Lawrence Halprin, landscape architect

Bioclimatic Design, Fig. 5 Analysis of building aspect ratio. Simplified building shapes are compared for ratio of
exterior surface to enclosed volume (Ref. [4])

• Develop construction details to minimize air
infiltration and exfiltration.
• Provide insulating controls at glazing.
• Use heat reflective or radiant barriers on or
below surfaces oriented to summer sun.
• Minimize the outside wall and roof area ratio
of exterior surface to enclosed volume
(Fig. 5).
Solar Windows and Walls (Winter)
Using the winter sun for heating a building
through solar-oriented windows and walls is pro-
vided by a number of techniques:
• Maximize reflectivity of ground and building
surfaces outside windows facing the
winter sun.
26
Bioclimatic Design, Fig. 6 Solar windows and walls.
Left: Keck and Keck, architects, developed solar design
principles in Chicago area in the 1930s. The designs of
Keck and Keck – in this example a prefab for green ready-
built homes – included south-facing glass, exposed
masonry floors with hypostyle (warm air radiant) heating,
• Shape and orient the building shell to maxi-
mize exposure to winter sun.
• Use high-capacitance thermal mass materials
in the interior to store solar heat gain.
• Use solar wall and roof collectors on
equatorial-oriented surfaces.
• Optimize the area of equatorial-facing glazing.
• Use clerestory skylights for winter solar gain
and natural illumination.
• Provide solar-oriented interior zone for solar
heat gain, with solar control for shading in
overheated periods (Fig. 6).
Indoor/Outdoor Rooms (Winter and Summer)
Courtyards, covered patios, seasonal screened and
glassed-in porches, greenhouses, atriums, and sun
spaces can be located in the building plan for
summer cooling and winter heating benefits, as
in these three techniques:
• Provide outdoor semi-protected areas for year-
round climate moderation (Fig. 7).
Earth Sheltering (Winter and Summer)
Techniques such as banking earth against the
walls of a building or green roofs provide thermal
storage and damping temperature fluctuations
(daily and seasonally), reducing envelope heat
loss or gain (winter and summer). These tech-
niques are often referred to as earth contact or
earth sheltering:
Bioclimatic Design
interior masonry walls, interior curtains, and exterior shad-
ing (Photo: William Keck, architect). Right: Rural school,
Kasserine, Tunisia. Solar “Trombe Wall” (glass-covered
masonry), clerestory daylighting, Save The Children Fed-
eration. 1986 (Photo: Donald Watson, FAIA, architect)
• Use slab-on-grade construction for ground
temperature heat exchange and thermal
storage.
• Use earth-covered or sod roofs.
• Recess structure below grade or raise existing
grade for earth sheltering (Fig. 8).
Thermally Massive Construction (Summer and
Winter)
Particularly effective in hot arid zones or in more
temperate zones with cold clear winters. Ther-
mally massive construction provides a “thermal
fly wheel.” Absorbing heat during the day from
solar radiation and convection from indoor air,
thermal mass can create comfort if it is cooled at
night, if necessary through nighttime ventilative
cooling (if air temperatures fall within the comfort
zone):
• Use high mass construction with outside insu-
lation and nighttime ventilation.
• For selected climates (hot dry), use high-
capacitance materials to dampen heat flow
through the building envelope (Fig. 9).
Sun Shading (Summer)
Mid-day solar altitude angles are higher in sum-
mer than in winter. Thus, an overhang can shade
windows from the sun during the overheated sum-
mer period and permit sun to reach the window
surfaces and interior spaces in winter:
Bioclimatic Design
Bioclimatic Design, Fig. 7 Protected courtyard. Buli
Khelam Lhakhang Monastery, Bhutan. In the Himalayan
tradition of building, an enclosed courtyard with sun-
exposed adobe walls and windows creates a wind-
• Minimize reflectivity of ground and building
surfaces outside windows facing the
summer sun.
• Use neighboring landforms, structures, or veg-
etation for shading summer sun.
• Shape and orient the building shell to minimize
exposure to summer afternoon sun.
• Provide seasonally operable shading, includ-
ing deciduous trees.
Natural Ventilation (Summer and Seasonal)
Natural ventilation is a simple concept by which
to cool a building:
• Shape and orient the building shell to maxi-
mize exposure to summer breezes.
• Use “open plan” interior to promote airflow.
• Provide vertical airshafts to promote “thermal
chimney” or stack-effect airflow.
• Use double roof construction for ventilation
within the building shell.
27
protected microclimate, permitting a temperate planting
regime to flourish within, in contrast to high mountain
climatic conditions of its locale (Photo: Donald Watson)
• Orient door and window openings to facilitate
natural ventilation from prevailing summer
breezes.
• Use wing walls, overhangs, and louvers to
direct summer wind flow into interior.
• Use louvered wall openings for maximum ven-
tilation control.
• Use roof monitors for “stack effect” ventilation
(Fig. 10).
Plants and Water (Summer)
Many techniques provide cooling by plants and
water near building surfaces for shading and evap-
orative cooling:
• Use planting next to building skin (provided it
does not interfere with ventilation).
• Use roof spray or roof ponds for evaporative
cooling.
• Use ground cover and planting for site cooling.
• Maximize on-site evaporative cooling
(Fig. 11).
28 Bioclimatic Design

Bioclimatic Design, Fig. 8 Earth-sheltered home. New Canaan, CT. Donald Watson, FAIA, architect. (1) Winter
solstice, (2) summer solstice, (3) light shelf/daylight reflector, (4) green roof, (5) skylight, (6) earth sheltering

Bioclimatic Design,
Fig. 9 Thermal mass
appropriate for hot dry
climate. Indigenous adobe
block construction, with
roof and window overhangs
to shade and protect the
walls. Tahono O’Odham
Nation, Papago Indian
Reservation, Arizona
(Photo: Donald Watson)

Bioclimatic Design of Atriums derive from nineteenth century greenhouses and

Atriums offer many energy design opportunities,
depending upon climate variables, to provide nat-
ural heating, cooling, lighting, and plants.
Suggested by its Latin meaning as “heart,” or an
open courtyard of a Roman house, the term atrium
as used today describes a protected courtyard or
glazed large-volume space placed within a build-
ing. Modern atrium design incorporates many
architectural elements – wall enclosures, sun-
oriented openings, shading and ventilation
devices, and subtle means of modifying tempera-
ture and humidity – suggested by examples that
glass-covered arcades of Great Britain and
France.
In Northern Europe, especially Holland and
England, from the seventeenth century onward,
south-facing orientation of indoor gardens, prop-
agating sheds, orangeries, and conservatories
revealed an understanding of bioclimatic design.
Gardeners and greenhouse designers combined
thermal mass, double glass, steep glass orienta-
tion, underground heating, shading, and insulat-
ing devices in greenhouses. The greenhouse
designs of J.C. Loudon, beginning circa 1820,
had all of these elements evident in sketches and
Bioclimatic Design
Bioclimatic Design, Fig. 10 Shading and ventilation
strategies. Built in an era well before air-conditioning,
plantation manor houses such as the 1827 San Francisco
Plantation House, New Orleans, combined a range of
built examples through mid-century. Joseph
Paxton’s The Great Exhibition or the Crystal Pal-
ace Exhibition of 1851 demonstrated the possibil-
ity for large glazed-covered areas, inaugurating a
proliferation of urban atrium designs across
Europe and the world [14].
Atriums offer many energy design opportuni-
ties: first, comfort is achieved by gradual transi-
tion from outside climate to building interior;
second, designed properly, protected spaces and
buffer zones create natural and free-flowing
energy by reducing or by eliminating the need to
otherwise heat, cool, or light building interiors.
Solar Heating Guidelines
If heating efficiency alone is the primary energy
design goal of the atrium, the following design
principles should be paramount:
Heating Rule 1
To maximize winter solar heat gain, orient
the atrium aperture (openings and glazing) to
the equator. If possible, the glazing should be
29
strategies for natural cooling in hot humid climates, includ-
ing open understory and porches, cross-ventilation, and
roofs designed to induce ventilation by thermal updraft
(Photo: Robert Perron)
vertical or sloped not lower than a tilt angle
equal to the local latitude.
Heating Rule 2
To store and distribute heat, place interior
masonry directly in the path of the winter sun.
This is most useful if the heated wall or floor
surface will in turn directly radiate to building
occupants.
Heating Rule 3
To prevent excessive nighttime heat loss,
consider an insulating system for the glazing,
such as insulating curtains or high-
performance multilayered window systems.
Heating Rule 4
Heat recovery can be accomplished if the
warm air is redistributed either to the lower
area of the atrium (a ceiling fan) or redirected
(and cleaned) to the mechanical system or
through a heat exchanger if the air must be
exhausted for health and air-quality reasons.
Because a large air volume must be heated,
an atrium is not an efficient solar collector.
A high space helps to make an overheated
30
Bioclimatic Design, Fig. 11 Evaporative cooling strate-
gies: Public courtyard. Seville, Spain. The streets and pas-
sages of the city combine courtyards, gardens, and a
landscape rich with planting and water fountains (Photo:
Helen Kessler)
space acceptable, as the warmest air rises to the
top. By facing a large skylight and/or window
opening toward the equator, direct winter solar
heating becomes feasible.
In cool climates, an atrium used as a solar heat
collector would require as much winter sunlight
as possible. In overbright conditions, dark fin-
ishes on surfaces where the sun strikes will help
reduce glare and also to store heat. On surfaces
not in direct sun, light finishes reflect light, espe-
cially welcomed under cloudy conditions. In
most locations and uses, glass should be
completely shaded from the summer sun. Mov-
able insulation might be considered to reduce
nighttime heat loss.
Bioclimatic Design
Natural Cooling Guidelines
Several guidelines related to the use of an atrium
design as an intermediary or buffer zone apply to
both heating and cooling. If an unconditioned
atrium is located in a building interior, heat gain
results from the warmer surrounding spaces into
the atrium. In buildings with large internal gains
due to occupants, lighting, and machines, the
atrium may require cooling throughout the year.
To design exclusively for cooling, the following
principles would predominate:
Cooling Rule 1: To minimize solar gain, provide
shade for the summer sun. While fixed shading
devices suffice for much of the summer period,
movable shading is the only means by which to
match the seasonal shading requirements at all
times. In buildings in warm climates, sun shad-
ing may be needed throughout the year.
Cooling Rule 2: To use the atrium as an exhaust
air plenum in the mechanical system of the
building. The great advantage is one of econ-
omy, but heat recovery options (discussed
above) and ventilation become most effective
when the natural airflow in the atrium is in the
same direction and integrated with the mechan-
ical system.
Cooling Rule 3: To facilitate natural ventilation,
create a vertical “chimney” effect by placing
ventilating outlets high (preferably in the free-
flow airstream well above the roof) and by
providing cool “replacement air” inlets at the
atrium bottom, with attention that the airstream
is clean, that is, free of car exhaust or other
pollutants.
The inlet air steam can be cooled naturally, best
with cool air from a shaded area. In hot, dry
climates, passing the inlet air over water such as
an aerated fountain or landscape can facilitate
evaporative cooling. Allowing the atrium to cool
by ventilation at night is effective in climates
where summer nighttime temperatures are lower
than daytime (greater than 15  F difference).
Additional cooling capacity (to absorb and
hold heat) is provided by materials such as
masonry. However, as a general rule, if the aver-
age daily temperature is above 78  F (25.5  C),
Bioclimatic Design
thermally massive materials are disadvantageous
in non-air-conditioned spaces because they do not
cool as rapidly as a thermally light structure.
When stack ventilation is possible through a roof
aperture, the space will ventilate naturally even in
the absence of outside breezes, by the driving
force of heated air. If air conditioning of the atrium
is needed but can be restricted to the lower area of
the space, it can be done reasonably; cool air,
being heavier, will pool at the bottom.
Design choices must balance between the
requirements for sun shading and those for day-
lighting. The ideal location for a shading screen is
on the outside of the glazing, where it can be
wind-cooled. When the outside air ranges about
80F (26.7  C), glass areas – even if shaded – admit
undesired heat gain by conduction. In truly warm
climates, a minimum of glazed aperture should be
used to prevent undesired heat gain: a small
amount of glazing should be placed where it is
most effective for daylighting. Heat-absorbent or
heat-reflective glass, the common solution to
reduce solar heat gain, reduces the illumination
level and also reduces desirable winter heat gain.
In temperate-to-cool climates, heat gain
through a skylight can be tolerated if the space is
high, so that heat builds up well above the occu-
pancy zone and there is good ventilation. In hot
climates, an atrium will perform better as an
unconditioned space if it is a shaded but otherwise
open courtyard.
Daylighting Guidelines
In all climates, an atrium can be used for daylight-
ing. Electric lighting cost savings can be achieved
but only if the daylighting system works, that is, if
it replaces the use of artificial lighting. (Many
daylit buildings end up with the electric lights in
full use regardless of lighting levels needed.) Atri-
ums serve a particularly useful function for an
entire building by balancing light levels – thus
reducing brightness ratios – across the interior
floors of a building. If, for example, an open office
floor has a window wall on only one side, typi-
cally more electric lighting is required than would
be required without natural lighting to reduce the
brightness ratio. A light court can provide such
balanced “two-source” lighting.
31
The following principles apply to atrium
design for daylighting:
Lighting Rule 1
To maximize daylight, an atrium cross sec-
tion should be stepped open to the entire sky
dome in predominantly cloudy areas. In pre-
dominantly sunny sites, atrium geometry can
by based upon heating and/or cooling solar
orientation principles.
Lighting Rule 2
To maximize light, window or skylight
apertures should be designed for the predomi-
nant sky condition. If the predominant sky
condition is cloudy and maximum daylight is
required (as in a northern climate winter gar-
den), consider clear glazing oriented to the
entire sky dome, with movable sun controls
for sunny conditions. If the predominant sky
condition is sunny, orient the glazing according
to heating and/or cooling design requirements.
Lighting Rule 3
Provide sun-and-glare control by geometry
of aperture, surface treatment, color, and
adjustable shades or curtains. Designing for
daylighting involves compromise to meet
widely varying sky conditions. What works
in bright sun conditions will not be adequate
for cloudy conditions. An opaque overhang or
louver, for example, may create particularly
somber shadowing on a cloudy day. Light is
diffused by a cloudy sky, falling nearly equally
from all directions; the sides of the atrium thus
cast gray shadows on all sides. For predomi-
nantly cloudy conditions, a clear skylight is the
right choice. Bright haze will nonetheless
cause intolerable glare at least to a view
upward. Under sunny conditions, the same
skylight is the least satisfactory choice because
of overlighting and overheating.
Unless the local climate is truly cloudy and the
atrium requires high levels of illumination, partial
skylighting can achieve a balance of natural light-
ing, heating, and cooling. Partial skylighting is a
skylighting that takes only a portion of the roof
surface. This approach offers advantages of con-
trolling glare and sunlight by providing reflecting
32
and shading surfaces, such as by the coffers of the
skylights. With less light intensity and contrast, a
surface illuminated by reflected light is more
acceptable to the human eye than a direct view
of a bright window area. Movable shades for glare
and sun control provide a further means to balance
for the variety of conditions.
The design principles for heating, cooling,
and daylighting can be selected according to
building type and local climate. In northern cli-
mates, the solar heating potential predominates,
while the natural cooling potential predominates
in the Southern United States. In commercial and
institutional structures, natural cooling and day-
lighting are both important. In this case, the local
climate would determine the relative importance
of openness achieved with large and clear
skylighting (most appropriate for cloudy
temperate-to-cool regions) or of closed and
shaded skylighting (most appropriate for sunny
warm regions). The design principles can be sum-
marized as guideline principles (Fig. 12).
Garden Atriums
Plants have an important role in buffer zones. If
the requirements of plants are understood, healthy
greenery can be incorporated into atrium design
and contribute to human comfort, amenity, and
energy conservation. Plants, however, when
uncomfortable, cannot move. Major planting
losses have been reported in gardened atriums
because the bioclimatic requirements were not
achieved. A greenhouse for year-round crop or
plant production is intended to create spring-
summer or the growing period climate throughout
the year. A winter garden replicates spring-
summer conditions for plant growth in wintertime
by maximizing winter daylight exposure and by
solar heating. Plants need ample light, but not
excessive heat. Although varying according to
plant species, as a general rule, planting areas
require full overhead skylighting (essentially to
simulate their indigenous growing condition).
Most plants are overheated if their roots range
above 65  F (18.3  C). Plant growth slows when
the root temperature drops below 45  F (7.2  C).
As a result, a greenhouse has the general problem
of overheating (as well as overlighting) during
Bioclimatic Design
any sunny day and of underlighting (in intensity
and duration) during any cloudy winter day.
If the function of the atrium includes plant
propagation or horticultural exhibit (replicating
the indigenous climate in which the display plants
flower), then clear-glass skylighting is needed for
the cloudy days, and adjustable shading and over-
heating controls are needed for sunny days. If the
plant beds are heated directly, for example, by
water piping, then root temperatures can be
maintained in the optimum range without heating
the air. As a result, the air temperature in the
atrium can be cool for people, in the 50  F
(10  C) range, with the resulting advantage of
providing a defense against superheating the
space. People can be comfortable in lower air
temperatures if exposed to the radiant warmth of
the sun and/or if the radiant temperature of sur-
rounding surfaces is correspondingly higher, that
is, ranging above 80  F (26.7  C). Lower atrium
temperatures have a further advantage to plants
and energy-efficient space operation: evaporation
from plants is slowed, saving water and energy
(1000 Btu is removed from the sensible heat of the
space with each pound of water that evaporates).
Air circulation reduces excessive moisture
buildup at the plant leaf and circulates CO2,
needed during the daytime growth cycle (Fig. 13).
Large-Scale Applications
Figure 14 depicts site and building opportunities
for energy collection, storage, and distribution
that may be integrated into larger buildings as
combined passive and active measures of biocli-
matic design. Applications may include on-site
ecosystem services, green roofs, water collection,
waste recycling, and biological diversity of sun
and shade, warm and cool zones, and energy
storage, selected depending upon opportunities
within each site and region.
William Lam [16] provides a detailed guidance
for sunlighting large buildings, including docu-
mentation of case studies. A number of large-
scale building designs demonstrate exemplary
applications of microclimatic design (Figs. 15,
16, and 17).
Bioclimatic Design 33

Bioclimatic Design, Fig. 12 Bioclimatic principles for atrium design. Guidelines for design of atria and light courts in
various climates (Ref. [15])
34 Bioclimatic Design

Bioclimatic Design, Fig. 13 New Canaan Nature Center monitor, (6) operable sun shade/insulating curtain, (7)
Greenhouse, New Canaan, CT 1982. Buchanan and Wat- earth-contact floor, (8) root-bed heating (9) grow lights,
son, architects. (1) South-facing greenhouse, (2) solar col- (10) earth berm, (11) rainwater collection (Illustration:
lectors, (3) thermal storage, (4) ceiling fans, (5) roof Marja Watson)

Bioclimatic Design, Fig. 14 Large building opportunities for microclimatic design integration. Bioclimatic design
extends to larger scale for integrated heating, cooling and lighting systems

Urban and Regional Scale Southern California developed the notion of

Many studies address microclimatic impacts at the
urban scale [3]. Perennial topics have included
solar access, evident in early twentieth century
studies related to solar access and daylighting, as
well as urban scale airflow,
Solar Access
Ralph Knowles [17] in studies undertaken over
many decades with students at the University of
assuring solar access to buildings, for sun temper-
ing, daylighting, and solar collection. His studies
have demonstrated that solar access can be
guaranteed in most urban areas while keeping
within conventional medium- to medium-high-
density floor to area ratios (FARs) (Fig. 17).
A study by FXFOWLE Architects [18] illustrates
the feasibility of passive solar and improved insula-
tion measures equal to Passivhaus standards. Strate-
gies include shading, passive solar gain, shading,
Bioclimatic Design 35

Bioclimatic Design, Fig. 15 Centre for Interactive
Research on Sustainability (CIRS), University of Endow-
ment Lands, British Columbia, Vancouver. Designed as a
“living laboratory” with multiple innovations to reduce
energy and to capture and use rainwater. Busby Perkins+-
Will, architects. (1) Daylighting/sun tempering, (2) photo-
voltaic collectors, (3) evacuated tube collectors, (4) green
roof/rainwater harvesting, (5) displacement ventilation, (6)
ground source heat pump, (7) heat recovery, (8) radiant
heating, (9) deciduous living wall, (10) solar aquatic
biofiltration, (11) stormwater to raingardens, (12) solar
DHW, (13) rainwater cistern, (14) water purification, (15)
gray and blackwater recovery (Photo: Martin Tessler)

Bioclimatic Design, Fig. 16 Solaire – 27-story residential apartment building in New York City. Passive solar, green
roof, energy- and water-conserving features. Cesar Pelli & Associates Architects and SLCE Architects
36 Bioclimatic Design

Bioclimatic Design, Fig. 17 Left: Solar envelope for a medium-density neighborhood of Los Angeles. Right: Medium-
density neighborhood within the solar envelope (Photos: courtesy of Ralph L. Knowles)

Bioclimatic Design, Fig. 18 Case study of Passivhaus “full build out” of surrounding properties, with winter
standards applicable with 2016 New York City zoning and morning shading (Ref. [18])
housing market requirements. Buildings in color indicate

attention to thermal breaks in insulation and enve-
lope, sun-oriented interior layouts, and energy-
recovery within mechanical ventilation (Fig. 18).
Urban Heat Islands and Cool Zones
Baruch Givoni [18] compiles a broad survey of
urban bioclimatic data and design applications,
with emphasis on measured data, along with
discussion of challenges of data measurement at
the urban scale.
Table 1 shows averages of air and surface
temperatures measured at a height of 1 m
(3.3 ft.) around noontime on the UCLA campus
during a sequence of several clear days in sum-
mer. The lowest temperatures were in a space
between a line of high shrubs and a wall of a
building.
Givoni’s research points to opportunities for
continued research at the urban scale, supporting
an approach to urban planning based on biocli-
matic analysis and design. (Fig. 19)
Bioclimatic Design 37

Bioclimatic Design, Table 1 Representative air and surface temperature averages measured during a sequence of
several clear days in summer (Ref. [18])
Air temperature Surface temperature Air temperature Surface temperature
Location ( F) ( F) ( C) ( C)
Parking lot 79 122 26.1 50.0
Open plaza 78 107 25.6 41.7
Shaded walk 76 80 24.4 26.7
Grass lawn 75 88 23.9 31.1
Behind shrubs 74 73 23.3 22.8

Bioclimatic Design,
Fig. 19 Pocket Park,
New York City. Paley Park
creates a small area of
respite, with a cooling
microclimate created by
evaporative cooling,
shading, and wind
protection, while water
fountain sound helps
neutralize urban clamor
(Photo: Donald Watson)

Urban Air Quality natural systems, such as buffering, zone separa-

Studies by Anne Whiston Spirn [19] have utilized
research on urban wind effects to indicate design
strategies to reduce pollution in city streets and
public ways, principally by opening building
forms and landscapes to less constrained airflow
(Figs. 20 and 21).
Future Directions: Design for Resilience
to Climate Change
The concept of resiliency applies lessons from
natural systems to design for safety and protection
in extreme conditions using strategies found in
tion, redundancy, rapid feedback, and
decentralization.
Extreme conditions include impacts of natural
disasters, such as hurricanes, tsunamis, and earth-
quakes. It also includes mitigation and adaptation
measures for longer-term risks of global warming
and sea level rise through actions that reduce
carbon emissions. As cities grow in size and den-
sity, risks to life safety and health increase.
The natural landscape that has evolved in
response to climate and water regimes over
millennia had adapted to long-evolving patterns
of rainfall, aridity, heat, and cold. Historical flood
conditions were accommodated within the
38
Bioclimatic Design, Fig. 20 Air quality. The urban
designer has opportunity to utilize strategies to improve
air quality at the urban microclimatic scale (Ref. [19]).
(a) Street canyons lined with building of similar height,
oriented perpendicular to the wind direction tend to have
poor air circulation compared to (b). (b) Street canyons
watershed ecology and its coevolving plants and
animals. When those patterns are disrupted
and the natural landscape is altered, flooding
risks and disasters increase.
Watson and Adams [7] and Watson [21] extend
bioclimatic design to include resilience, to adopt
precautionary principles in design of buildings,
communities, and cities. Resiliency is evident in
natural systems strategies to adjust to shock, vari-
able, and extreme conditions (Table 2).
Bioclimatic lifeline systems – green space, water,
food, waste, mobility, and safe shelter – replicate the
biological systems of water, vegetation, food, and
biodiversity that protect the life, health, and safety of
cities. Ecosystems regulate the supply and quality of
water, air, and soil. Urban parks and vegetation
reduce the urban heat island effect. Urban green
spaces help to regulate climate, reflect and absorb
Bioclimatic Design
lined with buildings of different heights and interspersed
with open areas have better air circulation. (c) To promote
air circulation in street canyons, step buildings back from
the street, increase openings and vary building heights. (d)
To promote air circulation in street side arcades, design
them with high canopies and airflow outlets
solar radiation, filter dust, store carbon, serve as
windbreaks, improve air quality by oxygen emis-
sion and moistening, and enhance cooling by evap-
oration, shading, and air exchange (Fig. 22).
Bioclimatic techniques that contribute to life-
line systems at the urban scale include:
Greenspace: walkways, pocket parks, play-
grounds, wildlife, trees, plants, and soil
protection
Water: stream daylighting, cleansing, water foun-
tain cooling zones, and urban wildlife ponds
Food: local community gardens, farmer markets,
other community market venues
Energy: protected utility and communication lines,
district energy conduits, solar/wind structures
Waste: combined urban services, efficient waste
collection, recycling, and removal
Bioclimatic Design 39

Bioclimatic Design, Fig. 21 Comprehensive plan to stairways and watercourses. Hillside canyons funnel cool
improve air quality. Stuttgart, Federal Republic of Ger- nighttime airflow to center city streets and downtown parks
many. Public gardens and open space atop the cities’ hills (Photo: Dr. Michael Trieb, Urban Planning Institute, Uni-
and hillside canyons are preserved as vegetated public versity of Stuttgart)

Bioclimatic Design, Table 2 Lessons of nature for resil- Bioclimatic Design, Table 2 (continued)
ient design
Principle from
Principle from nature Application to resilient design
nature Application to resilient design
Waste/nutrient Sustainable stormwater design and
Absorption Watershed planning and design recovery waste systems
(reservoirs, retention ponds, green Rapid response Early warning, emergency-
roofs) responsive systems
Buffering Breaks, riparian buffers, rain gardens
Core Protection Zoning, decentralization, self-reliant
subsystems
Diffusion Meanders, wetland and coastal zone
landscape, open foundations
Mobility: urban transit options, bikeways,
Water storage Aquifers, wetlands, reservoirs, pedestrian-scaled vehicles, flexible use, emer-
capacity cisterns gency service lanes
Redundant Green infrastructure, wildlife Refuge: community shelters and safe zones, emer-
circuits corridors, and multiple service routes gency communication, and evacuation and
(continued) materials staging
40
Bioclimatic Design, Fig. 22 Lifeline systems, integrating bioclimatic principles as urban and regional scales (Ref. [21])
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4. Watson D, Labs K (1993) Climatic building design,
2nd edn. McGraw-Hill, New York
5. Lyle JT (1996) Regenerative design for sustainable
development. Wiley, New York
6. Wilson A (2005) Passive survivability: a new design
criterion for buildings. Environmental Building News
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ability-new-design-criterion-buildings. Accessed 1 June
2017
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on climate. In: Watson D (ed) Energy conservation
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2017
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New York, pp 7.7-1–7.7-8
21. Watson D (2017) Urban lifelines to archive climate
resiliency. In: Bay JWP, Lehmann S (eds) Earthscan/
Routledge, London (forthcoming)
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ing design: integrating climate, comfort, and cost. Van
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resource efficiency in cities. United Nations Environ-
ment Programme, Geneva
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SV (1974) Manual of tropical housing and building.
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UNIPUB, Geneva. http://ac.ciifen.org/omm-biblioteca/
CCI_TECH/WMO-331.pdf. Accessed 1 June 2017

Biophilic Design
Catherine O. Ryan and William D. Browning
Terrapin Bright Green, New York, NY, USA
Article Outline
Glossary
Definition of the Subject
Introduction
Defining Nature
Framework Methodology
Design Patterns and Implementation
Future Directions
Bibliography
Glossary
Biophilia Mankind’s innate biological connec-
tion with nature; the urge to affiliate with
other forms of life.
Biophilic design The process of basing deci-
sions about the built environment on intuition
or credible research – derived from either an
appetency for nature or measurable biological
responses, respectively – to achieve the best
possible health outcomes.
Biophilic design pattern A description of a pat-
tern in nature that engenders a positive biolog-
ical response in humans. Meant to inform,
guide, and assist in the design process for the
built environment.
Built environment Places and spaces created or
modified by people with particular emphasis
on buildings, parks, streetscapes, and other
spaces that provide the setting for human
activity.
Connection to place The emotional bond
between person and place.
Evidence-based design The process of basing
decisions about the built environment on
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
V. Loftness (ed.), Sustainable Built Environments,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-0684-1_1034
Originally published in
R. A. Meyers (ed.), Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology, © Springer Science+Business Media LLC 2018
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2493-6_1034-1
credible research to achieve the best possible
outcomes.
Framework Organization or classification of
biophilic design patterns in a structured man-
ner with assigned characteristics or guidance.
Health A state of complete physical, mental, and
social well-being and not merely the absence
of disease or infirmity.
Nature The living organisms and the nonliving
components of an ecosystem.
Pattern A description of a problem that occurs
repeatedly in the environment, coupled with
conceptual guidance to that problem that can
be applied countless times without ever being
executed in the same way twice.
Definition of the Subject
Biophilia is humankind’s innate biological connec-
tion with nature. In the face of contemporary con-
cerns for individual and public health and
wellbeing – most typically occupational stress,
cognitive performance, and mental health – design
strategies that embrace qualities from nature have
emerged as a legitimate means to enhance the
human experience of the built environment.
An underlying premise of incorporating nature
into the built environment is that when people are
regularly in contact with nature, personal health
and wellbeing will improve in a manner and to a
degree that contributes meaningfully to public
health, community resilience, and environmental
stewardship. An increased focus on combatting
childhood health and behavioral disorders, indoor
environmental quality, workplace stress, and com-
munity cohesion in recent years has provided
impetus for progressively more creative preventa-
tive health strategies for building and landscape
design and urban planning.
As the world population continues to urbanize,
design that mitigates stress, improves cognitive
function and creativity, and expedites healing is
43
44
ever more important. Given how quickly an expe-
rience of nature can elicit a restorative response,
and that US businesses squander billions of dol-
lars each year on lost productivity due to stress-
related illnesses (Fig. 1), design that reconnects us
with nature – biophilic design – is essential for
providing people opportunities to live and work in
healthy places and spaces with less stress and
greater overall health and wellbeing.
An important indirect benefit of biophilic
design is the emphasis placed on identifying qual-
itative and quantitative science-based metrics to
guide design practices and to assess efficacy after
implementation, informing the dynamic and
evolving relationship between user groups, build-
ing typologies, and desired health outcomes.
For decades, research scientists and design
practitioners have been working to define aspects
of nature that most impact our satisfaction with
the built environment. Yet transitioning from
Biophilic Design, Fig. 1 Re-engaging losses from
unproductive operating costs [1]. More than 90% of a
company’s operating costs are linked to human resources,
and financial losses due to absenteeism and presenteeism
(going to work sick) account for as much as 4% of these
employment costs. Commercial spaces that give occupants
Biophilic Design
research to application in a manner that effectively
enhances health and wellbeing with efficacy con-
tinues to be a challenge. While there is general
consensus among early adopters that biophilic
design is a valued and helpful tool for
approaching healthful design, there remains a sig-
nificant gap between industry awareness and
effective articulation of a science-based design
intent. Moreover, few educational institutions
have adopted curricula to introduce biophilic
design as an interdisciplinary subject.
Introduction
The biophilia hypothesis [5] helps explain why
crackling fires and crashing waves captivate; why
a garden view can enhance creativity; why
shadows and heights instill fascination and fear;
and why animal companionship and strolling
access to nature to serve as a release to environmental
stress offer potential savings of thousands of dollars per
year in employee costs (Statistics: US Department of Labor
[2], Bureau of Labor Statistics [3]; BOMA [4]; Photo:
Bilyana Dimitrova; Graphic: Terrapin Bright Green)
Biophilic Design
through a park have restorative, healing effects.
Biophilia may also help explain why some urban
parks and buildings are preferred over others.
Nature themes can be found in the earliest
human structures: from the stylized animals char-
acteristic of the Neolithic Göbekli Tepe; the Egyp-
tian sphinx; the acanthus leaves adorning Greek
temples; and the primitive earthen hut, to the
delicate, leafy filigrees of Rococo design. Repre-
sentations of animals and plants have long been
used for decorative and symbolic ornamentation.
Beyond representation, cultures around the world
have long brought nature into homes and public
spaces. Classic examples include the garden
courtyards of the Alhambra in Spain, porcelain
fish bowls in ancient China, the aviary in
Teotihuacan (ancient Mexico City), Japanese bon-
sai, papyrus ponds in the homes of Egyptian
nobility, the cottage garden in medieval Germany,
and the elusive hanging gardens of Babylon.
The consistency of natural themes in historic
structures and places suggests that biophilic
design is not a new phenomenon; rather, as a
tool for applied science, it is the codification of
history, human intuition, and neural sciences
showing that connections with nature are vital to
maintaining a healthful and vibrant existence as
an urban species.
Prior to and even after the Industrial Revolu-
tion, the vast majority of humans lived an agrarian
existence, spending much of their lives among
nature. As urban populations grew in the nine-
teenth century, reformers became increasingly
concerned with health and sanitation issues such
as fire hazards and dysentery. The creation of large
public parks became a campaign to improve the
health and reduce the stress of urban living. Dur-
ing that time, American landscape architect Fred-
erick Law Olmsted argued “. . .the enjoyment of
scenery employs the mind without fatigue and yet
exercises it, tranquilizes it and yet enlivens it; and
thus, through the influence of the mind over the
body, gives the effect of refreshing rest and
reinvigoration to the whole system” [6].
Artists and designers of the Victorian era, such as
the influential English painter and art critic, John
Ruskin, pushed back against what they saw as the
dehumanizing experience of industrial cities. They
45
argued for objects and buildings that reflected the
hand of the craftsman and drew from nature for
inspiration. In the design of the Science Museum
at Oxford, Ruskin is said to have told the masons to
use the surrounding countryside for inspiration; this
perspective was memorialized in the hand-carved
flowers and plants adorning the museum [7].
Western attitudes toward nature shifted in the
mid-nineteenth century; natural landscapes
became valid art subjects, as seen in the Hudson
River School in the United States and the Barbizon
School in France. Going to the mountains or sea-
shore for recreation was becoming a popular pas-
time; winter gardens and conservatories became
requisites of wealthy homes in Europe and the
United States. Hospital design of the era acknowl-
edged the role of sunlight and a view to nature in
healing; Dr. Thomas Kirkbride “. . .believed that
the beautiful setting. . .restored patients to a more
natural balance of the senses” [8]. Henry David
Thoreau built a cabin by Walden Pond in Concord,
Massachusetts, from which he wrote treatises on a
simpler life connected to nature, which still reso-
nates in the American consciousness.
Art Nouveau designs of the late nineteenth
century were expressly inspired by nature. Archi-
tect Victor Horta’s exuberant plant tendrils lacing
through buildings in Belgium, the lush flowers
that are Louis Comfort Tiffany lamps, and the
explicitly organic forms of Antonio Gaudí’s
buildings all remain powerful examples. In Chi-
cago, Louis Sullivan created elaborate building
façade ornamentation with leaves and cornices
that represent tree branches.
Sullivan’s protégé, Frank Lloyd Wright, was
part of the group that launched The Prairie School.
Wright abstracted prairie flowers and plants for
his art glass windows and ornamentation. Like
many in the Craftsman movement, Wright used
the grain of wood and texture of brick and stone as
decorative architectural elements. Wright also
opened up residential interiors to greater spatial
flow in ways that had not been done before, cre-
ating prospect views balanced with intimate ref-
uges. His later designs sometimes included
exhilarating spaces; the balcony cantilevering
out over the waterfall at Fallingwater is a classic
example.
46
`European Modernists stripped much ornamen-
tation from their buildings, but, like Wright, used
wood grain and the veining of stone as decorative
elements. They too were equally concerned with
exploring the relationship between interior and exte-
rior spaces. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona
Pavilion (built 1929) pushed that concept further
through the play of volumes and glass. Later,
Mies’s Farnsworth House (built 1951) defined inte-
rior and exterior more literally by segregating the
elements from a visual connection to nature.
Le Corbusier’s Cité Radiant (unbuilt 1924)
placed towers in a park surrounded by grass and
trees, trying (albeit unsuccessfully) to provide city
dwellers with a connection to nature. Indeed, as
the International Style took root in the mid-
twentieth century, it populated the landscape
with steel and glass buildings, which increasingly
disconnected people from nature over time, par-
ticularly as building became taller.
Social psychologist Eric Fromm is credited
with coining the term “biophilia” in his 1964
publication The Heart of Man [9]. Biologist
Edward O. Wilson later popularized the term
“biophilia” with an eponymous title in 1984 [10]
and The Biophilia Hypothesis in 1993 [5]. The
sundry denotations – which have evolved from
within the fields of biology and psychology and
been adapted to the fields of neuroscience, endo-
crinology, architecture, and beyond – all relate
back to the desire for a (re)connection with nature
and natural systems. That humans should be
genetically predisposed to prefer certain types of
nature and natural scenery, specifically the
savanna analogue, was posited by Gordon Orians
and Judith Heerwagen [11, 12] and could theoret-
ically be a contributing motivation for moving to
the suburbs, with the suburban lawn being a
savanna for everyone. Several theories have
since been leveraged to varying degrees to set
the foundation for biophilic design:
• Habitat and Prospect-refuge theories [13]
• Ecological aesthetic theory [14–16]
• Attention restoration theory [17]
• View preference matrix [17]
• Savanna hypothesis [11, 12]
• Biophilia hypothesis [5]
• Environmental generational amnesia [18]
Biophilic Design
With the emergence of the green building
movement in the early 1990s, linkages were
made between improved environmental quality
and worker productivity [19]. While the finan-
cial gains due to productivity improvements
were considered significant, productivity was
identified as a placeholder for health and
wellbeing, which were perceived to have even
broader impacts. The healing power of a con-
nection with nature was established by Roger
Ulrich’s landmark study comparing recovery
rates of patients with and without a view to
nature [20]. An experiment at a new Herman
Miller manufacturing facility, designed by Wil-
liam McDonough + Partners in the 1990s, was
one of the first to specifically frame the mecha-
nism for gains in productivity to connecting
building occupants to nature – phylogenetic or,
more familiarly, biophilic design [21].
The early twenty-first century has seen a steady
growth in the characterization of the intersections
of neuroscience and architecture, both in research
and in practice. Popular texts, particularly Last
Child in the Woods [22], Healing Spaces [8],
Biophilic Design [23], The Economics of Bio-
philia [1], 14 Patterns of Biophilic Design [24],
and The Practice of Biophilic Design [25], have
brought the conversation further into the main-
stream, helping the public grapple with modern
society’s dependency on technology and persis-
tent disconnect with nature. Green building stan-
®
dards, such as the WELL Building Standard and
Living Building Challenge, have begun to incor-
porate biophilia, predominantly for contributing
to indoor environmental quality and connection to
place. Most recently, biophilic design is being
championed as a complementary strategy for
addressing workplace stress, student perfor-
mance, patient recovery, community cohesive-
ness, and other familiar challenges to health and
overall well-being (Fig. 2).
Defining Nature
Views of what constitutes natural, nature, and
wilderness vary greatly, from that which can be
classified as a living organism or system of organ-
isms unaffected by anthropogenic impacts on the
Biophilic Design
Biophilic Design, Fig. 2 Thought leadership
[23]. Biophilic Design was the first comprehensive publi-
cation on the theory and practice of biophilic design
environment, to all that is designed or made as an
extension of the human phenotype. This broad
room for interpretation adds complexity to defin-
ing parameters for expressions of biophilic
design. Some articulation of what is meant by
“nature” has given greater context to academics
and practitioners of biophilic design. Nature is
defined here as the living organisms and the non-
living components of an ecosystem.
For added clarity, the distinction is made that
most nature in modern society is designed,
whether deliberately (for function or aesthetic),
haphazardly (for navigability or access to
resources), or passively (through neglect or
hands-off preservation). Referring back to
humankind’s proclivity for the savanna landscape,
new savanna analogues are created all the time.
Some designed ecosystems are bio-diverse,
vibrant, and ecologically healthy, such as the
high canopy forests with floral undergrowth
maintained by the annual burning practices of
the Ojibwe people of North America. Others are
monocultures like suburban lawns and golf
courses that, while beautiful savanna analogues,
are not necessarily bio-diverse, ecologically
healthy or resilient.
47
Transition from Theory to Application
Efforts to transition from theory to application
began to emerge after the publication of Building
for Life: Designing and Understanding the
Human-Nature Connection by Stephen Kellert in
2005 [26], and Biophilic Design: The Theory,
Science and Practice of Bringing Buildings to
Life in 2008 [23]. With limited awareness, market
demand, or measurable return on investment,
early adoption of biophilia was slow until the
2012 release of The Economics of Biophilia:
Why Designing with Nature in Mind Makes
Financial Sense [1], which shed light on the finan-
cial advantages of biophilic design across
healthcare, education, retail, workplace, and com-
munity environments.
More recently, organizations are forming to
support the biophilic design movement. The
Biophilic Cities Initiative has 16 member cities
from around the world that share design and reg-
ulatory strategies to reconnect people with nature
in urban settings. The Biophilic Design Initiative
of the International Living Future Institute (ILFI)
is an effort to connect designers, researchers, and
others in the support of education and research in
the practice of biophilic design. These groups and
others are developing frameworks for identifying
design-transferable patterns in nature, capturing
case studies for best building practices, and pro-
moting new peer-reviewed research as practical
tools for broadening awareness, adoption, and
informed application.
There are several building industry perspec-
tives that continue to promote the application of
biophilic design strategies:
• Occupant health and wellness is increasingly
being recognized by corporations, real estate
managers, and property owners as a strategy
for enhancing the occupant experience and
attracting and retaining tenants and employees.
• Biophilic design is increasingly being recog-
nized by the design community as a tool for
addressing the growing demand for scalable
health and wellness solutions for their projects.
• Where competition drives innovation,
biophilic design is viewed as a science-backed
differentiator, providing a competitive advan-
tage in the marketplace.
48
• As wearable technologies become more finan-
cially accessible, small-scale replicable
research methods are being used to: streamline
consistent metrics; expedite data collection,
reporting, and design decision making and to
encourage ownership by citizens of their own
lifestyle and design choices.
Early proponents of biophilic design literacy
formulated principles for design implementation
which were articulated by Kellert and Calabrese
[25] as “the fundamental conditions for the effec-
tive practice of biophilic design” [25, pp. 6–7].
Principles of Biophilic Design
1. Biophilic design requires repeated and
sustained engagement with nature.
2. Biophilic design focuses on human adaptations
to the natural world that over evolutionary time
have advanced people’s health, fitness, and
wellbeing.
3. Biophilic design encourages an emotional
attachment to particular settings and places.
4. Biophilic design promotes positive interac-
tions between people and nature that encour-
age an expanded sense of relationship and
responsibility for the human and natural
communities.
5. Biophilic design encourages mutually
reinforcing, interconnected, and integrated
architectural solutions.
Nature-Design Relationships
The translation of biophilia as a hypothesis into
design of the built environment was the topic of a
2004 conference and subsequent book on
biophilic design [23] in which Stephen Kellert
identified more than 70 different mechanisms for
engendering a biophilic experience. In the same
title, contributing authors William Browning and
Jenifer Seal-Cramer outlined three classifications
of the user experience relative to design – Nature
in the Space, Natural Analogues, and Nature of
the Space – providing a framework for under-
standing and enabling thoughtful incorporation
of a rich diversity of strategies into the built envi-
ronment. The 14 design patterns presented in
Biophilic Design
Browning et al. [24] utilizes using this categori-
zation methodology [24].
Nature in the Space. Nature in the Space
addresses the direct, physical, and ephemeral
presence of nature in a space or place. This
includes plant life, water, and animals, as well as
breezes, sounds, scents, and other natural ele-
ments. Common examples include potted plants,
flowerbeds, bird feeders, butterfly gardens, water
features, fountains, aquariums, courtyard gardens,
and green walls or vegetated roofs. The strongest
Nature in the Space experiences are achieved
through the creation of meaningful, direct connec-
tions with these natural elements, particularly
through diversity, movement, and multisensory
interactions.
Natural Analogues. Natural Analogues
addresses organic, nonliving, and indirect evoca-
tions of nature. Objects, materials, colors, shapes,
sequences and patterns found in nature, manifest
as artwork, ornamentation, furniture, décor, and
textiles in the built environment. Mimicry of
shells and leaves, furniture with organic shapes,
and natural materials that have been processed or
extensively altered (e.g., wood planks, granite
tabletops) each provides an indirect connection
with nature: while they are real, they are only
analogous of the items in their “natural” state.
The strongest Natural Analogue experiences are
achieved by providing information richness in an
organized and sometimes evolving manner.
Nature of the Space. Nature of the Space
references spatial configurations experienced in
nature. This includes an individual’s innate and
learned desire to be able to see beyond immediate
surroundings, fascination with the unknown, and
obscured views and revelatory moments. Phobia-
inducing spatial properties are also suggested to
have a restorative benefit when a trusted element
of safety is also present. The strongest Nature of
the Space experiences are achieved through the
creation of deliberate and engaging spatial config-
urations commingled with patterns of Nature in
the Space and Natural Analogues.
Nature-Health Relationships
Much of the evidence for biophilia can be linked
to research in one or more of three overarching
Biophilic Design
mind-body systems – cognitive, psychological,
and physiological – that have been explored and
verified to varying degrees in laboratory or field
studies to help explain how human health and
well-being are impacted by the physical environ-
ment. See Table 1 for nature-health relationships
and biophilic design patterns.
Cognitive Functionality and Performance.
Cognitive functioning encompasses an individ-
ual’s mental agility and memory, and ability to
think, learn, and output either logically or crea-
tively. For instance, directed attention is required
for many repetitive tasks, such as routine paper-
work, reading, and performing calculations or
analysis, as well as for operating in highly stimu-
lating environments, as when crossing busy
streets. Directed attention is energy intensive
and, over time, can result in mental fatigue and
depleted cognitive resources [23, 26]. Strong or
routine connections with nature can provide
opportunities for mental restoration, providing
time when higher cognitive functions are relieved,
allowing an individual’s capacity for performing
focused tasks to be greater than another’s with
fatigued cognitive resources.
Psychological Health and Wellbeing. Psy-
chological responses encompass an individual’s
adaptability, alertness, attention, concentration,
as well as emotion and mood. Psychological
responses to nature impact restoration and stress
management. Empirical studies have reported that
experiences of natural environments provide
greater emotional restoration, with lower
instances of tension, anxiety, anger, fatigue, con-
fusion, and total mood disturbance than urban
environments with limited characteristics of
nature [30, 32, 49, 83]. Psychological responses
can be learned or hereditary, with past experi-
ences, cultural constructs, and social norms
playing a significant role in the psychological
response mechanism.
Physiological Health and Wellbeing. Physi-
ological responses encompass aural, musculo-
skeletal, respiratory, circadian systems, and
overall physical comfort. Physiological responses
triggered by connections with nature include
relaxation of muscles, as well as lowering of dia-
stolic blood pressure and stress hormone (i.e.,
49
cortisol) levels in the blood stream [31]. Short-
term stress that increases heart rate and stress
hormone levels, such as from encountering an
unknown but complex and information-rich
space, or looking over a banister to eight stories
below, are suggested to be beneficial to regulating
physiological health [84]. The physiological sys-
tem needs to be tested regularly, but only enough
for the body to remain resilient and adaptive.
Physiological responses to environmental
stressors can be buffered through design, allowing
for the restoration of bodily resources before sys-
tem damage occurs [85].
Framework Methodology
The work of Christopher Alexander, Judith
H. Heerwagen, Rachel and Stephen Kaplan, Ste-
phen R. Kellert, Roger Ulrich, and others has been
instrumental in framing the conversation on
biophilic design for health and wellbeing. In the
two decades since Kellert and Wilson [5]
published The Biophilia Hypothesis [5], the
body of evidence supporting biophilia has
expanded considerably. Hundreds of publications
on biophilic responses have since been mined to
uncover unique patterns useful to designers of the
built environment. Synthesis and translation of
this research into a digestible list of design pat-
terns, spearheaded by William D. Browning and
Catherine O. Ryan, provided comprehensive yet
flexible guidance for site-appropriate implemen-
tation. This body of work is known as the 14 pat-
terns of biophilic design [24]:
Nature in the Space encompasses seven
biophilic design patterns:
1. Visual Connection with nature. A view to
elements of nature, living systems, and natural
processes.
2. Nonvisual connection with nature. Auditory,
haptic, olfactory, or gustatory stimuli that
engender a deliberate and positive reference
to nature, living systems, or natural processes.
3. Nonrhythmic sensory stimuli. Stochastic and
ephemeral connections with nature that may be
50 Biophilic Design

Biophilic Design, Table 1 Biophilic design patterns and biological responses [24, p. 12]
Cognitive Emotion, mood and
14 patterns * Stress reduction performance preference
Nature in Visual * Lowered blood pressure and Improved mental Positively impacted
the space connection * heart rate [26–28] engagement/ attitude and overall
with nature * attentiveness [29] happiness [30]
Nonvisual * Reduced systolic blood Positively impacted Perceived
connection * pressure and stress hormones cognitive improvements in
with nature [31–34] performance [35, 36] mental health and
tranquility [37–41]
Nonrhythmic * Positively impacted heart Observed and
sensory * rate, systolic blood pressure, quantified behavioral
stimuli and sympathetic nervous measures of attention
system activity [34, 42–45] and exploration [46]
Thermal and * Positively impacted comfort, Positively impacted Improved perception of
airflow * well-being and productivity concentration [17, temporal and spatial
variability [47, 48, 132] 32, 49] pleasure (alliesthesia)
[50–53]; [129, 130]
Presence of * Reduced stress, increased Improved Observed preferences
water * feelings of tranquility, lower concentration and and positive emotional
heart rate, and blood pressure memory restoration responses [29, 30, 46,
[29, 54, 55] [29, 54] 57–61]
Enhanced perception
and psychological
responsiveness [54,
56]
Dynamic and * Positively impacted circadian
diffuse light * system functioning [62, 63]
Increased visual comfort [64;
128]
Connection Enhanced positive
with natural health responses;
systems Shifted perception of
environment [23]
Natural Biomorphic * Observed view
analogues forms and preference [65]
patterns
Material Decreased diastolic Improved comfort [66,
connection blood pressure [66] 80]
with nature Improved creative
performance
[67]
Complexity * Positively impacted Observed view
and order * perceptual and physiological preference [68–71]
stress responses [65, 68, 69,
131]
Nature of Prospect * Reduced stress [72] Reduced boredom, Improved comfort and
the space * irritation, fatigue [73] perceived safety
* [74–76]
Refuge * Improved
* concentration,
* attention and
perception of safety
[72, 74, 75, 77]
(continued)
Biophilic Design
Biophilic Design, Table 1 (continued)
14 patterns * Stress reduction
Mystery * Induced strong pleasure
* response [78–80]
Risk/Peril * Resulted in strong
© 2014 Terrapin Bright Green/14 Patterns of Biophitic Design: Improving Health and Wellbeing in the Built Environment
analyzed statistically but may not be predicted
precisely.
4. Thermal and airflow variability. Subtle
changes in air temperature, relative humidity,
airflow across the skin, and surface tempera-
tures that mimic natural environments.
5. Presence of water. A condition that enhances
the experience of a place through seeing, hear-
ing or touching water.
6. Dynamic and diffuse light. Leverages vary-
ing intensities of light and shadow that change
over time to create conditions that occur in
nature.
7. Connection with natural systems. Awareness
of natural processes, especially seasonal and
temporal changes characteristic of a healthy
ecosystem (Fig. 3).
Natural Analogues encompasses three patterns
of biophilic design:
8. Biomorphic Forms and Patterns. Symbolic
references to contoured, patterned, textured or
numerical arrangements that persist in nature.
9. Material connection with nature. Materials
and elements from nature that, through mini-
mal processing, reflect the local ecology or
geology and create a distinct sense of place.
10. Complexity and order. Rich sensory infor-
mation that adheres to a spatial hierarchy sim-
ilar to those encountered in nature (Fig. 4).
Nature of the Space encompasses four
biophilic design patterns:
51
Cognitive Emotion, mood and
performance preference
dopamine or pleasure
responses [81, 82, 133]
11. Prospect. An unimpeded view over a dis-
tance, for surveillance and planning.
12. Refuge. A place for withdrawal from envi-
ronmental conditions or the main flow of
activity, in which the individual is protected
from behind and overhead.
13. Mystery. The promise of more information,
achieved through partially obscured views or
other sensory devices that entice the individ-
ual to travel deeper into the environment.
14. Risk/Peril. An identifiable threat coupled
with a reliable safeguard (Fig. 5).
From extensive interdisciplinary research,
key patterns in nature – those known, suggested,
or theorized to mitigate common stressors or
enhance desirable qualities – were identified in
relation to design patterns for application in the
built environment. These biophilic design pat-
terns have, in the words of Wilson, been “teased
apart and analyzed individually” to reveal the
emotional affiliations Wilson spoke of, as well
as other psycho-physiological and cognitive rela-
tionships with the built environment. The
descriptive term “pattern” is being used for
three reasons:
1. To propose a clear and standardized terminol-
ogy for biophilic design
2. To avoid confusion with multiple terms
(metric, attribute, condition, characteristic,
typology, etc.) that have been used to explain
biophilia and biophilic design
3. To maximize accessibility across disciplines
by upholding a familiar language
52 Biophilic Design

Biophilic Design, Fig. 3 Nature in the space. Traditional water features, animals, varying depths of view, and hints
Japanese and Chinese gardens are very successful models of human activity (Credit: Oskar Vertetics, common use)
for bringing nature into a space with diverse plantings,

Biophilic Design, Fig. 4 Natural analogues. Metropol Parasol, by J Mayer H architects, is an undulating, biomorphic
timber structure amidst a dense urban area of Seville, Spain (Credit: Oliver Gobet, common use)
Biophilic Design
Biophilic Design, Fig. 5 Nature of the space. The bound-
ary between indoors and outdoors is blurred from the
Farnsworth House by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. While
the structure itself is not particularly biophilic, the
The use of spatial patterns is inspired by the
precedents of A Pattern Language [86], Designing
with People in Mind [87], and Patterns of Home
[88], as well as lectures and compilations on pat-
terns, form, language and complexity [89, 90].
Christopher Alexander brings clarity to this intent
with his explanation that patterns “. . .describe a
problem which occurs over and over again in our
environment, and then describes the core of the
solution to that problem, in such a way that you
can use this solution a million times over, without
ever doing it the same way twice” [86].
Alexander’s work built on the tradition of pat-
tern books used by designers and builders from
the eighteenth century onward, but his work
focused on the psychological benefits of patterns
and included descriptions of the three dimensional
spatial experience, rather than the aesthetic focus
of previous pattern books. With Terrapin Bright
Green’s fourteen patterns of biophilic design, the
focus is on psychological, physiological, and cog-
nitive benefits that address universal issues of
53
experience of the spatial qualities in relation to the sur-
rounding environment affords the occupant a sense of
prospect and refuge (Credit: Marc Teer/flickr)
human health and wellbeing (e.g., stress, visual
acuity, hormone balance, perceived comfort, cre-
ativity), rather than those unique to program-
based or sector-specific space types (e.g., health
care facility waiting rooms, elementary school
classrooms, or storefront pedestrian promenades).
Each design pattern was assessed for overall
potential impact and the strength of the research
on which a pattern is built. The Biophilic Design
Patterns and Biological Responses matrix
(Table 1) was one of the first visual tools to com-
municate relationships between the research,
health outcomes, and design qualities of the built
environment.
Table 1 illustrates the functions of each of the
14 Patterns in supporting stress reduction, cogni-
tive performance, emotion and mood enhance-
ment, and support of the human body. Patterns
that are supported by more rigorous empirical data
are marked with up to three asterisks (***), indi-
cating that the quantity and quality of available
peer-reviewed evidence is robust and the potential
54
for impact is great. No asterisk indicates that there
is minimal research to support the biological rela-
tionship between health and design, but the anec-
dotal information is compelling and adequate for
hypothesizing its potential impact and importance
as a unique pattern.
Design Patterns and Implementation
While informed by science, biophilic design pat-
terns are not formulas; they are meant to inform,
guide, and assist in the design process and should
be thought of as another tool in the designer’s
toolkit. The purpose of defining these patterns is
to articulate connections between aspects of the
built and natural environments and how people
react to and benefit from them.
Just as combinations of culture, demographics,
health baselines, and characteristics of the built
environment can impact the experience of space
differently, so too can each design pattern.
A suitable solution results from understanding
local conditions and one space’s relationship to
another, and responding appropriately with a
combination of design interventions to suit the
unique needs of a space and its intended user
group and programs.
The field of biophilic design is constantly evolv-
ing. As Nikos Salingaros explained, new disci-
plines such as biophilic design must “abstract its
patterns as they appear. . . building its own foun-
dation and logical skeleton, upon which future
growth can be supported” [90]. As new evidence
comes to bear, some patterns will be championed
over others and new patterns may emerge.
Pattern 1. Visual Connection with Nature
A Visual Connection with Nature is a view to
elements of nature, living systems, and natural
processes. A biophilic experience of a good
Visual Connection with Nature feels whole, com-
mands attention, and can be stimulating or
calming, conveying a sense of time, weather, and
other living things.
Roots of the Pattern. The Visual Connection
with Nature pattern has evolved from both research
on visual preferences and responses to views to
nature that include reduced stress, more positive
Biophilic Design
emotional functioning, and improved concentra-
tion and recovery rates. Stress recovery from visual
connections with nature has reportedly been real-
ized through lowered blood pressure and heart rate;
reduced sadness, anger, and aggression; improved
mental engagement/attentiveness; and improved
attitude and overall happiness [26–30]. There is
evidence showing that stress reduction can be
attributed to both experiencing real nature and
seeing images of nature [32, 42, 72, 91, 92] and
that natural environments are generally preferred
over built environments [93–95].
Visual preference research indicates that the
preferred view is looking down a slope to a scene
that includes copses of shade trees, flowering
plants, calm nonthreatening animals, indications
of human habitation, and bodies of clean water
[11]. This is often difficult to achieve in the built
environment, particularly in already dense urban
settings, though the psychological benefits of
nature are suggested to increase with higher levels
of biodiversity and not with an increase in natural
vegetative area [96]. Positive impact on mood and
self-esteem has also been shown to occur most
significantly in the first 5 min of experiencing
nature, such as through exercise within a green
space [30]. Viewing nature for 10 min prior to
experiencing a mental stressor has shown to posi-
tively stimulate heart rate variability and parasym-
pathetic activity (i.e., regulation of internal organs
and glands that support digestion and other activi-
ties that occur when the body is at rest) [27], while
viewing a forest scene for 20 min after a mental
stressor has shown to return cerebral blood flow
and brain activity to a relaxed state [28].
Viewing scenes of nature stimulates a larger
portion of the visual cortex than nonnature scenes,
which triggers more pleasure receptors in the brain,
leading to prolonged interest and faster stress
recovery – within as little of 40 s [97]. For exam-
ple, heart rate recovery from low-level stress, such
as from working in an office environment, has
shown to occur 1.6 times faster when the space
has a glass window with a nature view, rather than
a high-quality simulation (i.e., plasma video) of the
same nature view, or no view at all [42]. Addition-
ally, repeated viewing of real nature, unlike non-
nature, does not significantly diminish the viewer’s
level of interest over time [29].
Biophilic Design
Design Objectives and Guidance. The objec-
tive of the Visual Connection with Nature pattern is
to provide an environment that helps the individual
change visual focus to relax the eye muscles and
temper cognitive fatigue. The effect of an interven-
tion will improve as the quality of a view and the
amount of visible biodiversity each increases.
A view to nature through a glass window pro-
vides a benefit over a digital screen (e.g., video/
plasma tv) of the same view, particularly because
there is no parallax shift for people as they move
toward or around a video screen [42]. This may
change as three-dimensional videography
advances. Both simulated and constructed nature
is measurably better at engendering stress reduc-
tion than having no visual connection at all.
Design guidance that can be translated from
research to help establish a strong visual connec-
tion with nature includes:
• Prioritization of real nature over simulated
nature; and simulated nature over no nature.
• Prioritization of biodiversity over acreage, area
or quantity.
• Accessibility to exercise opportunities in green
space.
• Design to support a visual connection that can
be experienced for at least 5–20 min/day.
• Design spatial layouts and furnishings to
uphold desired view lines and avoid impeding
the visual access when in a seated position.
• Infusion of restorative instances of nature in
small spaces, particularly for spaces where real
estate (floor/ground area, wall space) is limited.
• Inclusion of digital access to nature in spaces
where real nature or views to the outdoors
cannot be provided (e.g., healthcare radiation
units). The benefits of viewing real nature may
be attenuated when experienced through a dig-
ital medium; however, access to digitized or
static images of nature is better than no visual
connection (Fig. 6).
Pattern 2. Nonvisual Connection with Nature
Nonvisual Connection with Nature is the auditory,
haptic, olfactory, or gustatory stimuli that engender
a deliberate and positive reference to nature, living
systems, or natural processes. A multisensory
biophilic experience feels fresh and well balanced;
55
the ambient conditions are perceived as complex
and variable but at the same time familiar and
comfortable, with sounds, aromas, and textures
reminiscent of being outdoors in nature.
Roots of the Pattern. The Nonvisual Connec-
tion with Nature pattern has evolved from data on
reductions in systolic blood pressure and stress
hormones [31–33], impact of sound and vibration
on cognitive performance [35, 36], and perceived
improvements in mental health and tranquility as
a result of nonvisual sensory interactions with
nonthreatening nature [37–41]. Each sensory sys-
tem has an independent body of research to sup-
port it; a brief overview provides some context.
Auditory. Research shows that exposure to
nature sounds, when compared to urban or office
noise, accelerates physiological and psychologi-
cal restoration up to 37% faster after a psycholog-
ical stressor [54] and reduces cognitive fatigue
and helps motivation. Participants of one study
who either listened to river sounds or saw a nature
movie with river sounds during a posttask resto-
ration period reported having more energy and
greater motivation after the restoration period
compared to participants who only listened to
office noise or silence [38]. In addition, viewing
the nature movie with river sounds during the
restoration period had a more positive effect than
only listening to river sounds alone.
Ocean waves and vehicle traffic can have a
very similar sound pattern. In an experiment
using a synthesized sound that replicated the
waves and traffic sound pattern, researchers
observed that participants processed the synthe-
sized sound in different portions of the brain
depending on whether they were also watching
a video of either waves or vehicle traffic
[56]. Participants considered the sound to be
pleasurable when viewing the video of waves,
but not when viewing the video of traffic. This
study suggests a strong connection between
visual and auditory sensory systems and psy-
chological well-being.
Olfactory. Our olfactory system processes
scent directly in the brain, which can trigger very
powerful memories. Traditional practices have
long used plant oils to calm or energize people.
Studies have also shown that olfactory exposure
to herbs and phytoncides (essential oils from
56
Biophilic Design, Fig. 6 Visual connection with nature.
An example of a designed environment with an excellent
Visual Connection with Nature is the birch tree and moss
garden in the New York Times Building in New York
City – a carved out space in the middle of the building
trees) has a positive effect on the healing process
and human immune function, respectively [37, 40].
Haptic. Pet therapy, where companionship and
the act of activities petting and feeling the fur of
domesticated animals, is known to have profound
calming effects on patients; gardening and horti-
culture have shown to engender environmental
stewardship among children, reduce self-reported
fatigue while maintaining joint flexibility among
adults [98], and reduce perception of pain among
senior populations with arthritis. The act of touch-
ing real plant life, versus synthetic plants, has also
shown to induce relaxation through a change in
cerebral blood flow rates [99]. These examples
give reason to believe that the experience of
touching other elements in nature, such as water
or raw materials, may result in similar health
outcomes.
Gustatory. Tasting is yet another way of
experiencing nature and learning about the envi-
ronment. While adults are often curious or fearful
of edible plants and herbs, consider the familiar
habit of infants and toddlers putting found objects
in their mouths – they are seeking information.
Biophilic Design
which everyone passes as they enter or leave the building.
Adjacent to a restaurant and the main conference rooms,
the birch garden is an oasis of calm in the hustle of Times
Square. (Source: John Zacherle)
Design Objectives and Guidance. The
objective of the Nonvisual Connection with
Nature pattern is to provide an environment
that uses sound, scent, touch, and possibly
even taste to engage the individual in a manner
that helps reduce stress and improve perceived
physical and mental health. These senses can be
experienced separately, although the experience
is intensified and the health effect is
compounded if multiple senses are consistently
engaged together.
Design guidance translated from research to
help establish a strong nonvisual connection
with nature and maximize potential positive
health responses:
• Prioritization of nature sounds over urban
sounds.
• Design for nonvisual connections that can be
easily accessed from one or multiple locations,
and in such a way that allows daily engagement
for 5–20 min at a time.
• Integration of nonvisual connections with
other aspects of the design program.
Biophilic Design
Biophilic Design, Fig. 7 Nonvisual connection with
nature. Calat Alhambra in Granada, Spain, is an exquisite
example of the 14 Patterns. While some patterns are more
evident in some spaces than others, Nonvisual Connections
with Nature are experienced throughout. The integration of
water and natural ventilation with the architecture is central
to the nonvisual experience, supporting a seamless connec-
tion between indoor and outdoor spaces and between the
building and the surrounding natural landscape. Solar heat
penetrates at distinct locations, the whispering gallery res-
onates sounds of nature and people, and gardens of rose-
mary, myrtles, and other fragrant plants surround the
premises. The extensive use of water fountains creates a
microclimate – the space both sounds and feels cooler –
while stone floors and handrails with water channels cool
the feet and hands through conductance (Credit: Sharon
Mollerus/flickr (creative commons))
• A single intervention that can be experienced
in multiple ways.
• Design for visual and nonvisual connections to
be experienced simultaneously (Fig. 7).
Pattern 3. Nonrhythmic Sensory Stimuli
Nonrhythmic Sensory Stimuli are stochastic and
ephemeral connections with nature that may be
analyzed statistically but may not be predicted
57
precisely. A biophilic experience of Non-
Rhythmic Sensory Stimuli is a brief but welcome
distraction, an ephemeral intrigue that may be
perceived as stimulating and energizing.
Roots of the Pattern. The Nonrhythmic Sen-
sory Stimuli pattern has evolved from research
around looking behavior (particularly periphery
vision movement reflexes); eye lens focal
relaxation patterns; heart rate, systolic blood pres-
sure, and sympathetic nervous system activity
[34, 42–45]; and observed and quantified behav-
ioral measures of attention and exploration [46].
The movement of living things and mechanical
objects are each processed in different parts of our
brain [44], whereby natural movement is generally
perceived as positive, and mechanical movement
as neutral or even negative. As a result, the repeat-
ing rhythmic motion of a pendulum will only hold
one’s attention briefly, the constant repetitive tick-
ing of a clock may come to be ignored over time,
and an ever-present scent may lose its mystique
with long-term exposure, whereas the stochastic
movement of a butterfly will capture one’s atten-
tion each time, even for a brief moment, for recur-
ring physiological benefits.
Studies of the human response to stochastic
movement of objects in nature and momentary
exposure to natural sounds and scents have shown
to support physiological restoration. For instance,
when sitting and staring at a computer screen or
doing any task with a short visual focus, the eye’s
lens becomes rounded with the contracting of the
eye muscles. When these muscles stay contracted
for an extended period, i.e., more than 20 min at a
time, fatigue can occur, manifesting as eye strain,
headaches, and physical discomfort. A periodic, yet
brief visual or auditory distraction that causes one to
look up (for >20 s) and to a distance (of >20 ft)
allows for short mental breaks during which the
muscles relax and the lenses flatten.
Design Objectives and Guidance. The objec-
tive of the Nonrhythmic Sensory Stimuli pattern is
to encourage the use of natural sensory stimuli
that unobtrusively attract attention, allowing indi-
viduals’ capacity for focused tasks to be
replenished from mental fatigue and physiological
stressors. This can be achieved by designing for
momentary exposure to the stochastic or
unpredictable movement, particularly for
58
periphery vision or the periodic experience of
scents or sounds.
When immersed in nature, instances of non-
rhythmic stimuli are continually experienced:
birds chirping, leaves rustling, and the faint scent
of eucalyptus in the air. The built environment has
evolved into a deliberately predictable realm.
Even some highly manicured gardens and cer-
tainly interior vegetation lack the qualities needed
to support nonrhythmic sensory stimuli.
Design guidance for establishing accessible
and effective nonrhythmic stimuli:
• As a general guideline, nonrhythmic sensory
experiences should occur approximately every
20 min for about 20 s and for visual stimuli,
from a distance of more than 20 ft away.
• Collaboration with the mechanical engineer or
facilities team may be necessary early in pro-
jects that use mechanized simulation (rather
than natural occurrence) of natural stimuli.
Biophilic Design, Fig. 8 Nonrhythmic sensory stimuli.
The Dockside Green community on Vancouver Island,
Victoria, BC Canada, is a great example of nonrhythmic
stimuli. The implementation of habitat restoration and
rainwater management has led to ephemeral experiences
Biophilic Design
• Collaboration with landscape or horticulture
planning will help ensure an appropriate and
effective application of nonrhythmic stimuli.
For instance, the selection of plant species for
window boxes that will attract bees, butterflies,
and other pollinators may be a more practical
application for some projects than maintaining
a honeybee apiary or butterfly sanctuary.
• The seasonality of some naturally occurring
stimuli may necessitate a variety of interven-
tions to help ensure effective nonrhythmic sen-
sory experiences can occur at any given time.
• Orientation of stimuli relative to the occupant
is in the peripheral view, from where it will be
perceived much faster than from straight ahead
(Fig. 8).
Pattern 4. Thermal and Airflow Variability
Thermal and Airflow Variability can be character-
ized as subtle changes in air temperature, relative
of swaying grasses, falling water and the buzz of passing
insects and animals that are visible from walkways,
porches, and windows around the community (Credit:
jayscratch/flickr)
Biophilic Design
humidity, airflow across the skin, and surface
temperatures that mimic natural environments.
A biophilic experience of Thermal and Airflow
Variability feels refreshing, active, alive, invigo-
rating, and comfortable. The space provides a
feeling of both flexibility and a sense of control.
Roots of the Pattern. The Thermal and Air-
flow Variability pattern has evolved from:
research measuring the effects of natural ventila-
tion, its resulting thermal variability, and worker
comfort, well-being, and productivity [47, 48];
physiology and perception of temporal and spatial
alliesthesia (pleasure) [50–53]; Attention Resto-
ration Theory and the impact of nature in motion
on concentration [32, 49]; and generally speaking,
a growing discontent with the conventional
approach to thermal design which focuses on try-
ing to achieve a narrow target area of temperature,
humidity, and air flow while minimizing
variability [100].
Evidence has shown that people like moderate
levels of sensory variability in the environment,
including variation in light, sound, and tempera-
tures and that an environment devoid of sensory
stimulation and variability can lead to boredom
and passivity. Early studies in alliesthesia indicate
that pleasant thermal sensations are better per-
ceived when one’s initial body state is warm or
cold, not neutral [101], which corroborates more
recent studies reporting that a temporary over-
cooling of a small portion of the body when hot,
or over-heating when cold, even without
impacting the body’s core temperature, is per-
ceived as highly comfortable [51].
According to Attention Restoration Theory,
elements of “soft fascination” such as light
breezes or other natural movements can improve
concentration [102]. Other research indicates that
a variety of thermal conditions within a classroom
can lead to better student performance; and that
changes in ventilation velocity can have a positive
impact on comfort, with no negative impact on
cognitive function, while also offering the possi-
bility of some increase in the ability to access
short term memory.
Design Objectives and Guidance. The objec-
tive of the Thermal and Airflow Variability pattern
is to provide an environment that allows users to
59
experience the sensory elements of airflow vari-
ability and thermal variability. The intent is also
for the user to be able to control thermal condi-
tions, either by using individual controls or allo-
wing occupants access to variable ambient
conditions within a space.
In contrast, conventional thermal design tries
to achieve a narrow target area of temperature,
humidity, and airflow, while minimizing
variability – the goal being to maintain conditions
within the “comfort envelope” set in the USA by
the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating
and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE).
When the entire space meets this goal,
laboratory-based predictive models assert that
80% of the occupants would be satisfied at any
given time – traditionally an acceptable outcome
industry-wide. However, allowing users to easily
adapt and modify the thermal conditions of their
environment within two degrees Celsius above
and below the conventional parameters for ther-
mal comfort has been shown to improve perceived
thermal comfort [103]. An alternative approach is
to provide combinations of ambient and surface
temperatures, humidity, and airflow, similar to the
variability experienced outdoors during comfort-
able periods, while also providing some form of
personal control (e.g., manual, digital, or physical
relocation) over those conditions.
Providing variable conductance materials,
seating options with differing levels of solar heat
gain (indoors and outdoors) or proximity to oper-
able windows – as welcome as catching a cooling
breeze on a sunny day or leaning one’s back on a
warm rock on a cool day – could improve the
overall satisfaction of a space.
Since thermal comfort is inherently subjective
and strongly varies between people, it is important
to give a degree of control to individuals, which
can be incorporated architecturally (e.g., access to
operable windows or shades) and/or mechanically
(e.g., access to localized and energy-efficient fans
or heaters, and thermostat controls). When an indi-
vidual experiences thermal discomfort, he or she
will likely take action to adapt (e.g., put on a
sweater; open a window; move to a different seat;
or with little personal control, submit a complaint).
Sometimes these adaptive actions are simply in
60 Biophilic Design

response to dynamic changes in personal prefer-

ence to create an enhanced thermal experience.
Design guidance translated from scientific
research to help create quality thermal and airflow
variability includes:

• Incorporation of airflow and thermal variabil-

ity into materials, daylighting, mechanical ven-
tilation, and/or fenestration over space
and time.
• Recognition that thermal comfort is a vital
bridging component between biophilic design
and sustainable design, especially in the face of
climate change and rising energy costs. When
Thermal and Airflow Variability is
implemented in a way that broadens people’s
perception of thermal comfort, the potential
increases for reduced energy demands for air
conditioning and heating.
• Integration of user controls and features (e.g.,
window treatments, varied seating options,
operable windows) that allow occupants to
easily adapt and modify the thermal conditions
of their environment.
• Coordination of design strategies among the
project team (e.g., architect, lighting designer,
and mechanical and electrical engineers) as
early as the schematic design process (Fig. 9).
Pattern 5. Presence of Water
Presence of Water is a condition that enhances the
experience of a place through the seeing, hearing,
or touching of water. The biophilic experience of
the Presence of Water is compelling and captivat-
ing. Fluidity, sound, lighting, proximity, and
accessibility each contributes to whether a space
is stimulating, calming, or both.
Roots of the Pattern. The Presence of Water
pattern has evolved from: research on the visual
preference for and positive emotional responses to
environments containing water elements [29, 30,
46, 57–60]; reduced stress, increased feelings of
tranquility, lower heart rate and blood pressure,
and recovered skin conductance from exposure to
water features [54, 55]; improved concentration
and memory restoration induced by complex, nat-
urally fluctuating visual stimuli; and enhanced
Biophilic Design, Fig. 9 Thermal and airflow variability.
Singapore’s Khoo Teck Puat Hospital by RMJM Architects
is an excellent example of Thermal and Airflow Variability.
The passive design of the hospital draws fresh air in from
the exterior courtyards; the cool air helps maintain thermal
comfort, while patients also have operable windows in
their rooms, allowing for greater personal control. The
façade and internal layouts are designed to enhance day-
light and light/shade variability while reducing glare.
Connecting, elevated exterior walkways also provide
access to breezes, shade, and solar heat as desired (Credit:
William D. Browning for Terrapin Bright Green)
perception and psychological and physiological
responsiveness when multiple senses are stimu-
lated simultaneously [29, 54–56].
Visual preference research indicates that a pre-
ferred view contains bodies of clean (i.e.,
unpolluted) water. Research has also shown that
landscapes with water elicit a higher restorative
response and generally have a greater preference
among populations in comparison to landscapes
without water. Supporting evidence has suggested
that natural scenes without water and urban scenes
with water elements elicit primarily equal benefits
[38, 57, 58].
Research on response to activities conducted in
green spaces has shown that the presence of water
Biophilic Design 61

prompts greater improvements in both self-esteem

and mood than activities conducted in green envi-
ronments without the presence of water
[30]. Auditory access and perceived or potential
tactile access to water also reportedly reduce
stress [54, 55].
Design Objectives and Guidance. The objec-
tive of the Presence of Water pattern is to capital-
ize on the multisensory attributes of water to
enhance the experience of a place in a manner
that is soothing, prompts contemplation, enhances
mood, and provides restoration from cognitive
fatigue.
Repeated experiences of water do not signifi-
cantly diminish the level of interest over time [29],
so one small water feature may be adequate. Tak-
ing advantage of the sounds created by small-
scale running water, and the capacity to touch it,
will amplify the desired health response with a
multisensory experience. Vistas to large bodies of
water or physical access to natural or designed
water bodies can also have the health response
so long as they are perceived as “clean” or
unpolluted. Images of nature that include aquatic
elements are more likely to help reduce blood
pressure and heart rate than similar imagery with- Biophilic Design, Fig. 10 Presence of water. Water
out aquatic elements. forms can serve as powerful mechanisms for stress reduc-
Design guidance for optimizing the impacts of tion, placemaking, and community cohesion and resil-
iency, especially when people are able to engage in a
a presence of water, include: multisensory experience. The interactive water pavilion
in Hannoversche Munden, Germany, directly sought to
• Prioritization of a multisensory water experi- tackle community challenges in a previously underutilized
ence to achieve the most beneficial outcome. plaza devoid of a connection with nature (Credit: Herbert
Dreiseitl)
• Prioritization of naturally fluctuating water
movement over predictable movement or
stagnancy.
educational opportunity for connecting people
• Consideration of volume and turbulence for a
to the natural cycles of the local ecosystem (see
water feature, as well as proximity to occu-
Connection with Natural Systems, Pattern 7,
pants, may differ depending on how humidity
Fig. 10).
levels and acoustics are prioritized and con-
trolled for in a given space type.
• Consideration for climate conditions in ratio- Pattern 6. Dynamic and Diffuse Light
nale for incorporating water feature. Water fea- Dynamic and Diffuse Light leverages varying
tures are often though not intrinsically water intensities of light and shadow that change over
and energy intensive. Large water features time to create conditions that occur in nature.
implemented in a water sensitive region could A biophilic experience of Dynamic and Diffuse
be perceived as an unnecessary and extrava- Light conveys expressions of time and movement
gant use of resources, whereas passive features to evoke feelings of drama and intrigue, buffered
that are seasonal by design may be treated as an with a sense of calm.
62
Roots of the Pattern. Lighting design has long
been used to set the mood for a space, and differ-
ent lighting conditions elicit differing psycholog-
ical responses. The impact of daylight on
performance, mood, and well-being has been
studied for many years, in a variety of environ-
ments, and in the overlapping fields of science and
design, light has been extensively studied and
written about.
Early research showed that productivity is
higher in well-daylighted work places, sales are
higher in daylit stores, and that children
performed better in daylighted classrooms with
views. This research was focused on lighting and
task performance and less on human physiologi-
cal and psychological response. Yet daylighting
has been reported to induce more positive moods
and significantly less dental decay among students
attending schools with quality daylighting, as
compared to students attending schools with pre-
dictable electric lighting conditions [104].
Recent research has focused more heavily on
illuminance fluctuation and visual comfort [64],
human factors and perception of light, and
impacts of lighting on the circadian system func-
tioning [62, 63]. Sunlight changes color from
yellow in the morning, to blue at midday, and
red in the afternoon/evening. The human body
responds to this daylight color transition in body
temperature, heart rate, and circadian functioning.
The higher content of blue light (similar to early
morning light) produces serotonin, whereas an
absence of blue light (evening light) produces
melatonin. The balance of serotonin and melato-
nin can be linked to sleep quality, mood, alertness,
depression, breast cancer, and other health
conditions.
Design Objectives and Guidance. The objec-
tive of the Dynamic and Diffuse Light pattern is
twofold: to provide users with lighting options
that stimulate the eye and hold attention in a
manner that engenders a positive psychological
or physiological response and to help maintain
circadian system functioning.
The goal should not be to create uniform dis-
tribution of light through a (boring) space, nor
should there be extreme differences (i.e., glare
discomfort). The human eye and the processing
Biophilic Design
of light and images within the brain are adaptable
over a broad range of conditions, although there
are limitations. For example, when the lighting
difference between adjoining sources or surfaces
has a brightness or luminance ratio of greater than
40:1, glare may occur, between task and immedi-
ate surroundings should not exceed 10:1. So while
dramatic lighting differences may be great for
some religious, socialization, and circulation
spaces, they are not a good idea near work
surfaces.
Diffuse lighting on vertical and ceiling sur-
faces provides a calm backdrop to the visual
scene. Accent lighting and other layering of light
sources creates interest and depth, while task or
personalized lighting provides localized flexibil-
ity in intensity and direction. These layers help
create a pleasing visual environment.
Just as variations in lighted surfaces are impor-
tant for interpreting surfaces, conducting a variety
of tasks, and safe navigation, circadian lighting is
important for supporting biological health.
Leveraging opportunities for illuminance fluctua-
tion, light distribution, and light color variability
that stimulate the human eye without causing
discomfort will improve the quality of the user
experience.
In addition to the variability of light levels, the
movement of light and shadows along a surface
can provide positive attention, for example, the
dappled light under the canopy of an aspen tree or
the reflections of rippling water on a wall. These
patterns tend to be fractals, and the brain is attuned
to moving fractals (see Complexity and Order,
Pattern 10).
Design guidance for establishing a balance
between dynamic and diffused lighting conditions
includes:
• Adoption of a layered lighting strategy to help
facilitate easy interpretation of surfaces, flexi-
bility of task spaces, and safe navigation
between indoor and outdoor spaces.
• Consideration of how dynamic lighting will
impact intended programming within a space.
Highly dynamic lighting conditions, such as
with sustained movement, changing colors,
direct sunlight penetration, and high contrasts,
Biophilic Design
Biophilic Design, Fig. 11 Dynamic and diffuse light.
The Levine Residence on the outskirts of Los Angeles,
California, experiences daylight from multiple orientations
and shadow casting that changes over the course of the day.
may not be appropriate for spaces where activ-
ities requiring focused attention are performed.
• Incorporation of circadian lighting design as
critical feature of spaces occupied for extended
periods of time with little to no natural daylight
(Fig. 11).
Pattern 7. Connection with Natural Systems
Connection with Natural Systems is the aware-
ness of natural processes, especially seasonal and
temporal changes characteristic of a healthy eco-
system. The biophilic experience evokes a rela-
tionship to a greater whole, making one aware of
seasonality and the cycles of life. The experience
is often relaxing, nostalgic, profound or enlight-
ening, and frequently anticipated.
Roots of the Pattern. There is limited scien-
tific documentation of the health impacts asso-
ciated with access to natural systems; however,
much like Presence of Water (Pattern 5), this
pattern is suspected to enhance positive health
responses. In Biophilic Design [23], Kellert
frames this as “Natural Patterns and Processes,”
whereby seeing and understanding the pro-
cesses of nature can create a perceptual shift in
63
Paired with multiple seating options, the design provides a
dynamic lighting solution for a home living environment
(Credit: Jeremy Levine Design)
what’s being seen and experienced. This pattern
has a strong temporal element, which can be
expressed culturally, as in the Japanese love of
the ephemerality of cherry blossoms.
Design Objectives and Guidance. The objec-
tive of the Connection with Natural Systems pat-
tern is to heighten both awareness of natural
properties and environmental stewardship of the
ecosystems within which those properties prevail.
The strategy for working with the pattern may be
as simple as identifying key content in a view to
nature (e.g., deciduous trees in the back yard or
blossoming orchids on the window sill), or it may
be a more complex integration of systems, such as
by making evident the relationship between build-
ing occupant behavior and rainwater infrastruc-
ture (e.g., raingardens, bioswales, storm sewers),
by regulating domestic activities (e.g., showering,
laundry) during rain events. In either case, the
temporal component is usually the key factor in
pattern recognition and the triggering of a deeper
awareness of a functioning ecosystem.
Design guidance and opportunities that may
help create quality connections with natural sys-
tems include:
64
• Integration of rainwater capture and treatment
into the landscape design that responds to rain
events.
• Provision of visual access to existing natural
systems with sensitivity to variations in the
season, climate or time of day. Incorporation
of responsive design tactics (e.g., use of mate-
rials that change form or expand function with
exposure to solar heat gain, wind, rain/mois-
ture, or shading), structures (e.g., steps wells),
and land formations (e.g., bioswales, arroyos,
dunes) will sometimes be necessary to achieve
the desired level of awareness (Fig. 12).
Pattern 8. Biomorphic Forms and Patterns
Biomorphic Forms and Patterns are symbolic ref-
erences to contoured, patterned, textured, or
numerical arrangements that persist in nature.
The biophilic experience feels interesting and
comfortable, possibly captivating, contemplative,
or even absorptive.
Roots of the Pattern. Biomorphic Forms and
Patterns has evolved from research on view pref-
erences [65] reduced stress due to induced shift in
focus and enhanced concentration. The science
behind why humans have a visual preference for
organic and biomorphic forms is not yet formu-
lated. While the brain knows that biomorphic
forms and patterns are not living things, they are
perceived as symbolic representations of life.
Right angles and straight lines are not naturally
occurring phenomena. The Golden Angle, which
measures approximately 137.5
, is the angle
between successive florets in some flowers,
while curves and angles of 120
are frequently
exhibited in other elements of nature. The
Fibonacci series (0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34. . .)
is a numeric sequence that occurs in many living
things, plants especially. Phyllotaxy, or the spac-
ing of plant leaves, branches and flower petals
(so that new growth does not block the sun or
rain from older growth) often follows in the
Fibonacci series. Related to the Fibonacci series
is the Golden Mean (or Golden Section), a ratio of
1:1.618 that surfaces time and again among living
forms that grow and unfold in steps or rotations,
such as with the arrangement of seeds in sun-
flowers or the spiral of seashells.
Biophilic Design
Biomorphic forms and patterns have been artis-
tically expressed for millennia, from adorning
ancient temples to more modern examples like
Hotel Tassel in Brussels (Victor Horta, architect,
1893) and the structures of Gare do Oriente in
Lisbon (Santiago Calatrava, architect, 1998). More
intriguing still is the architectural expression of
mathematical proportions or arrangements that
occur in nature, the meaning of which has been
fodder for philosophical prose since Aristotle and
Euclid. Many cultures have used these mathematical
relationships in the construction of buildings and
sacred spaces. The Egyptian Pyramids, the Parthe-
non (447–438 BC), Notre Dame in Paris (beginning
in 1163), the Taj Mahal in India (1632–1653), the
CN Tower in Toronto (1976), and the Eden Project
Education Centre in Corwall, UK (2000), are all
alleged to exhibit the Golden Mean.
Design Objectives and Guidance. The objec-
tive of Biomorphic Forms and Patterns is to pro-
vide representational design elements within the
built environment that allow users to make connec-
tions to nature. The intent is to use biomorphic
forms and patterns in a way that creates a more
visually preferred environment that enhances cog-
nitive performance while helping reduce stress.
Humans have been decorating living spaces with
representations of nature since time immemorial,
and architects have long created spaces using ele-
ments inspired by trees, bones, wings, and sea-
shells. Many classic building ornaments are
derived from natural forms, and countless fabric
patterns are based on leaves, flowers, and animal
skins. Contemporary architecture and design have
introduced more organic building forms with softer
edges or even biomimetic qualities.
There are essentially two approaches to apply-
ing Biomorphic Forms and Patterns, as either a
cosmetic decorative component of a larger design
or as integral to the structural or functional design.
Both approaches can be utilized in tandem to
enhance the biophilic experience.
Design guidance translated from scientific
research to help create a quality biomorphic con-
dition includes:
• Consideration of biomorphic forms and assem-
blies early in the design process to help
Biophilic Design
Biophilic Design, Fig. 12 Connection with natural sys-
tems. Outside the eighth floor penthouse studio of
COOKFOX Architects in New York City sits a 3000 ft2
extensive green roof that changes color and vibrancy from
season to season. Witnessing a hawk preying upon a small
bird shifted employee perception of the green roof from
being a decorative garden to a living ecosystem. This
perception was reinforced when employees noticed
changes in bee colony behavior during times of extreme
65
heat and humidity, when the honeybee apiary was invaded
by robber bees, and again when the summer honey harvest
looked and tasted different than the autumn harvest. After
10 years, the company was so attached to the experience
afforded by the elevated ecosystem that they hauled the
green roof materials with them when they transferred to a
different building in 2017 (Credit: William D. Browning
for Terrapin Bright Green)
66
Biophilic Design, Fig. 13 Biomorphic forms and pat-
terns. The Art Nouveau Hotel Tassel (Victor Horta, archi-
tect, 1893) in Brussels, Belgium, is a favorite example of
Biomorphic Forms and Patterns. The interior space in
particular is rife with natural analogues, with graphic
vine-like tendrils painted on the wall and designed into
the banisters and railings, floor mosaics, window details,
furniture, and columns. The curvaceous tiered steps seem
to make distant reference to shells or flower petals (Credit:
Henry Townsend)
establish spatial properties and other character-
istics of the space.
• Application of biomorphic patterns on 2 or
3 planes or dimensions (e.g., floor plane and
wall, furniture, windows and soffits) for greater
diversity and frequency of exposure (Fig. 13).
Pattern 9. Material Connection with Nature
A Material Connection with Nature is ensured
through materials and elements from nature that,
through minimal processing, reflect the local ecol-
ogy or geology to create a distinct sense of place.
A biophilic experience of a Material Connection
with Nature feels rich, warm, and authentic, and
sometimes stimulating to the touch.
Roots of the Pattern. While scientific docu-
mentation on the health impact of natural mate-
rials is limited, available research is beginning to
Biophilic Design
shed light on opportunities for informed design.
As such, the Material Connection with Nature
pattern has evolved from a limited body of scien-
tific research on physiological responses to vari-
able quantities of natural materials, and the impact
of natural color palette, particularly the color
green, has on cognitive performance.
One such study demonstrated that a differ-
ence in wood ratio on the walls of an interior
space led to different physiological responses
[66]. The researchers observed that a room
with a moderate ratio of wood (i.e., 45% cover-
age) offered a more subjective “comfortable”
feeling and exhibited significant decreases in
diastolic blood pressure and significant
increases in pulse rate, whereas a decrease in
brain activity was observed in spaces with large
ratios of wood (i.e., 90% coverage), which
could be either highly restorative in a spa or
doctor’s office or counterproductive in a space
where high cognitive functionality is expected.
In a series of four experiments examining
the effect of the presence of the color green on
the psychological functioning of participants, the
results concluded that exposure to the color green
before conducting a task “facilitates creativity
performance, but has no influence on analytical
performance” [67]. Humans are also able to dis-
tinguish more variations in the color green than of
any other color. However, which variation(s) of
the color green most influence creativity or other
mind-body responses is not well understood.
Design Objectives and Guidance. The objec-
tive of the Material Connection with Nature pat-
tern is to explore the characteristics and quantities
of natural materials optimal for engendering pos-
itive cognitive or physiological responses. In
some cases, there may be several layers of infor-
mation in materials that enhance the connection,
such as learned knowledge about the material,
familiar textures, or nested fractals that occur
within a stone or wood grain pattern.
Natural materials can be decorative or func-
tional and are typically processed or extensively
altered (e.g., wood plank, granite countertop)
from their original “natural” state, and while
they may be extracted from nature, they are only
analogous of the items in their “natural” state.
Biophilic Design
Design guidance translated from scientific
research to help create a quality Material Connec-
tion with Nature includes:
• Specification of natural materials and colors is
in quantities based on intended function of the
space (e.g., to restore versus to stimulate). Var-
iability of materials and applications is likely to
be more effective than high ratios of any one
material or color.
• Selection of natural materials is preferred over
synthetic variations; our brain receptors can
tell the difference between real and synthetic
nature.
• Incorporation of the color green may help
enhance creative environments; however, sci-
entific studies on the impact of the color green
have mostly been conducted in controlled lab
environments, so dependence on color to
engender creativity should be considered
experimental (Fig. 14).
Pattern 10. Complexity and Order
Complexity and Order is rich sensory information
that adheres to a spatial hierarchy similar to those
encountered in nature. A biophilic experience of
Complexity and Order feels engaging and
information-rich, as an intriguing balance
between boring and overwhelming.
Roots of the Pattern. The Complexity and
Order pattern has evolved from research on fractal
geometries and preferred views [68–71]; the
Biophilic Design,
Fig. 14 Material
connection with nature. The
suites at the One Hotel
Brooklyn Bridge in
Brooklyn, New York, are
designed with wood,
leather, and textured carpet
to deliberately connect
guests to the park outside
the window (Credit: Allison
Bernett for Terrapin Bright
Green)
67
perceptual and physiological stress responses to
the complexity of fractals in nature, art, and archi-
tecture [65, 68, 69]; and the predictability of the
occurrence of design in nature [105].
Research has repeatedly confirmed correlations
between fractal geometries in nature and those in
art and architecture [65, 69], but there are opposing
opinions about which fractal dimension is optimal
for engendering a positive health response,
whether an optimal ratio exists, or if such a ratio
is even important to identify as a design metric or
guideline. Nikos Salingaros [68] has examined a
series of these perspectives with great clarity, not-
ing that the range of preferred fractal dimensions is
potentially quite broad (D = 1.3–1.8) depending
on the application [68].
Nested fractal designs expressed as a third
iteration of the base design (i.e., with scaling
factor of 3, see illustration) are more likely to
achieve a level of complexity that conveys a
sense of order and intrigue and reduces stress
[68]. This quality is lost in much of modern archi-
tecture, which tends to limit complexity to the
second iteration, and consequently results in an
arguably dull and inadequately nurturing form
that fails to stimulate the mind or engender phys-
iological stress reduction.
At either end of the spectrum, both nonfractal
artwork and high-dimensional fractal artwork
have been shown to induce stress [69, 70]. Overly
complex designs and environments may result in
psychological stress and even nausea. According
68
to Judith Heerwagen and Roger Ulrich, occu-
pants in a US Navy office in Mississippi reported
nausea, headaches, and dizziness, symptoms fre-
quently associated with poor indoor air quality or
poor ventilation due to the interaction of patterns.
Multiple wallpaper patterns, complex patterns in
carpets, and moiré patterns in seating fabrics
caused surfaces to appear to move as occupants
walked through the space and therefore caused
extreme visual perception problems.
Fractal patterns can be identified in classical art
and vernacular architecture from the column cap-
itals of ancient Greece and Egypt, to the art of
Ancient Mayans and the Eiffel Tower in Paris
(1889). Fractals are also evident in such well-
known works as those of Botticelli, Vincent van
Gogh, and Jackson Pollock.
Design Objectives and Guidance. The objec-
tive of the Complexity and Order pattern is to
provide symmetries and fractal geometries, config-
ured with a coherent spatial hierarchy, to create a
visually nourishing environment that engenders a
positive psychological or cognitive response [68].
Fractals can exist at any scale, from desktop
trinkets or textile patterns, to façade design, to a
city grid or regional transport infrastructure.
Scenes in nature typically support multiple fractal
dimensions – savanna landscapes often support
mid-range fractal dimensions – so there are poten-
tially many opportunities to incorporate fractals.
A familiar challenge in the built environment
is in identifying the balance between an
information-rich environment that is interesting
and restorative, and one with an information sur-
plus that is overwhelming and stressful.
Targeting an optimal dimensional ratio for design
applications can be problematic (i.e., time con-
suming, inconsistent, and even inaccurate), of
questionable long-term value, and essentially
less important than the incorporation of third-
iteration fractal designs. As Salingaros [68]
points out, identifying precise fractal geometries
in existing nature scapes, structures, and art-
works is a challenge, whereas generating new
works with complex fractals is quite easy, so
specifying fractal artwork, for instance, may not
always be the most efficient use of project
resources [68].
Biophilic Design
Design guidance translated from scientific
research to help create a quality Complexity and
Order condition includes:
• Prioritization of artwork and material selec-
tion, architectural expressions, and landscape
and master planning schemes can help reveal
fractal geometries and hierarchies.
• Incorporation of fractal structures with scaled
iterations of three are more likely to be per-
ceived as interesting to the viewer than a
design limited to two iterations. Under-
utilization of fractals in design could result in
complete predictability and disinterest.
• Use of algorithms of mathematical and geomet-
ric functions can produce fractal designs for
architectural and planning applications with
ease. Geometries with a mid-range dimensional
ratio (broadly speaking, D = 1.3–1.75) should
be targeted when a new fractal design is being
created. Over-use of and/or extended exposure
to high-fractal dimensions (D = 1.8–2.0) could
instill discomfort or even fear, countering the
intended response: to nourish and reduce stress.
• Consideration for a new building or landscape
design should take into account its impact on
the fractal quality of the existing urban skyline
(Fig. 15).
Pattern 11. Prospect
Prospect is an unimpeded view over a distance for
surveillance and planning. A biophilic experience
of a good Prospect condition feels open and free-
ing, yet imparts a sense of safety and control,
particularly when alone or in unfamiliar
environments.
Roots of the Pattern. The Prospect pattern is
derived from visual preference research and spatial
habitat responses, as well as cultural anthropology,
evolutionary psychology [61], and architectural
analysis. Health benefits are suggested to include
reduced stress; reduced boredom, irritation, fatigue
[73], and perceived vulnerability [74, 75]; as well
as improved comfort [72, 76].
In evolutionary psychology terms, humans pre-
fer habitats that are similar to the African savannas
on which humankind evolved as a species. This
Biophilic Design
Biophilic Design, Fig. 15 Complexity and order. Tucked
in between buildings of downtown Toronto, Ontario, is the
Allen Lambert Galleria and Atrium at Brookfield Place.
The cathedral-like structure designed by Santiago
Calatrava (1992) is information rich, yet protecting, with
its orderly columns that rise up into a canopy of complex
tree-like forms, showers diffuse light and shadow onto the
courtyard, and keeps visitors awestruck and engaged
(Credit: Maarten van den Heuvel (creative commons))
becomes clear in visual preference research
starting with Jay Appleton’s Experience of Land-
scape in 1977 [13], where he asked why certain
views from the same vantage point are preferred
over others. Kellert and Wilson [5] argue that view
preferences, and possibly aesthetic preferences,
have roots in referential points that benefit survival
[5]. For example, flowers are indicators of healthy
plant growth and to signal the availability of
resources in the future [11]. The savanna, with its
open terrain and copses of shade trees, becomes
more favorable when combined with water, an
understory of flowers and forbs, calm grazing ani-
mals, and evidence of human habitation.
Distant prospect (>100 ft, >30 m) is preferred
over shorter focal lengths (<20 ft, 6 m) because it
69
provides a greater sense of awareness and comfort
[76], reducing one’s stress responses, particularly
when alone or in unfamiliar environments
[74]. Good Prospect is extensive and information
rich, with a savanna-like view.
Design Objectives and Guidance. The objec-
tive of the Prospect pattern is to provide users with a
condition suitable for visually surveying and con-
templating the surrounding environment for both
opportunity and hazard. In landscapes, Prospect is
characterized as the view from an elevated position
or across an expanse. While an elevated position can
enhance (indoor and outdoor) prospect, it is not
essential to creating a quality Prospect experience.
There are potentially endless combinations for
applying characteristics of prospect [106]. There
is interior prospect, exterior prospect, as well as
short depth and high depth prospect that can occur
simultaneously. The complexity and variety of
ways to achieve prospect is what makes it such a
powerful design element. For interior spaces or
dense urban spaces, prospect is the ability to see
from one space to another and is strengthened
when there are clear distinctions and the opportu-
nity to see through multiple spaces [107].
Design guidance translated from scientific
research to help create a quality Prospect condi-
tion includes:
• Orientation of building, fenestration, corridors,
and workstations will help optimize visual
access to indoor or outdoor vistas, activity
hubs, or destinations.
• Consideration for view aperture, orientation, and
content based on an existing or planned savanna-
like ecosystem, body of water, or shared spaces
of human activity in the design orientation.
• Provision of focal lengths of 20 ft (6 m),
preferably 100 ft (30 m) or more to support
sufficient depth and spatial properties to
achieve a prospect condition. Removal of
visual barriers and limitation of partition
heights to 4200 allow seated occupants to view
across a space. Understory vegetation or
hedges that follow similar guidance; preferred
height limitations will depend on terrain and
how the space is experienced (e.g., while sit-
ting, standing/walking, on a bicycle).
70
• Location of stairwells at building perimeter
with glass façade and/or interior glass stairwell
walls can form a dual Prospect condition.
• Identification of opportunities where high ceil-
ings and elevated or sunken (by 12–1800 )
perimeter or interior spaces might offer poten-
tial variability in prospect experiences.
• Consideration for view quality and the balance
between Prospect and Refuge (Pattern 12),
which may be more impactful than the size or
frequency of the experience.
• Optimization of the Prospect experience can be
achieved when implemented in parallel with a
quality view (see Visual Connection with
Nature, Pattern 1, Fig. 16).
Pattern 12. Refuge
Refuge is a place for withdrawal from environ-
mental conditions or from the main flow of activ-
ity, in which the individual is protected from
behind and overhead. A biophilic Refuge condi-
tion feels safe, providing a sense of retreat and
Biophilic Design, Fig. 16 Prospect. The process of
denial and reward, obscure, and reveal is evident in Chi-
nese and Japanese garden design. The gardens at Lan Su
Chinese Garden in Portland, Oregon, make strong use of
Biophilic Design
withdrawal – for work, protection, rest or healing –
whether alone or in small groups. A good Refuge
space feels separate or unique from its surround-
ing environment; its spatial characteristics can
feel contemplative, embracing, and protective,
without unnecessarily disengaging.
Roots of the Pattern. The Refuge pattern has
evolved from visual preference research and spa-
tial habitat responses and is related to Prospect
(Pattern 11). Refuge conditions are important for
restoration experiences and stress reduction,
which can be realized through lowered blood
pressure and heart rate. Other benefits of Refuge
are reduced irritation, fatigue, and perceived vul-
nerability, as well as improved concentration,
attention, and perception of safety [72, 74, 75, 77].
Jay Appleton’s writing [13] is focused on the-
ory and is a good overall reference for both Pros-
pect and Refuge, whereas Grant Hildebrand [107]
has written about Prospect and Refuge in the built
environment and is a good reference for applica-
tions [107]. In Hildebrand’s words, “The edge of a
Prospect to draw visitors through the space and instill a
sense of awareness and curiosity (Credit: Catherine
O. Ryan)
Biophilic Design
wood is one of the most prevalent of natural
prospect-refuge conjunctions” for it provides pro-
tection from weather and predators, but allows for
outward surveillance. Nonetheless, the health
response to Refuge is reportedly stronger than
the response to Prospect, and the compounded
response is enhanced when the two spatial condi-
tions converge [72].
In small urban parks, park size is less important
than the ability to be immersed in the space with
the conditions of enclosure leading to restoration
[108]. In larger parks, the refuge spaces under
trees, and in vegetation bordering an open space
or meadow, are the preferred locations
[109]. Though science has yet to establish metrics
for frequency or duration of access to refuge con-
ditions, the balance between Refuge and Prospect
is suggested to be more important than the size or
frequency of the experience (Appleton, 1996).
Design Objectives and Guidance. The pri-
mary objective of the Refuge pattern is to provide
users with an easily accessible and protective
environment – a smaller portion of a larger space
that supports restoration. The principal spatial
condition is protection overhead and to one’s
back, preferably on three sides. The secondary
objective is to provide visual and/or auditory pri-
vacy. Strategic placement or orientation of the
space can also influence quality of experience.
Common functions of Refuge conditions:
• Weather/climate protection
• Speech or visual privacy
• Reflection or meditation
• Rest or relaxation
• Reading
• Complex cognitive tasks
• Protection from physical danger
In most cases, the refuge is not entirely
enclosed, but rather provides some contact
(visual or aural) with the surrounding environ-
ment for surveillance. The greater the number of
protective sides, the greater the refuge condition;
however, complete refuge – protection on all
sides – is not necessarily the most appropriate or
effective solution, as it does not maintain a
71
relationship to the larger space. The traditional
lean-to is a great example of basic refuge, as are
a cozy bench seat in a bay window of the kitchen
or a fireside inglenook.
Refuge spaces take many forms, so under-
standing the context and defining the intended
user experience will certainly influence design
decisions. There are endless combinations of
design elements that can create a quality refuge
space that offers shade or protection from natural
or man-made environmental conditions.
Design guidance translated from scientific
research to help create a quality Refuge condition
includes:
• Indoor refuge spaces are usually characterized
by lowered ceiling conditions. For spaces with
standard ceiling heights, this is often achieved
through soffits, drop-ceilings or acoustical
paneling, suspended fabric or other treatments
approximately 18–24 in below the main ceil-
ing. For outdoor or indoor spaces with partic-
ularly high ceilings (>14 ft), a more drastic
canopy differential may be necessary to
achieve the desired outcome; freestanding or
built-in alcoves and mezzanines are often
effective.
• Provision of more than one kind of refuge
space – to address varying needs of larger
populations or multiple activity types –
through differing spatial dimensions, lighting
conditions, and degrees of concealment.
• Consideration for how a unique lighting con-
trol strategy may broaden the multi-
functionality of a refuge space (Fig. 17).
Pattern 13. Mystery
Mystery is the promise of more information
achieved through partially obscured views or
other sensory devices that entice the individual to
travel deeper into the environment. A biophilic
experience of a Mystery condition has a palpable
sense of anticipation, or of being teased, offering
the senses a kind of denial and reward that compels
one to further investigate the space.
Roots of the Pattern. The Mystery pattern is
largely based on the idea posited by Kaplan and
72
Kaplan [17] that people have two basic needs in
environments: to understand and to explore and
that these should occur “from one’s current posi-
tion” in order to engender a sense of mystery.
The Mystery pattern has evolved from research
on visual preference and perceived danger
[76, 110, 111] and is supported by research on
pleasure responses to anticipatory situations
[78–80]. Mystery engenders a strong pleasure
response within the brain that may be a similar
mechanism to that of anticipation, which is
hypothesized to be an explanation for why listen-
ing to music is so pleasurable – in that assump-
tions are made as to what may be around the
corner [78, 80]. The benefits of mystery condi-
tions are suggested to include improved prefer-
ence for a space; heightened curiosity; increased
interest in gaining more information and greater like-
lihood of encountering other biophilic conditions.
A quality mystery condition does not engender
a fear response; the conditions that differentiate
between surprise (i.e., fear) and pleasure center
around the visual depth of field. An obscured view
with a shallow depth of field has shown to lead to
unpleasant surprises, whereas greater visual
access with a medium (20 ft) to high (100 ft)
depth of field is preferred [76].
A good mystery condition could also be
expressed through the obscuring of the boundaries
and a portion of the focal subject (i.e., room,
building, outdoor space, or other information
source), thereby enticing the user to anticipate
the full extent of the subject and explore the
space further [79].
Design Objectives and Guidance. Mystery
characterizes a place where an individual feels
compelled to move forward to see what is around
the corner; it is the partially revealed view ahead.
The objective of the Mystery pattern is to provide
a functional environment that encourages explo-
ration in a manner that supports stress reduction
and cognitive restoration. While other “Nature of
the Space” patterns can be experienced in a sta-
tionary position, mystery implies movement and
analysis starting from a place perceived in a fun-
damentally positive way.
Mystery conditions have their place among
indoor and outdoor plazas, corridors, pathways,
Biophilic Design
parks, and other transitory spaces. The sense of
mystery can be diluted over time and with routine
exposure; however, strategies that include revolv-
ing content or information, such as peek-a-boo
windows into common areas where activity is con-
stantly changing, will be most effective in spaces
routinely occupied by the same group of people.
Design guidance translated from scientific
research to help create a quality Mystery condi-
tion includes:
• Incorporation of curving edges (rather than
sharp corners) that slowly reveal a people is
drawn through a space.
• Integration of dramatic shading and shadow
casting, while minimizing intensely dark
shadows or shallow depths of field that could
engender undesired surprise or fear.
• Consideration for how the speed at which peo-
ple are moving through a space may influence
both the necessary size of a view aperture and
the size of the focal subject, with faster speeds
typically requiring bigger apertures.
• Accommodation for organically evolved mys-
tery conditions (e.g., low maintenance parks
with winding paths) that change over time.
Changes (e.g., vegetation height or density)
should be monitored as they may enhance the
mystery condition or degrade it as it evolves
into a surprise condition (e.g., overgrowth of
plantings leads to obscuring of depth of field)
(Fig. 18).
Pattern 14. Risk/Peril
Risk/Peril is an identifiable threat coupled with a
reliable safeguard. A biophilic experience of a
Risk/Peril condition feels exhilarating and with
an implied threat, maybe even a little mischievous
or perverse. One feels that it might be dangerous,
but intriguing, worth exploring, and possibly even
irresistible.
Roots of the Pattern. Risk can be generated
by a learned or bio-phobic response triggered by a
near and present danger. This danger, however, is
inert and unable to cause harm due to a trusted
element of safety. The defining difference
between Risk/Peril and fear is the level of per-
ceived threat and perceived control [112].
Biophilic Design 73

Biophilic Design, Fig. 17 Refuge. Set back from the
street, Paley Park provides respite from the bustling activ-
ity and heat of midtown Manhattan. Designed in 1969 by
Zion and Breen, the 2400 square foot pocket park offers
visitors obscured visual access from the street, movable
chairs to allow flexibility in how much of the city street can
be seen, high backed benches that face inward, a tree
canopy to protect overhead that changes in density over
the seasons, and a waterfall that masks both private con-
versations and street noise (Credit: William D. Browning)

Biophilic Design, Fig. 18 Mystery. The playful and daylit spiral staircases at Antinori Winery in Tuscany, Italy, entice
visitors to explore each level of the facility with rewarding views across the vineyard (Credit: Tom Godber)
74 Biophilic Design

Having an awareness of a controllable risk can

support positive experiences [113] that result in
strong dopamine or pleasure responses [81, 82].
These experiences play a role in developing risk
assessment during childhood [114, 115]. In adults,
short doses of dopamine support motivation,
memory, problem solving, and fight-or-flight
responses, whereas long-term exposure to intense
Risk/Peril conditions may lead to over-production
of dopamine, which is implicated in depression
and mood disorders.
Design Objectives and Guidance. The objec-
tive of the Risk/Peril pattern is to arouse attention
and curiosity, and refresh memory and problem
solving skills. There are different degrees of risk
that can be incorporated into a design depending
on the intended user or the space available; a
cantilevered walkway over a sheer cliff is an
extreme case; viewing a predator in a zoo exhibit
may provide risk with a greater sense of control,
whereas rock-hopping through a gentle water fea-
ture presents the risk of getting wet.
Design guidance translated from research to Biophilic Design, Fig. 19 Risk/Peril. The spiral ramp at
help create a quality Risk/Peril condition includes: the Reichstadt in Berlin, Germany, lures visitors up and
around with glass partitions on either side, providing exten-
sive views in every direction. Some visitors get a thrill from
• Incorporation of perceptions of risk in the project walking higher and looking down, while others would
as early as concept or schematic design phases of rather stay at the base looking up at everyone else and, in
the design process. Architectural solutions for doing so, get an equally exhilarating response to
witnessing the risk taken by others (Credit: Catherine
unique spatial conditions are more difficult and O. Ryan)
costly to incorporate later in the design process.
• Protection provided by the “element of safety”
adequately protects the user from harm while opportunities for integrating biophilic design and
still permitting a meaningful experience of risk. healthy building practices for people and society.
• Consideration for the target user audience to Key perspectives have been identified to help
ensure a Risk/Peril design intervention is focus the planning and design processes.
appropriate (Fig. 19). Identifying desired responses and outcomes.
It is vital for a designer to understand a project’s
design intent, specifically, what the health or per-
Conceptual Issues for the Application of formance priorities are for the intended users. To
Biophilic Design identify design strategies and interventions that
restore or enhance well-being, project teams
Planning for Implementation should understand the health baseline or perfor-
Increasingly dense urban environments, coupled mance needs of the target population. One
with rising land values, elevate the importance of approach is to ask: what is the most biophilic
biophilic design across a spatial continuum from space that can conceivably be designed? Another
new and existing buildings, to parks and street- is to ask: how can biophilic design improve per-
scapes and to campus, urban and regional plan- formance metrics already used by the client (e.g.,
ning. Each context supports a platform for myriad company executives, school board, city officials),
Biophilic Design
such as absenteeism, perceived comfort, health
care claims, asthma, ticket sales, or test scores.
Given that many human responses to design are
integral (e.g., reducing physiological stress and
improving overall mood) and that there are countless
combinations of design patterns and interventions,
understanding health related priorities will help
focus the design process. Health outcomes associ-
ated with biophilic spaces are of interest to building
and portfolio managers and human resources admin-
istrators, because they inform long-term design and
measurement best practices, and to planners, policy
makers, and others because they inform public
health policy and urban planning.
Design strategies and interventions. Biophilic
design patterns are flexible and replicable strategies
for enhancing the user experience that can be
implemented under a range of circumstances. Just
as lighting design for a classroom will be different
than for a spa or home library, biophilic design
interventions are based on the needs of a specific
population in a particular space and are likely to be
developed from a series of evidence-based
biophilic design patterns, ideally with a degree of
monitoring and evaluation for efficacy.
For example, a project team may embrace a
“Visual Connection with Nature” to enhance the
workplace experience for a series of interior fit-
outs for a portfolio of offices. The strategy would
be to improve views and bring plants into the
space; the interventions may include installing a
green wall, orienting desks to maximize views to
outdoors, and initiating an employee stipend for
desk plants. The detail, location, and the extent to
which each of these interventions is implemented
will differ for each of the offices in the portfolio.
A project team charged with reducing stress
among emergency room nurses at the local hospi-
tal may intervene by replacing the abstract art with
landscape paintings on the walls of the staff room
and installing a small garden and seating area in
the adjacent interior courtyard. While this project
also uses the Visual Connection with Nature pat-
tern, the selected interventions specifically target
stress reduction for emergency room nurses based
on a shared space they utilize routinely.
Diversity of design strategies. Patterns in
combination tend to increase the likelihood of
75
health benefits of a space. Incorporating a diverse
range of design strategies can accommodate the
needs of various user groups from differing cul-
tures and demographics and create an environ-
ment that is psycho-physiologically and
cognitively restorative. For instance, vegetated
spaces can improve an individual’s self-esteem
and mood, while the presence of water can have
a relaxing effect. Adding multiple biophilic strat-
egies for the sake of diversity may backfire unless
they are integrative and support a unified design
intent.
Quality vs. quantity of intervention. When
planning for implementation, common questions
recur, such as how much is enough and what
makes a good design great. A high quality inter-
vention may be defined by the richness of content,
user accessibility, and as mentioned above, diver-
sity of strategies. A single high quality interven-
tion can be more effective and have greater
restorative potential than several low quality inter-
ventions. Climate, cost, and other variables may
influence or limit feasibility of certain interven-
tions, but should not be considered an obstacle to
achieving a high quality application. For example,
multiple instances of “Prospect” with a shallow to
moderate depth of field and limited information in
the view shed may not be as effective
(at prompting the desired response) as a single
powerful instance of Prospect with a moderate to
high depth of field and an information-rich view
shed.
Duration of exposure and frequency of
access. Identifying the most appropriate duration
of exposure to a pattern, or combination of pat-
terns, can be difficult. The ideal exposure time is
likely dependent upon the user and desired effect,
but as a general guideline, empirical evidence
shows that positive emotions, mental restoration,
and other benefits can occur in as little as
5–20 min of immersion in nature [27, 28, 30].
When a long duration of exposure is not pos-
sible or desired, positioning biophilic design inter-
ventions along paths that channel high levels
of foot traffic will help improve frequency of
access. Consider too that microrestorative
experiences – brief sensory interactions with
nature that promote a sense of well-being – often
76
designed in response to space-restriction, are more
readily implementable, replicable, and often more
accessible than larger interventions; frequent expo-
sure to these small interventions may contribute to
a compounded restoration response.
Questions abound on matters of duration of
exposure and frequency of access, including
how persistent mental restoration is over different
terms of exposure to nature; whether improve-
ments plateau or continue incrementally with
more exposure; and whether combinations of
design patterns can further optimize a biophilic
experience. These questions and others are being
explored as research continues on the intersec-
tions of neuroscience and design [116].
Locally Appropriate Design
No two places are the same; this presents both
challenges and opportunities for creativity in the
application of biophilic design patterns. Several
key considerations are being utilized to help
frame, prioritize, or influence decision making in
the design process.
Climate, ecology and the vernacular. Histor-
ically, humans have built shelters from locally
available materials that reflected the regional ecol-
ogy; form and function were in response to the
topography and climate. Known as vernacular
architecture, these buildings and constructed land-
scapes connect to the settings they inhabit. Use of
local timber, climate responsive design and
xeriscaping – using native, drought tolerant plants
to create landscape designs that resemble the cli-
mate of the surrounding landscape – can each be
effective strategies in designing for a resilient,
biophilic experience.
Whether rural or urban, not all natural or tem-
pered environments are “green” in color, nor
should they be. Desert species and terrain can be
equally important in reinforcing a biophilic con-
nection to place. Some habitats may engender a
stronger positive response than others, but a small
bio-diverse savanna-like scene will most likely be
preferred over an expansive yet trackless sand
desert, open ocean, or dark forest.
Character and density: Rural, suburban
and urban environments. In rural environments,
human-nature interactions are abundant, and this
Biophilic Design
regular exposure to nature has restorative qualities
that are sometimes taken for granted. Suburban
settings are typically rife with intuitively applied
biophilic design; the suburban yard with shade
trees, grass, low shrubs, and beds of flowers is
essentially an analogue of the African savanna.
Porches and balconies offer more than just quaint-
ness and real estate value; many suburban homes
and urban rowhouses are raised 18 inches or more,
creating a Prospect-Refuge condition with views
from windows, stoops and porches. The potential
human health benefits are undervalued in high-
density settings where residential towers with
balconies are both limited and only available to
high-paying tenants.
Land in urban environments is limited and at a
premium, so it may be unrealistic to replicate
features more suitable to a rural environment in
terms of scale or abundance. As such, biophilic
design strategies will differ depending on the local
geography, land availability and ownership, zon-
ing and political will. For instance, San Francisco,
with its high-density urban form, implemented a
“parklet” system, whereby temporary pop-up
parks occupy parking spaces for limited periods
of time [117]. In the narrow streets of Vienna,
Austria, restaurants rent parking spaces for the
entire summer and set up tables and temporary
landscaping to provide outdoor dining. This
brings nature into the urban core and within walk-
ing distance to a greater number of people, open-
ing up the possibility for micro-restorative
experiences and a reclamation of underutilized
space for people.
A different approach to integrating natural sys-
tems with urban systems is exhibited in
Singapore’s “Skyrise Greenery” program. Given
the high levels of development in tropical Singa-
pore over the last 25 years – a period which saw
the country’s populations grow by 2 million
people – the government offered an incentive
program to offset the loss of habitat, to increase
interaction with natural stimuli, and to create the
“City within a Garden.” This incentive program
offers up to 75% of the costs for installing living
roofs and walls (exterior and interior) for new
construction [118]. Critically, the strategy must
be integrative and appropriate to the character
Biophilic Design
and density of the place, and not just another word
for ecosystem restoration that does not reflect the
human biological relationship with nature.
Scale and feasibility. Biophilic design pat-
terns should be scaled to the surrounding environ-
ment and to the predicted user population for the
space. Patterns can be applied at the scale of a
microspace, a room, a building, a neighborhood or
campus, and even an entire district or city. Each of
these spaces will present different design chal-
lenges depending on the programming, user
types and dynamics, climate, culture, and various
physical parameters, as well as existing or needed
infrastructure.
Size and availability of space are two of the
most common factors influencing feasibility of
biophilic design patterns. For instance, the Pros-
pect pattern (Pattern 11) typically requires signif-
icant space. Other patterns, such as Connection
with Natural Systems (Pattern 7), may be most
feasible where there is direct access to outdoor
space, a challenge in dense urban environments.
Yet small scale, microrestorative Visual and Non-
visual Connections with Nature (Patterns 1 and 2)
and Presence of Water (Pattern 5) can also be very
effective. For instance, the psychological benefits
of nature actually have been shown to increase
with exposure to higher levels of biodiversity
[96], yet these benefits do not necessarily increase
with greater natural vegetative area. A general
understanding has since emerged that small yet
bio-diverse microrestorative design interventions
can be effective at engendering a restorative
biophilic experience.
Microrestorative might include moments of
sensory contact with nature through a window,
television, image, painting, or an aquarium. In
urban environments where sensory overload is
common [65], such experiences will be most val-
ued and impactful when situated in locations with
high foot traffic, allowing for a greater frequency
of access to trigger the desired biophilic response.
Traditional Japanese doorway gardens are a per-
fect example of replicable small-scale
interventions.
The speed at which one moves through an
environment, whether rural or urban, impacts the
level of observable detail and the perceived scale
77
of buildings and spaces. The General Motors
“Tech Center” in Warren, Michigan, designed by
architect Eero Saarinen in 1949, is designed to be
experienced at 30 mph, so for the pedestrian, the
scale seems oversized and the spacing of build-
ings is oddly far apart. This is why stores along
strip malls have large, simple façades and signage,
whereas stores within pedestrian zones tend to
have smaller and perhaps more intricate signage.
Similarly, the landscaping along freeway and
highway greenbelts is typically done in large
swaths for instant interpretability. In contrast, a
pedestrian focused environment will have more
fine-grained details in the landscape design to
allow for pause, exploration, and a more intimate
experience.
Some patterns, such as Mystery and Risk/Peril
(Patterns 13 and 14), might not be as feasible or
cost-effective in an interior fit-out project because
of the amount of space required to effectively
implement the pattern. On the other hand, interior
fit-outs are an excellent opportunity to introduce
Natural Analogue patterns which can be applied
to surfaces like walls, floors, and ceilings as well
as furniture and window treatments. Not all
aspects of biophilia are space dependent. Some
patterns (e.g., Patterns 2, 4, 6, 7) are more visceral
or temporal, requiring little to no floor area, and
other patterns (e.g., Patterns 8–10) may simply
guide design choices that were already a part of
the design process.
Major renovations, new construction, and mas-
ter planning provide more opportunities for incor-
porating biophilic design patterns that are coupled
with systems integration at the building, campus,
or community scale.
Culture and demographics. Current evolu-
tionary hypotheses and theories state that contem-
porary landscape preferences are influenced by
human evolution, reflecting the innate landscape
qualities that enhanced survival for humanity
through time. These schools of thought include
the biophilia hypothesis [5, 10], the savanna
hypothesis [11], the habitat theory and prospect-
refuge theory [13], and the preference matrix
[17]. While empirical research has shown that
there is a degree of universality to landscape pref-
erences among humans, preferences have been
78
modified by cultural influences, experiences, and
socio-economic factors [119]. Variations in land-
scape preferences have thus emerged among eth-
nic groups, subcultures, genders, and age groups.
Cultural constructs, social inertia, and ecological
literacy suffuse differing perspectives on what con-
stitutes natural, nature, wild, or beautiful [119, 120].
Environmental Generational Amnesia and the Eco-
logical Aesthetic Theory help explain how some
perspectives may have evolved, and these differ-
ences come to bear across countries and regions, as
well as among neighborhoods within the same city.
Cultures and groups across the world utilize
landscapes and space in different ways [14]. Fre-
quency of use, nature of use, participation rates,
and purpose of visit all vary drastically between
nationalities, cultures, and subgroups. These fac-
tors do not mean that certain ethnic groups have a
lower appreciation for landscape or a less signif-
icant connection with nature. These groups sim-
ply utilize and interact with nature in ways that are
compatible with their culture and needs. Identify-
ing early on what those needs may be will help
define parameters for appropriate design strate-
gies and interventions.
Age and gender are also known to influence
biophilic response trends. Women report higher per-
ceived levels of stress than men, yet are less likely
than their male counterparts to use available natural
outdoor vegetative space during the work day
[121]. Of particular interest is that the degree of
enhanced immune function due to immersion in
nature has been observed to differ between the gen-
ders. For instance, following a forest walk, immune
function was increased for a period of 30 days in
men, but only 7 days in women [122], suggesting
that interventions targeting female populations in the
workplace may need to either prioritize indoor
nature experiences or improve accessibility for pro-
longed outdoor nature experiences.
Youth benefit the most from nature contact in
terms of increasing self-esteem. The gains for self-
esteem from nature contact are suggested to
decline with age. Elderly and youth benefit the
least in terms of mood enhancement from nature
contact [30], yet both groups are equal in per-
ceived restorative-ness of natural over urban envi-
ronments [123]. With age also comes a differing
Biophilic Design
preference in landscape in regards to perceived
safety. While an urban woodland may be an entic-
ing place for adventure for a child or teenager, the
same condition could be perceived as risky by
adults and elderly populations [124], which
could possibly be overcome by incorporating a
Prospect-Refuge condition.
Design Integration
Interdisciplinary planning and design. Devel-
oping an interdisciplinary strategy early on in a
project will help ensure cost-effective opportuni-
ties are not lost before they are fully considered.
Biophilia is but one piece of the puzzle to creating
a vibrant, sustainable, and restorative environ-
ment. The integration of a multidisciplinary strat-
egy in the early stages of development – through a
stakeholder charrette process or similar – will put
team members on equal footing and allow for the
identification of potential strengths, challenges,
and opportunities. In the long run, this approach
will improve project satisfaction and save money.
Biophilia as an environmental quality. Environ-
mental quality is an umbrella term that refers to the
sum of the properties and characteristics of a specific
environment and how it affects human beings and
other organisms within its zone of influence.
Biophilia, like air quality, thermal comfort, and
acoustics, is an essential component of environ-
mental quality that expands the conversation from
daylight, materials toxicity, and air, water and soil
quality, to include human biological health and
well-being.
When integral to the environmental quality
discussion, biophilia may also help dissolve the
perceived division between human needs and
building performance. Back-of-house and night
shift workers are often the most deprived of
biophilic experiences, while they are also the
very people responsible for monitoring and
maintaining building performance standards.
From an architectural perspective, biophilic
design patterns have the potential to refocus the
designer’s attention on the links between people,
health, high-performance design, and aesthetics.
Multi-platform solutions. Thoughtful appli-
cations of biophilic design can create a multi-
platform strategy for familiar challenges
Biophilic Design
traditionally associated with building perfor-
mance such as thermal comfort, acoustics, energy,
and water management, as well as larger scale
issues such as asthma, biodiversity, and flood
mitigation. Increased natural air flow can help
prevent sick building syndrome; daylighting can
cut energy costs in terms of heating and cooling
[125]; and increased vegetation can reduce partic-
ulate matter in the air, reduce urban heat island
effect, improve air infiltration rates, and reduce
perceived levels of noise pollution [14]. These
strategies can all be implemented in a manner
that achieves a biophilic response for improved
performance, health, and well-being.
Biophilic design interventions that integrate
with other building performance strategies have
the potential to improve user experience and over-
all systems efficiency. Herbert Dreiseitl’s design
for Prisma in Nürnberg, Germany, is a good exam-
ple; sculptural water walls serve as both a thermal
control device and exposed rainwater conduit,
while contributing to the visual and acoustic
ambiance of the enclosed garden-like atrium. For
the design of the Khoo Teck Puat Hospital in
Singapore, architect RMJM met with ecologists
and engineers early in the project development
process to employ biophilia, ecological conserva-
tion, and water-sensitive urban design to manage
rainwater, mitigate loss of biodiversity, and create
a restorative environment for patients, reaping
more benefits for the project than any one of the
three disciplines could have on their own
[126]. The biophilic experiences are more likely
to persist long term when they are embedded in
the programming and infrastructure of a place.
Controlling for effectiveness. Given that land-
scapes and people’s needs are in a constant state of
flux, it is challenging to ensure the desired health
response is always experienced. It is impossible to
predict all future human-nature interactions or to
ensure that the desired response recurs over a period
of time for every user based on a particular strategy
or intervention. There is an assumption that the
efficacy of a biophilic experience is likely to rise
and decline with diurnal and seasonal cycles. The
health benefits of a view to nature may be dimin-
ished during winter months or completely negated
for night shift workers when the view is shrouded in
79
darkness. Seasonal and indoor strategies are consid-
ered potential supporting solutions for maintaining a
balance of biophilic experiences to help engender
desired health responses throughout the year.
User controls for lighting, heating, cooling,
ventilation, and even noise can either complement
design efforts or negate them when controls are
mismanaged or underutilized – keeping the win-
dow blinds closed eliminates a Visual Connection
with Nature, and adding high partitions in an open
plan office eliminates opportunities for Prospect
and a number of other patterns [127].
Behavior change is not often in the purview of
the architect, so designing for controllability
followed by occupant education may be critical.
Maintenance of implemented strategies is also a
consideration – will there be someone responsible
for cleaning the fish tank and watering the plants?
Providing training and resources for facility oper-
ators alongside a reference guide indicating
appropriate maintenance requirements and
parameters will help uphold the intended biophilic
experience set forth in the design strategy.
Tracking and measuring efficacy. Monitor-
ing efficacy of implemented biophilic design
patterns for the express purpose of improving
health and well-being is a new branch of inquiry.
Variability in the built environment, as
discussed here, creates a challenging framework
for verification; quantitative metrics are often
desired but not always appropriate, and the
highly invasive nature of some measurement
techniques and tools (i.e., fMRI, EEG) adds a
layer of complexity and cost. Many of the cur-
rent techniques require strict control of variables
and costs, which tends to limit the size of the test
group. There are, however, several new technol-
ogies, like wristband monitors, and very light
weight headband EEG that may open up new
rapid methods of testing.
Culture, climate, age, gender, landscape char-
acter, immigrant status, mental health, and genetic
predispositions create a challenging labyrinth of
data for comparison. Nevertheless, tracking and
monitoring of human biological responses and
outcomes triggered by a biophilic pattern is vital
in the progress and further development of
biophilic design as a best practice.
80
Standardization
Biophilic design is now a distinct and recognized
area of design research and strategy, with growing
commitment to documenting best practices and stan-
dardizing protocols for measurement and verifica-
tion. Primary obstacles to standardization are health
data privacy laws, variability in health baselines
across populations, and consensus on quality across
building typologies, climates, and populations.
A recurring debate in the standardization pro-
cess is how uniformly aspects of biophilic design
can be meaningfully prioritized or required. The
WELL Building Standard ® and the Living Build-
ing Challenge ® are two of the earliest examples of
building assessment programs with qualitative
and quantitative parameters for biophilic design
implementation.
Qualitative methods. Qualitative methods
have emerged as a viable approach to assessing
biophilic design based on research evidence
around the presence of certain nature-based ele-
ments that can support specific human experiences:
• Temporal and emotional experience (physical
and spatial measurements; anecdotal feedback)
• Perceived health impact (subjective data)
• Physical presence and perceived intensity of
biophilic characteristics
Quantitative methods. Quantitative methods
remain elusive due to skepticism and lack of con-
sensus over the efficacy of imposing prescriptive
measures for biophilic design. There remains an
awareness that while biophilic design is applica-
ble to almost any structure or place, the solutions
for each space may vary and thus in practice must
retain a degree of flexibility:
• What constitutes “nature” tends to vary
between rural, suburban, and urban
populations, and across cultures.
• Baseline health metrics vary across each target
user groups.
• Applied strategies vary depending on designer
interpretation and user needs, both of which
may mature or change over time.
• Adaptability and relevance of quantitative
methods vary across climates and ecosystems,
Biophilic Design
cultures, user demographics, and building
typologies.
• Streamlined processes for noninvasive mea-
surement and verification of quantitative met-
rics after construction are not standardized or
cost-effective.
Future Directions
Researchers continue to refine the scientific basis
for these biophilic design patterns and hypothesize
about new ones such as Color or Awe. Color resur-
faces periodically as having potential to be consid-
ered its own pattern, but climatic differences and
cultural perceptions make it a particularly complex
topic on which to provide science-based design
guidance specific to health and wellbeing. Awe
was once assumed to be experienced with the
alignment of a handful of natural analogues and
spatial patterns. However, research has begun to
reveal that there may be something more profound
at play. Awe may in fact be a spatial experience that
engages multiple centers in the brain simulta-
neously to cause a sort of stimulation overload
resulting in the rare but well-known physical reac-
tions of “eye-popping” and “jaw-dropping.”
Many proponents of biophilic design argue
that the research is simply corroborating the
rediscovery of the intuitively obvious. In the
12,000 years since humans began farming and
other activities that transformed the natural land-
scape, only in the last 250 years have modern
cities become our habitat. Today, with more peo-
ple living in cities than in the countryside, the built
environment is an inescapable reality of everyday
life. Unfortunately, much modern design is devoid
of any profound connection with nature. In com-
ing decades, 70% of the world’s population is
projected to be living in cities. With this
impending shift, the need for designs to (re)con-
nect people to an experience of nature becomes
ever more important. The prevailing attitude is
that while more robust empirical evidence may
take time to accumulate, the industry, govern-
ment, and the design professions should actively
be restoring the human-nature connection in the
built environment through research, education,
and best practices.
Biophilic Design
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 both assemble research from around the world
Sustainable and Healthy Built linking design decisions to performance out-
Environment comes and to create a “triple bottom line”
calculator to support changes in design
Vivian Loftness1 and Megan Snyder2 decision-making.
1
Center for Building Performance and Biophilia Introduced by E.O. Wilson, the bio-
Diagnostics, Carnegie Mellon University, philia hypothesis suggests that there is an
Pittsburgh, PA, USA instinctive bond between human beings and
2
School of Architecture and Center for Building other living systems that must be met by build-
Performance and Diagnostics, Carnegie Mellon ing design that ensures critical connections.
University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA Cornell medical index An index and question-
naire created by Cornell in 1949 to consistently
collect the breadth of pertinent medical and
Article Outline psychiatric data on patients given limited
physician time.
Glossary Epidemiological case studies Quantitative stud-
Definition of the Subject ies of a group of individuals in controlled envi-
Introduction: Linking Definitions of ronmental conditions with controlled changes
Sustainability and Health in those conditions – interventions that may be
CMU: Seven Principles for the Design of evident, blind, or double blind – with statistical
Sustainable Built Environments analysis to demonstrate linkages between the
A Definition of Health to Be Integral with physical environment and outcomes.
Sustainable Design Evidenced-based design Use of laboratory- and
Linking Health and the Built Environment field-gathered evidence in design decision-
Sustainable Land Use for Health making. Evidenced-based design was adopted
Sustainable Building Massing and Enclosure for by the Center for Health Design to improve
Health patient health and safety outcomes through
Sustainable HVAC for Health improvements in design.
Sustainable Lighting for Health LEED™, BREEAM™, Greenstar™,
Sustainable Interior Systems for Health: Materials CASBEE™ Rigorous, voluntary sustainabil-
and Ergonomics ity certification systems developed in the USA,
Sustainable Maintenance and Operations for the UK, Australia, and Japan, respectively, that
Health span land use and site, energy and atmosphere,
Calculating the Life Cycle Benefits of Sustainable water, materials and resources, and indoor
Design and Health environmental quality goals.
Health and the Built Environment: A Research Mixed-mode or hybrid HVAC An approach to
Mandate space conditioning that combines natural ven-
Bibliography tilation from operable windows or vents with
mechanical heating, cooling, and ventilation
Glossary systems (HVAC).
Precautionary principle Adopted by the
BIDS™ The Building Investment Decision Sup- European Community and several nations
port tool developed by the Center for Building around the world, the precautionary principle
Performance at Carnegie Mellon University to argues that if an action or policy has a

# Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020 87

V. Loftness (ed.), Sustainable Built Environments,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-0684-1_197
Originally published in
R. A. Meyers (ed.), Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology, # Springer Science+Business Media LLC 2018
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2493-6_197-3
88
suspected risk of causing harm to the public or
to the environment, even in the absence of
scientific consensus that the action or policy
is harmful, the burden of proof that it is not
harmful falls on those taking the action.
Triple bottom line Expanding the criteria for
evaluating a project’s success from economic
benefits alone to include ecological and social
cost benefits, adopted by the United Nations
and others to ensure public sector decision
making reflects full cost accounting, and
colloquialized as “people, planet, and profit.”
WELL™ and FITWEL™ Emerging voluntary
certification systems for community and build-
ing design to ensure higher levels of human
health, addressing a range of factors including
air, water, nourishment, light, fitness, comfort,
and mind, as well as safety, community health,
and social equality.
Definition of the Subject
While sustainable design is focused on reducing
the environmental footprint, the resources con-
sumed, and the waste produced, it is also criti-
cally linked to our health. Design decision-
making for sustainability – land use, building
massing and enclosure, lighting systems,
mechanical systems, interior systems, building
operation, and management – can not only
reduce our environmental footprint; it can and
must enhance our visual, aural, dermal, muscu-
loskeletal, circulatory, respiratory, reproductive,
and mental health. The challenge is to explore the
linkages between critical design decisions, from
land use to material and system design to build-
ing maintenance and operations, to include crit-
ical health outcomes. Based on years of gathering
emerging laboratory, field, and epidemiological
case studies, the Center for Building Perfor-
mance and Diagnostics at Carnegie Mellon Uni-
versity has been assembling the research on
environmental, health, and productivity benefits
of the range of high-performance building sys-
tems that are the basis for sustainable design.
Captured in a Building Investment Decision Sup-
port tool (BIDS™), the cost benefits of investing
Sustainable and Healthy Built Environment
in a sustainable built environment revealed in
these case studies should drive measurable
changes in building design, construction, and
management. Given critical data sets linking sus-
tainable design solutions and health, triple bot-
tom line accounting can support strategic, long-
term decision-making in the built environment,
commensurate with its intended life of 30–50 to
hundreds of years. At the same time, the funding
for ongoing research and the aggregation of
knowledge linking health and the built environ-
ment within an international data base will be
critical to ensuring the necessary investment in
the quality of our buildings and communities –
the foundation of sustainability.
Introduction: Linking Definitions of
Sustainability and Health
Many decision-makers assume that sustainable
design is about resource conservation – energy,
water, and material resources. The last 10 years,
however, has seen a dramatic broadening of the
definition of sustainability to include commit-
ments to mobility through improvements in land
use and transportation, commitments to health and
productivity through improvements in indoor
environmental quality and active design, and
commitments to the protection of regional
strengths and a more globally shared quality of
life. In the USA, this broader definition of sustain-
ability is most often ensured through the LEED™
standard (Leadership in Energy and Environmen-
tal Design) of the US Green Building Council.
Paralleled by developments in the UK
(BREEAM), Australia (Greenstar), and Japan
(CASBEE), the 100 or more credits, these sustain-
ability rating systems for new and existing build-
ings extend beyond conservation goals for energy,
water, and materials, to include sustainable sites
and transportation, indoor environmental quality,
and regional sustainability (usgbc.org/LEED).
In the past 5 years, a number of standards
focused on the design of built environments for
human health have emerged, including the
WELL™ Standard from the International Well
Building Institute (IWBI) and the FITWEL™
Sustainable and Healthy Built Environment 89

Standard from the Center for Active Design, the environmental health. This chapter explores the
US GSA, and the US Center for Disease Control. range of health outcomes that can be linked to
The WELL standard addresses seven health and these important principles for the design of a
wellness categories: air, water, nourishment, light, sustainable built environment:
fitness, comfort, and mind. The FITWEL stan-
dard’s health impact categories are community
health, well-being, physical activity, reduced mor-
CMU: Seven Principles for the Design of
bidity and absenteeism, healthy foods, safety, and
Sustainable Built Environments
social equality for vulnerable populations.
The Center for Building Performance and
1. Sustainable design depends on an integrative,
Diagnostics at Carnegie Mellon University
human-ecological design approach.
would argue for expanding this definition even
2. Sustainable design depends on changing
further, to give even greater emphasis to contex-
approaches to land use and community fabric.
tual and regional design goals, to accessible and
3. Sustainable design depends on the promotion
flexible infrastructures that support change, to
of infrastructures to neighborhood amenities.
natural/passive conditioning, and to human
4. Sustainable design depends on the effective
engagement, motivation, and health. Indeed, the
use of natural, local, and global resources to
CBPD research team proposes the following
reduce resource demands and maximize
definition:
resource use.
Sustainable design is the result of a trans- 5. Sustainable design depends on the design of
disciplinary, integrated design process driven to
flexible, forgiving systems.
ensure that the built environment achieves greater
levels of ecological balance in new and retrofit 6. Sustainable design depends on the use of
construction, toward the long term viability and healthy, renewable materials and assemblies.
humanization of architecture. Focusing on environ- 7. Sustainable design depends on design for life
mental context, sustainable design merges the nat-
cycle instead of first cost.
ural, minimum resource conditioning solutions of
the past (daylight, solar heat and natural ventilation)
with the innovative technologies of the present, into
an integrated “intelligent” system that supports
individual control with expert negotiation for envi- A Definition of Health to Be Integral with
ronmental quality and resource consciousness. Sus- Sustainable Design
tainable design rediscovers the social,
environmental and technical values of pedestrian,
mixed-use communities, fully using existing infra-
Equally critical to a shared definition of sustain-
structures, including “main streets” and small town able design is the exploration of a shared defini-
planning principles, and recapturing indoor- tion of human health. Building on the Cornell
outdoor relationships. Sustainable design avoids Medical Index of 1949 [2], the Center for Build-
the further thinning out of land use, and the
dislocated placement of buildings and functions
ing Performance at Carnegie Mellon proposed ten
caused by single-use zoning. Sustainable design health indices as a critical to design decision-
introduces benign, non-polluting materials and making in 2010 (Fig. 1). In 2014, the International
assemblies with lower embodied and operating Well Building Institute launched the WELL
energy requirements, and higher durability and
recyclability. Finally, sustainable design offers
Building Standard ® – a performance-based sys-
architecture of long term value through “forgiving” tem for measuring, certifying, and monitoring
and modifiable building systems, through life-cycle features of the built environment that impact
instead of least-cost investments, and through time- human health and well-being, through air, water,
less delight and craftsmanship. [1]
nourishment, light, fitness, comfort, and mind.
The depth of the definition of sustainability Based on these precedents, in-depth consideration
matters, especially when assessing the relevance of at least 12 qualities of human health will be
of sustainable design, construction, and opera- critical to valuating building design, construction,
tions of buildings for long-term human and and operational decisions:
90 Sustainable and Healthy Built Environment

Sustainable and Healthy Built Environment, Fig. 1 Correlating decision-making in the built environment to
improving human health should be a major international initiative (figure CBPD)
Sustainable and Healthy Built Environment
Qualities of human health integral with
sustainable design:
1. Respiratory health
2. Digestive health
3. Visual health
4. Aural health
5. Skin/dermal health (integumentum system)
6. Musculoskeletal health
7. Cardiovascular health
8. Nervous system health
9. Genitourinary (including reproductive)
health
10. Endocrine system health
11. Immune system health
12. Mental health
To date, evidence from research suggests six
primary clusters of health issues related to the
built environment: respiratory (chest, wheeze,
allergies, asthma, colds, flu), mucosal (eye, nose,
throat), dermal (face, hand skin), neurological
(e.g., headache, migraine, dizziness, heavy-
headedness), musculoskeletal (to include body
mass today), and mental health.
The challenge is to definitively link these health
issues to the quality of the built environment.
Given the unbounded variations in physical set-
tings and their management over time, arguments
for causality between a single design decision,
such as type of ventilation system, and health
outcome will be very difficult. Moreover, funding
for multivariate research questions is scarce. The
challenge is to identify the controlled experiments,
field intervention studies, and portfolio-wide stud-
ies that might support effective design decision-
making for sustainability. The Center for Health
Design (http://www.healthdesign.org/) has made
the case for evidenced-based design that “is the
process of basing decisions about the built envi-
ronment on credible research to achieve the best
possible outcomes.” They have launched the
“Pebble Project” to capture profiles of healthcare
organizations whose facility design has made a
difference in the quality of care as well as their
financial performance. These case studies explore
the potential benefits of daylight and view, acous-
tics, variations in ventilation, hospital room layout
91
and configuration, and more, on hospital out-
comes. These projects are changing design prac-
tice, but some might argue they are not based on
definitive research that can explain the mecha-
nisms whereby health outcomes are improved.
For this to occur, multiyear epidemiological stud-
ies as well as controlled laboratory and field exper-
iments must be undertaken by collaborative teams
of health and building professionals. In the mean-
time, the design community is making decisions
every day that can positively or negatively impact
human health. To this community, it is argued that
every study available must contribute to informed
decision-making and every act must be based on
the European Union’s precautionary principle:
Where there is uncertainty as to the existence or
extent of risks of serious or irreversible damage to
the environment, or injury to human health, adequate
protective measures must be taken without having to
wait until the reality and seriousness of those risks
become fully apparent. (http://www.sustainable-
design.ie/arch/precautionaryprinciple.htm)
The precautionary principle argues for the build-
ing community to take responsibility to protect the
public from exposure to harm, whenever scientific
investigation has found a plausible risk. These pro-
tections can be relaxed only if further scientific
findings emerge that provide sound evidence that
no harm will result. For example, scientific investi-
gation suggests that outdoor air ventilation rates
should be doubled in buildings to reduce the risks
of colds, flus, and respiratory illnesses. Research
further argues that these increased ventilation rates
should be accompanied by economizer cycles
and/or heat recovery to ensure that primary energy
loads will not increase, since power plant pollution
also poses measurable health risks.
Linking Health and the Built
Environment
By setting a definition of the attributes of sustain-
able design against the characteristics of human
health, even intuitive judgment would illuminate
the importance of building design, construction,
and operation for human health (Fig. 1).
92
With over 10 years of intense study by faculty,
researchers, and graduate students, the Center for
Building Performance and Diagnostics at Carne-
gie Mellon has been collecting building case stud-
ies as well as laboratory and simulation studies in
an effort to statistically link the quality of
buildings – system by system – to productivity,
health, and life cycle sustainability.
Amassed in the BIDS™ (Building Investment
Decision Support) tool, these case studies enable
building decision-makers to calculate return on
investments for high-performance building com-
ponents and systems and will lead to greater under-
standings of the importance of buildings and
communities to human health (see http://cbpd.
arc.cmu.edu/bidstrial). The following six sections
explore design innovations and the potential health
impacts of changes in land use, building massing
and enclosure, HVAC engineering, daylight and
lighting system design, interior systems, and long-
term building maintenance and operations.
Sustainable Land Use for Health
One of the most significant design shifts needed
for the long-term health of humans is to move
away from the automobile-centric land use plan-
ning that makes pedestrian lifestyles impossible.
The dramatic reductions in walking and biking
that have resulted from sprawl and single-use
zoning have contributed to increasing rates of
obesity in industrialized nations [3–6]. At the
same time, the increased reliance upon automo-
biles has resulted in ever-increasing levels of par-
ticulate and ozone that are respiratory and
cardiovascular hazards [7]. David L. Skole of the
Center for Global Change and Earth Observations
at Michigan State University identifies a range of
health effects from sprawl: air pollution, CO2
emissions, heat island effect, reduced physical
exercise, increased car accidents, and pedestrian
injuries, as well as declining water quality [8].
Numerous studies have revealed the seriousness
of particulate-related health concerns. Wordley et al.
[9] identified a 2.4% increase in respiratory hospital
admissions and a 2.1% increase in cerebrovascular
admissions associated with a 10 mg/m3 increase in
PM10 in the air, which, according to Dockery &
Sustainable and Healthy Built Environment
Pope [10], increases respiratory admissions by
0.8  3.4%. Tenias et al. [11] found that a 10 mg/
m3 increase of NO2 and O3 in the air causes
increases in the number of emergency visits for
asthma by 7.6% and 6.3%, respectively.
Moreover, automobile-centric land use and
single-use zoning has led to increasing inactivity
in children, teens, and senior citizens that contrib-
utes to obesity and all the associated health
impacts of obesity, as well as potentially contrib-
uting to attention deficit, depression, and suicide.
In a 2004 cross-sectional survey of 10,878 adults
from the Atlanta, Georgia region, Frank et al.
identify a 12.2% decline in the likelihood of obe-
sity for each quartile increase in land use mix,
which was defined on a scale from 0 (indicating
a single-use environment) to 1 (indicating a per-
fectly equal mix of residential, commercial, office,
and institutional uses). They also found a signifi-
cant relationship between reductions in vehicle
miles travel and reductions in particulate matter,
NOX and VOC pollution, which have other health
ramifications (see Fig. 2), [12].
The US studies on land use and obesity are
summarized and advanced in the 2006 National
Institute of Health study of the “Relationship
Between Urban Sprawl and Weight of United States
Youth” [13]. “The first studies reporting a direct
relationship between the built environment and obe-
sity were published in 2003 [3, 14, 5, 6]. After
controlling for age, education, fruit and vegetable
consumption, and other socio-demographic and
behavioral covariates, Ewing et al. [4] found that
adults living in sprawling counties had higher body
mass indices (BMIs) and were more likely to be
obese (BMI  30) than were their counterparts
living in compact counties. Independent studies
have since generally confirmed these original find-
ings. Specifically, all macro-level (county or larger)
studies, and all but one micro-level (neighborhood)
studies, have found significant relationships, in the
expected direction, between sprawl-like develop-
ment patterns and BMI, after controlling for socio-
demographic and other influences” [13].
Moreover, automobile-based design is “pav-
ing” the countryside, with the elimination of land-
scapes that act as natural lungs for filtering our air,
and natural digestive systems for processing the
increasing levels of salts, oils, and storm sewer
Sustainable and Healthy Built Environment 93

Increased density + mixed land use = Health

Land use mix
White male Black male
Frank et al 2004 White female Black female
0.40
In a 2004 cross-sectional survey of
Average mixed
10,878 adults from the atlanta,

Probability of obesity
use, Atlanda
0.30
Georgia region, Frank et al identify a
12.2% decline in the likelihood of Maximum mixed
obesity for each quartile increase in 0.20 use, Atlanda

land use mix, which was defined on a

scale from 0 (indicating a single-use 0.10

environment) to 1 (indicating a
perfectly equal mix of residential, 0.00
commercial, office, and institutional 0.00 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 6.00 7.00 8.00 9.00 10.00
Walk distance per day in kilometers
uses).
White male Black male
White female Black female
0.40

Probability of obesity 0.30

First cost saving: $4,408 / person 0.20

Annual health savings: $51 / person
Rol: Immediate
0.10

0.00
0.00 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 6.00 7.00 8.00 9.00 10.00

Reference: D. Frank, M. Andresen, T. Schmid. Obesity relationships with community design, physical
activity, and time spent in cars. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Volume 27, Issue 2, August 2004.

Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics, a NSF/IUCRC, and ABSIC at Carnegie Mellon

Sustainable and Healthy Built Environment, Fig. 2 Land use can significantly reduce vehicle miles traveled which
in turn reduces the pollution that causes growing respiratory health concerns

overflows that result in toxic runoff into our drink-
ing water. The quantification of these serious
health hazards should fully justify the shift in
sustainable design to live-work-walk lifestyles
with mixed-use communities, multigenerational
mobility with mixed-mode transportation, and
the preservation and celebration of natural land-
scapes and sustainable infrastructures.
Linking sustainable land use guidelines with health
• Design landscape dominant environments to reduce
thermal heat islands and heat stress and to rebuild
nature’s lungs for air quality
Sustainable Building Massing and
Enclosure for Health

Linking sustainable land use guidelines with health
• Design live-work-walk communities to reduce car
pollution – particulates and ozone – that trigger asthma
• Design for pedestrian, bicycle, transit mobility to reduce
obesity
• Minimize paving for roads and parking to reduce salting
and oil runoff, as well as standing water concerns
(continued)
After land use design, the second most critical
design decision for human health might be build-
ing massing and enclosure specifications. On the
one hand, access to nature’s assets – daylight,
natural ventilation, natural comfort and thermal
variation, views, and physical access to outdoor
94
activity – is becoming increasingly linked to
human health. On the other hand, humans need
protection from nature’s liabilities – overheating,
excessive cold, wind, rain, and snow. The design
of the building enclosure is critical for managing
both these climatic assets and liabilities.
The CBPD has identified a range of interna-
tional case studies linking access to the natural
environment – daylight, views, and natural
ventilation – to improved health outcomes,
including reductions in headaches, colds, sick
building symptoms (SBS), and patient length of
stay (see Fig. 3). Beyond the health benefits, a
number of international case studies demonstrate
that access to the natural environment increases
individual productivity between 3% and 18%,
reduces absenteeism between 9% and 71%, and
offers over 50% lighting and HVAC energy sav-
ings (CBPD).
While the debate continues as to the mecha-
nisms by which daylight improves health,
research continues to reveal that sunlight, espe-
cially morning sunlight, reduces length of stay for
patients recovering from surgery, bipolar, and
SAD treatment [15–18]. In a 2005 building case
study of Inha University Hospital in Korea, Choi
identifies a 41% reduction in average length of
stay among gynecology patients in bright (sunlit)
rooms, as compared to those in dull rooms, in
spring, and an average 26% reduction in average
length of stay among surgery ward patients in
bright rooms, as compared to those in dull
rooms, during spring and fall [17]. In a separate
study of pain medication use among 89 patients
undergoing elective cervical and lumbar spinal
surgery at Montefiore Hospital in Pittsburgh, PA,
Walch et al. identify a 22% reduction in analgesic
medication use among patients in bright rooms
who were exposed to more natural sunlight after
surgery, as compared to patients located in dim
rooms after surgery [18] (Fig. 4).
The work of the Lighting Research Institute at
RPI has begun to reveal the possible mechanisms
of these health outcomes, identifying the relation-
ship of ultraviolet light exposure to the production
of melatonin, a natural hormone that controls cir-
cadian rhythms that are related to sleep cycles and
potentially to reduced cancer cell development
Sustainable and Healthy Built Environment
[19]. At the same time, daylight and sunlight can
introduce glare and overheating that might nega-
tively affect human health outcomes.
The importance of views of nature and prox-
imity to windows with views may be even more
important for human health. The work of Ulrich
[20], Mendell [21], Heschong Mahone Group
[22], and Kellert [23] identify links between
views and reduced length of hospital stay after
surgery, reduced sick building syndrome,
improved emotional health, and improved perfor-
mance at task. In a 1991 11-building study of
office buildings in San Francisco, Mendell [21]
identifies 25–52% reductions in reported SBS
symptoms among occupants located within 15 ft.
of a window, as compared to those seated further
from a window.
In addition to confirming the importance of
seated views for all building occupants, research
is critically needed to understand the importance
of the content of those views from windows for
human health (e.g., the benefit of landscape views
over parking lots, building walls, and sky). In a
seminal 1984 field study at a Pennsylvania hospi-
tal, Ulrich [20] identifies an 8.5% reduction in
postoperative hospital stay (7.96 vs. 8.7 days)
for gall bladder surgery patients who had a view
of a natural scene from their hospital room, as
compared to those with a view of the brick wall
of the adjacent building wing. Patients with a view
of nature also received fewer negative evaluations
from nurses and took fewer strong analgesics (see
Fig. 5).
In addition to sunlight and views, it is critical to
understand the benefits of direct access to outdoor
air and outdoor spaces through operable windows
and doors. The value of increasing outside air
delivery rates is becoming increasingly evident,
as will be described in the section on HVAC
design. It is not clear, however, whether increased
levels of outside air are more effectively delivered
through natural ventilation (operable windows)
or through mechanical systems that incorporate
filtration, dehumidification, and thermal condi-
tioning of that outside air. There are over a
dozen studies that reveal the benefits of natural
ventilation in existing buildings as compared to
mechanically ventilated buildings – benefits that
 Sustainable and Healthy Built Environment

Sustainable and Healthy Built Environment, Fig. 3 A range of international case studies link access to the natural environment – daylight, views, and natural ventilation – to
improved health outcomes, reductions in headaches, colds, sick building symptoms (SBS), and patient length of stay
95
96 Sustainable and Healthy Built Environment

Daylight = Health
Average length of stay in bright and dull
Inha University Hospital / Choi 2005 (Hospital) rooms in two units
In a 2005 building case study of Inha 10
Bright rooms
University Hospital in Korea, Choi
Dull rooms
identifies a 41% reduction in average

Average length of stay (days)

8
length of stay among gynecology
patients in bright (sunlit) rooms, as
compared to those in dull rooms, in 6
spring, and an average 26% reduction
in average length of stay among
surgery ward patients in bright rooms, 4
as compared to those in dull rooms,
during spring and fall.
2
First cost increase: $1,000 / bed
Annual health savings: $10,115 / bed
0
ROI: 1,011% Gynecology (spring) Surgery (fall)
Reference: Choi, Joonho. (2005). Study of the Relationship between Indoor daylight Environments and Patient Average
Length of Stay (ALOS) in Healthcare Facilities, Unpublished master’s thesis, De[artment of Architecture, Texas A&M
University. College Station, TX.
Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics, a NSF/IUCRC, and ABSIC at Carnegie Mellon

Daylight = Health
Montefiore Hospital / Walch et al 2005 (Hospital) Average medication use per day by room type
In a 2005 study of pain medication 8
use among 89 patients undergoing
Mean oral morphine consumption (mg/hr)

Bright room
elective cervical and lumbar spinal 7 Dim room
surgery at Montefiore Hospital in
6
Pittsburgh, PA, Walch et al identify a
22% reduction in analgesic 5
medication use among patients in
bright rooms who were exposed to 4
more natural sunlight after surgery,
as compared to patients located in 3
dim rooms after surgery.
2
First cost increase: $1,000 / bed
Annual health savings: $28 / bed 1

ROI: 3%
0
Surgery Post-op Post-op Post-op Post-op Post-op
day day 1 day 2 day 3 day 4 day 5

Reference: Walch JM, Rabin BS, Day R, Williams JN, Choi K, Kang JD (2005) The effect of sunlight on postoperative
analgesic medication use: a prospective study of patients undergoing spinal surgery. Psychosom Med 67:156–163
Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics, a NSF/IUCRC, and ABSIC at Carnegie Mellon

Sustainable and Healthy Built Environment, Fig. 4 In extensive hospital record studies, Choi and Walch identified
the value of southern and southeastern rooms to reduced patient length of stay

range from reduced headaches, mucosal symp- reduction in sick building syndrome (SBS) symp-
toms, colds, coughs, and circulatory problems, to toms among staff of a naturally ventilated hospi-
reduced SBS symptoms. In a 1992 study of two tal, as compared to those of a mechanically
London hospitals, Kelland [24] identifies a 40% ventilated hospital (see Fig. 6). In a 2004 multiple
Sustainable and Healthy Built Environment 97

Seated Access to Views = Health Floor plan at a hospital

Corridor
PA Hospital / Ulrich 1984

Patients’ rooms

In a 1984 observational field study at a Brick wall

Pennsylvania hospital, Ulrich identifies

Recovery
an 8.5% reduction in post-operative room

hospital stay (8.7 vs 7.96 days) for gall

bladder surgery patients who had a view
of a natural scene from their hospital
room, as compared to those with a view
Average length of stay with a view of
of a brick wall. Patients with a view of nature vs without a view of nature
nature also received fewer negative
evaluations from nurses and took fewer

Average length of stay (days)

strong analgesics. 10

6
First cost increase: $ 5,000 /bed
Annual health savings: $ 2,237 / bed 4
ROI: 45%
2

0
Room w/a view of nature Room w/a view of brick wall

Reference: Ulrich, R. (1984) View Through a Window May Influence Recovery From Surgery. Science, 224 (4647), pp. 420-421.

Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics, a NSF/IUCRC, and ABSIC at Camegie Mellon

Seated Access to Windows = Health + Individual Productivity

CA Healthy Building Study / Mendell 1991 (Wargocki et al 2000)
In a 1991 multiple building study of 11 Reported symptoms by distance to window
office buildings in San Francisco, Mendell
identifies 25% - 52% reductions in reported Window < 15 ft
SBS symptoms among occupants located Headache Window < 15 ft
within 15 feet of a window, as compared to
those seated further from a window

In a 2000 study, Wargocki et al identify a 1.1% Chills or

productivity increase for every 10% reduction fever
in SBS complaints, suggesting an average
4.3% productivity gain for workers seated
near a window. Eye, nose,
throat
First cost increase: $1,000 / employee symptoms
Annual productivity savings: $1,935 / employee
Annual health savings: $40 0 20 40 60
ROI: 198%
% reporting symptoms

Reference: Mendell, Mark J. (1991) Risk Factors for work-Related Symptoms in Northern California Office Workers.
Wargocki, P,Wyon, D. and Fanger, P.O. (2000) Pollution Source Control and Ventilation Improve Health, Comfort and
Productivity. In Proceedings of Cold Climate HVAC 2000, Sapporo, Japan, November 1-3, 2000, pp. 445-450.
Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics, a NSF/IUCRC, and ABSIC at Carnegie Mellon

Sustainable and Healthy Built Environment, Fig. 5 Ulrich and Mendell identified the importance of views and view
content to sick building syndrome and reduced patient length of stay

building study of professional middle-aged reduction in medical services use (doctor visits),
women in France, Preziosi et al. [25] identify a and a 34.8% reduction in hospital stays among
57.1% reduction in sickness absence, a 16.7% subjects with natural ventilation in their
98 Sustainable and Healthy Built Environment

Natural Ventilation = Health + Individual Productivity

Per capita health services use and absenteeism
Preziosi et al 2004 in naturally ventilated vs. mechanically ventilated buildings
In a 2004 multiple building study of 4.5
professional middle-aged women in 4 Natural ventilation
France, Preziosi et al identify a Air conditioning
3.5
57.1% reduction in sickness absence,
a 16.7% reduction in medical services use 3
(doctor visits), and a 34.8% reduction in 2.5
hospital stays among subjects with
2
natural ventilation in their workplace, as
compared to those with air conditioning. 1.5

1
First cost increase: $1,000 / employee
Annual health savings: $181 / employee 0.5
Annual productivity savings: $85 / employee 0
ROI: 27% Doctor’s Hospital Sickness
visits stays absence
(number) (days) (days)

Reference: Preziosi P., S.Czernilchow, P.Gehanne, and S. Hercberg (2004) Workplace air-conditioning and health
services attendance among French middle-aged women: a prospective cohort study. International Journal of
Epidemiology, 33(5). pp. 1120-1123.
Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics, a NSF/IUCRC, and ABSIC at Carnegie Mellon

Natural Ventilation = Health

London Hospitals / Kelland 1992 (Wargocki et al 2000)
SBS symptom prevalence at a naturally ventilated
In a 1992 multiple building study of and a mechanically ventilated hospital
two London hospitals, Kelland 45%
identifies a 40% reduction in sick RFH (mech, vent)
40%
building syndrome (SBS) symptoms MH (net vent)
% reporting symptom

35%
among staff of a naturally ventilated
hospital, as compared to those of a 30%
mechanically ventilated hospital. 25%

In a 2000 study, Wargocki et al identify a 20%

1.1% increase in productivity for every 15%
10% reduction in SBS complaints, 10%
suggesting a 4.4% productivity gain due 5%
to natural ventilation.
0%
First cost increase: $543 / employee in at he es rgy ess ose ose sea
sk ro ac ey tha n
Annual productivity savings: $1,980 / employee ry th d e si y n y n Nau
D re ea or Le row nn tuff
ROI: 365% So H S D Ru S

Reference: Kelland, P (1992) Sick Building Syndrome, Working Environments and Hospital Staff. Indoor Environment,
v1, PP.335-340; Wargocki, P, Wyon, D, and Fanger, P.O. (2000) Pollution Source Control and Ventilation Improve Health,
Comfort and Productivity. In Proceedings of Cold Climate HVAC 2000, Sapporo, Japan, November 1-3 2000, pp. 445-450.

Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics, a NSF/IUCRC, and ABSIC at Carnegie Mellon

Sustainable and Healthy Built Environment, and doctor visits in buildings with natural ventilation as
Fig. 6 Kelland identified a reduction in hospital staff compared to those with mechanical ventilation or air
SBS, and Preziosi identified reductions in absenteeism conditioning
Sustainable and Healthy Built Environment
workplace, as compared to those with air condi-
tioning only (see Fig. 6). In a 2007 study of
104 child care centers in Singapore, Zuraimi
et al. identify a 10.7% decrease in cough with
cold/flu symptoms, a 31% decrease in phlegm
with cold/flu, a 27.3% decrease in coughing
attacks lasting more than 1 week, and a 33.3%
decrease in lower respiratory illness in children
attending naturally ventilated child care centers as
opposed to centers with hybrid ventilation [26].
While operable windows can bring in higher
quantities of outside air, they can also bring in
unwanted outdoor pollution, humidity, rain, and
noise. The pros and cons of increasing outside air
rates through natural versus mechanical means are
outlined in Fig. 3, with a nod to the value of
natural ventilation, especially given the variable
long-term performance of HVAC systems and
controls in operation (Fig. 7).
The design decisions central to ensuring day-
light, view, and natural ventilation include
increasing surface area with thinner floor plates
and resolving glare, overheating, heat loss, and
rain penetration through appropriate enclosure
design. In some respects, sustainable, healthy
buildings have many of the characteristics of sus-
tainable, healthy humans – they are physically fit
rather than obese (thin floor plans, finger plans,
and courtyard buildings); they have circulatory
systems that take the excess heat from the core
out to the surface (through water mullions or air
flow windows for example); and they absorb sun-
light and breathe fresh air. At the same time,
sustainable buildings are designed to reduce or
make effective use of climatic liabilities – rain,
cold and hot temperatures, diurnal temperature
Sustainable and Healthy Built Environment, Fig. 7 Operable windows are critical to long-term sustainability and
human health, so challenges should be addressed through design
99
swings, excessive sun, and freeze-thaw – with
completely regional design solutions.
Linking sustainable building massing and enclosure
guidelines with health
• Design for daylighting without glare to support visual
acuity and reduce headaches
• Design for natural ventilation without drafts and rain
penetration to reduce respiratory symptoms
• Engineer thermal load balancing to eliminate radiant
asymmetry associated with arthritis and circulatory
disorders
• Design for passive solar heating where climate
appropriate for thermal comfort and UV benefits
• Design enclosure integrity to eliminate mold affecting
SBS, respiratory/allergy, and asthma
Sustainable HVAC for Health
The design of heating, ventilation, and air condi-
tioning systems (HVAC) for human health is
based on at least three improvements in individual
occupant conditions: increased outside air rates
and filtration, improved moisture/humidity con-
trol, and improved thermal comfort control.
In addition to managing sources of pollution,
healthy indoor air is dependent on a commitment
to improving the quality and quantity of outside
air. Increasing outside ventilation rates for health
has substantial research justification – a doubling
or tripling of code requirements for outside air
measurably reduces headaches, colds, flus, nasal
symptoms, coughs, and SBS symptoms
[27–36]. Increasing outside air rates without
energy penalty may be achieved by maximizing
natural ventilation; by mixed-mode HVAC sys-
tems that support natural ventilation; by designing
100
HVAC systems with separate ventilation air and
thermal conditioning systems, which permits ther-
mal conditioning to be water or air based; or by
increasing outside air quantities with effective
filtration and heat recovery for energy efficiency.
In a meta-analysis of 20 ventilation rate studies,
Seppanen, Fisk, and Mendell found that the rela-
tive risks of respiratory illnesses were 1.5–2 times
higher in low ventilation rate buildings (below
10 L/s/person) as compared to high ventilation
rate buildings (up to 20 L/s/person), alongside a
1.1–6 higher risk of sick building syndrome
symptoms in low ventilation rate buildings [37].
A recent international study of papers published
in peer-reviewed scientific journals identified a “bio-
logical plausibility for an association of health out-
comes with ventilation rates” [38]. Higher ventilation
rates in offices, up to about 25 L/s per person, are
associated with reduced prevalence of sick building
syndrome (SBS) symptoms. The limited available
data also suggest that inflammation, respiratory
infections, asthma symptoms, and short-term sick
leave decrease with higher ventilation rates. Home
ventilation rates above 0.5 air changes per hour (h 1)
have been associated with a reduced risk of allergic
manifestations among children in a Nordic climate.
However, the literature does not provide clear evi-
dence on particular agent(s) for the effects. The need
remains for more studies of the relationship between
ventilation rates and health impacts, especially in
diverse climates, in locations with polluted outdoor
air, and in buildings other than offices.
To ensure ventilation effectiveness, the ventila-
tion system must be designed to provide air to the
individual with “task” air systems, ideally with
some level of individual control to address local
pollutant buildup. In a 2002 controlled experiment,
Kaczmarczyk et al. identify a 23.5% reduction in
headache symptoms when workers are provided
with individually controlled task air systems supply-
ing outdoor air, as compared to a conventional
mixing ventilation system, in a room with a typical
office pollutant source [39] (see Fig. 8). In a building
intervention study in 39 Swedish schools, Smedje
and Norback identify a 69% reduction in the 2-year
incidence of asthma among students in schools that
received a new displacement ventilation system
with increased fresh air supply rates, as compared
Sustainable and Healthy Built Environment
to students in schools that did not receive a new
ventilation system (see Fig. 8, [34]. Both of these
studies reveal the health benefits of ensuring that
fresh air reaches the nose of every occupant. At the
same time, a healthy HVAC system must guarantee
outdoor and indoor pollution source control through
better building design, interior design, as well as
HVAC configuration, filtration, and maintenance.
In a 2003 multiple building study of three Montreal
office buildings, Menzies et al. identify a 25%
reduction in reported mucosal symptoms and a
25% reduction in reported respiratory symptoms
due to ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI) of
drip pans and cooling coils within ventilation sys-
tems [40]. Additional studies are critically needed to
address the importance of both filtration and ongo-
ing HVAC maintenance for human health.
The CBPD has summarized a range of interna-
tional case studies that link high-performance
ventilation strategies to 10–90% reductions in
respiratory illnesses, including asthma and aller-
gies, as well as studies that demonstrate reduc-
tions in SBS, headaches, flus, and colds (see
Fig. 9). In these studies, the critical HVAC
improvements are increasing outside air rates,
ensuring mold/moisture control and air stream
management and maintenance, as well as ensuring
quality filtration. In addition to health benefits, the
CBPD has identified studies that link individual
productivity gains of 1.7–11% to high-
performance ventilation strategies. Studies also
reveal that the energy penalty for increasing out-
side air rates can be easily eliminated with heat
recovery or the use of mixed-mode ventilation and
conditioning, to generate up to 50–80% energy
savings in sustainable HVAC systems (CBPD).
Sustainable HVAC systems must also be
designed to provide individual thermal controls.
Several laboratory and field experiments link tem-
perature control to individual productivity gains
between 0.2% and 7% to 15% energy savings
through task thermal conditioning (CBPD) and to
reduced headache and SBS symptoms [39, 41]. The
challenges for HVAC design for thermal comfort are
to design for dynamic thermal zone sizes
(anticipating changing density and uses), provide
individual thermal controls (separating thermal and
air delivery);, design for building load balancing and
Sustainable and Healthy Built Environment 101

Floor-based ventilation + Increased outside air = Health

Smedje & Norback 2000 (School)
Two-year incidence of symptoms in students attending
schools with and without new ventilation systems
In a 2000 multiple building study of 39 14
schools in Sweden, Smedje and New ventilation system
Norback identify a 69% reduction in 12 No New ventilation system
the 2-year incidence of asthma among
10
students in schools that received a
new displacement ventilation system 8
with increased fresh air supply rates,
6
as compared to students in schools
that did not receive a new ventilation 4
system.
2
First cost increase: $38 / student
Annual energy cost increase: $2 / student 0
Pollen/pet Asthma ever Current Any asthma More asthma
Annual health savings: $36 / student allergy asthma symptoms symptoms
ROI: 89% in 1995 than
1993
Reference: Smedje. G and Norback, D.(2000) New ventilation systems at select schools in Sweden–Ettects on Asthma
and Exposure. Archives of Environmental Health, 35(1), pp. 18-25.
Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics, a NSF/IUCRC. and ABSIC at Carnegie Mellon

Individual air control + Increased outside air = Health

Kaczmarczyk et al 2002
Reported headache symptoms by type of
In a 2002 controlled experiment, ventilation system
Kaczmarczyk et al identify a 23.5%
reduction in headache symptoms Severe headache 20
when workers are provided with 18
individually-controlled task air 16
systems supplying outdoor air, as 14
compared to a conventional 12
mixing ventilation system, in a 10
8
room with a typical office pollutant
6
source.
4
First cost increase: $800 / employee
$8 / employee 2
Annual energy cost increase:
Annual health savings: $17 / employee No headache 0
Task air, 20;C Task air, 23;C Task air, 23;C Mixing
Annual productivity savings: $106 / employee fresh fresh recirculated ventilation,
ROI: 14% 23;C

Reference: Kaczmarczk, J., Zeng. Q., Melikov. A., and Fanger. P.O. (2002) The effect of a personalized ventilation system on
perceived air quality and SBS symptoms. In Proceedings of Indoor Air 2002, Monterey. CA. June 30-July 5, 2002; Office of
Pollution Prevention and Toxics, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Cost of Illness Handbook. http://www.epa. gov/oppt/coi;
Schwartz et al (1997) Lost Workdays and Reduced Work Effectiveness Associated with Headache in the Workplace.
Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. 39(4). pp. 320-327.

Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics, a NSF/IUCRC, and ABSIC at Carnegie Mellon

Sustainable and Healthy Built Environment, Kaczmarczyk [39] identifies a 23.5% reduction in head-
Fig. 8 Smedje and Norback [34] identify a 69% reduction ache symptoms in offices when ventilation is delivered
in 2-year incidences of asthma in schoolchildren, and more effectively to individuals
 102

Sustainable and Healthy Built Environment, Fig. 9 A range of international case studies link improvements in HVAC to reduce colds, headaches, respiratory, mucosal, and
SBS symptoms
Sustainable and Healthy Built Environment
Sustainable and Healthy Built Environment
radiant comfort, and, finally, engineer and prototype
robust systems that provide air quality and thermal
comfort consistently in the field, over time.
Linking sustainable HVAC guidelines with health
• Increase outside air rates, through natural ventilation or
HVAC systems with heat recovery – To reduce
respiratory, allergy, asthma, colds, headaches, and SBS
• Engineer ventilation effectiveness, including air path
and filtration management – To reduce respiratory,
throat, and mucosal symptoms
• Engineer moisture/humidity management – To reduce
mold affecting respiratory illnesses, colds, and SBS
• Separate ventilation and thermal conditioning systems
for individual thermal control – To reduce headaches
and SBS symptoms and to support local temperature
and air quality control
Sustainable Lighting for Health
Sustainable design must maximize the use of day-
light for both sustainability and health, as long as it
can be provided without glare and excessive heat
loss or heat gain. Daylight can provide the higher
light levels needed for fine work, improve color
rendition and sculptural definition, give full spec-
trum and ultraviolet content that might be critical to
circadian rhythms, and provide access to views of
nature. Subsequently, electric lighting systems
have the responsibility to effectively interface
with daylight to meet the needs of specific tasks
and provide the appropriate quantity and quality of
light when daylight is not available. To this end,
sustainable lighting is dependent on selecting the
highest-quality lighting fixtures, lamps, ballasts,
reflectors, lenses, and controls to light each specific
task or task surface in an energy-effective manner.
The benefits of well-designed daylight for
human health have been previously discussed. If
daylight is well designed to control glare and
brightness contrast, it is a low-energy source that
can significantly improve task performance and
reduce headaches. In addition, the spectral distri-
bution of daylight, critical to plant health, as well
as time-of-day variations in light, may have a
measurable impact on our circadian rhythms that
impact sleep cycles and energy levels. Finally, as
previously discussed, views that may be associ-
ated with daylight sources may have a measurable
103
impact on reducing depression and SBS symp-
toms, while improving hospital recovery rates.
The high-quality lighting fixtures, lamps, ballasts,
reflectors, lenses, and controls to light each specific
task or task surface also have measurable benefits for
human health. For example, in a 1989 controlled
field experiment at a government legal office in the
UK, Wilkins et al. identify a 74% reduction in the
incidence of headaches among office workers when
magnetic ballasts are replaced by high-frequency
electronic ballasts (see Fig. 10) [42].
Given the shift from paper-based to computer-
based tasks, lighting design must be improved for
task performance, for energy effectiveness, and for
human health. Sustainable lighting design supports
the separation of task and ambient lighting – to
enable lower overall ambient light levels at
200–300 lux for computer-based work and face-to-
face discussions and to be augmented by higher task
light levels at 500–800 lux for fine print work. In a
1998 multiple building study in Germany, Çakir and
Çakir identify a 19% reduction in headaches for
workers with separate task and ambient lighting, as
compared to workers with ceiling-only combined
task and ambient lighting (see Fig. 10) [43].
Three international case studies demonstrate that
improved lighting design reduces headache symp-
toms, as shown in Fig. 11. The CBPD has also
identified 12 international case studies that indicate
that improved lighting design increases individual
productivity between 0.7% and 23% while reducing
annual energy loads by 27–88% (CBPD).
Linking sustainable lighting guidelines with health
• Design for daylighting without glare to support visual
acuity, color rendition, circadian rhythms, and view
content to reduce headaches and hospital length of stay
• Specify high-performance fixtures for maximum
lumens/watt, reduced glare, shadowing, and noise and
to reduce headaches
• Separate ambient and task lighting delivery to match
light levels to task and provide individual control
Sustainable Interior Systems for Health:
Materials and Ergonomics
Among a range of interior design decisions that
affect both sustainability and productivity, at least
104 Sustainable and Healthy Built Environment

High Performance Luminaires = Health

Wilkins et al 1989
In a 1989 controlled filed Frequecny of headaches among
experiment at a government employees
legal office in the UK, Wilkins et 40
al identify a 74% reduction in the

reporting symptom per week

incidence of headaches among
office workers when magnetic 30
ballasts are replaced by high
frequency electronic ballasts.
20

First cost increase: $109 / employee 10

Annual health savings: $54 / employee
Annual productivity savings
from reduced headaches: $333 / employee 0
ROI: 355% Electronic ballasts Magnetic ballasts

Referecne: Wilkins, AJ, Nimmo-smith, I, Slater, AI, Bedocs, L. (1989)Fluorescent lighting, headches and eyestrain.
Lighting Research and Technology 21(1), PP. 300-307.
Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics, a NSF/IUCRC, and ABSIC at Carnegie Mellon

Lighting control = Individual productivity + Health

Cakir and Cakir 1988 Influence of lighting on the degree of disturbance to
health (1=no disturbance, 4=strong disturbacne)
In a 1988 multiple building study in 4
Germany, Cakir and Cakir identify a
Degree of Impairment

19% reduction in headaches for

workers with separate task and 3
ambient lighting, as compared to
workers with ceiling-only combined
task and ambient lighting. 2

First cost increase: $314 / employee

Annual health savings: $14 / employee 1
Annual productiviy savings: $87 / employee Table lamp Overhead Ceiling
ROI: 32%

Reference: Cakir, A.E. and Cakir, G. (1998) Light and Health: Influences of Lighting on Health and Well-being of Office
and Computer Workers, Ergonomic, Berlin
Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics, a NSF/IUCRC, and ABSIC at Carnegie Mellon

Sustainable and Healthy Built Environment, identified 19% reduction in headaches with the separation
Fig. 10 Wilkins identified a 74% reduction in headaches of ambient and task lighting
with updated lighting ballasts, and Cakir and Cakir

three design decisions also have measurable
health impacts – healthy material selection, acous-
tic/noise management, and the ergonomics of fur-
niture and space layout.
Interior material selection is critical to thermal
performance, air quality (due to outgassing), toxicity
in fires, cancer-causing fibers, and mold growth,
which in turn impact our respiratory and digestive
systems, our eyes and skin. The CBPD has identified
six studies linking materials selection to health out-
comes including SBS, mucosal irritation, allergies,
and asthma (see Fig. 12, [44–49]. In a 1996 study of
80 homes in Victoria, Australia, Garrett et al. identify
a 60% reduction in the prevalence of asthma and a
63% reduction in the prevalence of allergies among
children whose homes contain formaldehyde-free
Sustainable and Healthy Built Environment 105

Sustainable and Healthy Health Benefits of High Performance Lighting

Built Environment, 100%

CBPD ABSIC BIDSTM

Fig. 11 Case studies link
improvements in lighting – 90%
ballast quality and fewer headaches
individual control – to 80%
reduced headache 74%
symptoms 70%

60%

50%

40%

30% 27%

19%
20%

10% user controlled high frequency split task and

indirect/direct fixtures electronic ballasts ambient lighitng
0%
Aaras et al 1998 [46] Wilkins et al 1989 [47] Cakir & Cakir 1998 [48]

Health Benefits of High Quality Interior Materials

100%

CBPD ABSIC BIDSTM

fewer SBS symptoms
90%
85%

80%
fewer allergies
reduced asthma
70%
63%
60%
60%

50% 47%

40%
23%
fewer
30% mucosal
24% symptoms
20%
20%
14%

10%

0%
Wargocki 1998

Jaakkola et al

Jaakkola et al

Jaakkola et al
Liu et al 1996

Garrett et al 1996

Garrett et al 1996

Wieslander et al
1994 [52]

1999 [55]

1994 [52]
1997 [54]
[51]
[50]

[53]

[53]

Sustainable and Healthy Built Environment, Fig. 12 A number of international studies link the quality of building
materials and assemblies to allergies, asthma, SBS, and mucosal symptoms
106
composite wood products, as compared to those
exposed to formaldehyde from furnishings and prod-
ucts in their home [44]. While sustainable design
depends on the use of materials and assemblies that
support healthy indoor environments, it also man-
dates the selection of materials with low-embodied
and transportation energy, since these environmental
costs carry secondary health concerns.
The most rapidly emerging body of research
linking interior materials and health may be
related to the microbial infections transferred by
contact with surfaces, door handles, faucets, key-
boards, telephones, even elevator buttons, and the
importance of hands-free design and frequent
hand washing. One study by Rheinbaben et al.
identified that viruses can be transferred to six
people successively from contaminated door han-
dles in a household or dormitory setting [50]. Con-
tact infection can be partially addressed through
hand washing and green cleaning techniques as
well as through hands-free design innovations for
shared facilities and equipment. The seriousness
of microbial infections from surfaces as well as
from water- and airborne sources is the subject of
a 2017 US National Academy of Sciences study.
Managing acoustic quality in indoor environ-
ments is critical to both productivity and human
health. The importance of reducing unnecessary
noise sources while ensuring appropriate sound
transmission must continue to be a major require-
ment for high-performance and sustainable indoor
environments. In a 2002 study of ten volunteer
teachers from ten randomly selected preschools in
Stockholm, Sweden, Sodersten et al. identify an
11% reduction in vocal strain among teachers in
classrooms with background noise levels of
55 dBA, as compared to those in classrooms with
background noise levels of 75 dBA [51]. Managing
unnecessary background noise and ensuring appro-
priate and necessary sound distribution are as critical
to defining indoor environmental quality (IEQ) as
visual, thermal, and air quality.
While less tied to today’s definition of sustain-
ability, the importance of ergonomic furniture and
space configuration for human health must continue
to be emphasized in the design of high-performance
indoor environments. Given the growing preponder-
ance of computer-based work today, work surfaces,
chairs, keyboards, and mouse design must be
Sustainable and Healthy Built Environment
ergonomically designed to reduce musculoskeletal
disorders (MSD). According to a Washington State
study, 1.7–3.2% of MSD complaints result in med-
ical costs averaging $22,000 per affected occupant
and in many cases permanent consequences for the
employee [52]. The CBPD has identified seven
international case studies that demonstrate that ergo-
nomic workstations reduce MSD symptoms
between 48% and 84% (Fig. 13) [53–59].
Ergonomic design goes beyond anthropometric
concerns, however, to also address building layout
and densities that support human health and produc-
tivity. Jaakkola and Heinonen [60] identified a 35%
lower rate of colds among occupants of individual
offices, compared to those in shared offices. John
Templer [61], the author of a two-volume reference
on Stairs, carefully illustrates critical design deci-
sions for stairs, ramps, curbs, and surfaces to reduce
the frequency of falls, the most frequent cause of
injury and death in buildings.
Moving beyond the importance of land use and
community design to increased physical activity
and health, interior design also plays a major role.
The New York City public health department has
developed design guidelines to promote physical
activity in new and existing buildings in an effort
to address obesity and its related diseases (https://
centerforactivedesign.org/impactreport). These
Active Design Guidelines have led to a collabora-
tion with the US Center for Disease Control in the
development of the FITWEL standard for creating
healthier buildings, streets, and urban spaces,
based on the latest academic research and best
practices in the field. The role of interior architec-
ture, engineering, and design for human health is
significant and suggests a rich mix of critical
design guidelines for improved human health
over time.
Linking sustainable material guidelines with health
• Specify materials that do not irritate the skin with
contact to avoid dermatological conditions
• Specify materials that do not outgas toxins to avoid
respiratory/allergy and asthma
• Specify materials that do not degenerate into respirable
fibers or emit radon to avoid cancers
• Specify materials that are not fire hazards causing
respiratory illness or death
• Specify materials that do not foster mold or mildew
leading to respiratory symptoms
(continued)
Sustainable and Healthy Built Environment 107

Musculoskeletal Disorder Reduction due to Ergonomic Improvements

100%

CBPD ABSIC BIDSTM

Ergonomic chair and workstation + ergonomic training
90%
82.0%
80.0% 80.0%
80%

60.0%
70% adjustable
57.0% keyboard
63.0%
fixed-split tray
60% keyboard 48.0%
ergonomic
%Reduction

chair +
50% training

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%
USGAO 1997 OSHA 1999 Ignatius and OSHA [63] Zecevic and Hedge et al Amick et al
[60] [61] Fryer 1994 [62] Harburn 2000 1999 [65] 2003 [66]
[64]

Sustainable and Healthy Built Environment, Fig. 13 A number of international studies link musculoskeletal
disorder reduction to ergonomic improvements

Linking sustainable material guidelines with health

• Specify materials with low-embodied energy and low
transportation costs to reduce outdoor air pollution
• Specify furniture ergonomics to reduce musculoskeletal
disorders (MSD)
• Design spatial layout/density to reduce transmission of
contagious illnesses (flus, colds)
• Design spatial layout to reduce falls and tripping
• Design layout and specify surfaces to reduce infections
transferred by contact with hands-free design
• Design spatial layout for enhanced physical activity to
reduce obesity and related health concerns
Sustainable Maintenance and
Operations for Health
Needless to say, each of these design guidelines will
become obsolete if there is no commitment to long-
term maintenance and operational standards. The
building enclosure, HVAC, and lighting systems
must be continuously commissioned to maintain
the healthy conditions intended. Standing water,
dampness, and mold must be prevented. Occupant
densities must be managed, and furniture and fin-
ishes must continue to meet the latest health stan-
dards. In the past few years, important standards,
declarations, and certifications relative to environ-
mental and human health of materials and products
have emerged for the building design and manage-
ment community. An EPD® (Environmental Prod-
uct Declaration) is an independently verified and
registered document that communicates transparent
and comparable information about the life cycle
environmental impact of products. The HPD Open
Standard provides specification for the accurate, reli-
able, and consistent reporting of product contents
and associated health information for products used
in the built environment. Declare™ is a transparency
platform and product database that is changing the
materials marketplace by capturing information on
where a product comes from, what it is made of, and
where it goes at the end of its life. The Cradle to
Cradle Certified™ Product Standard guides
designers and manufacturers through a continual
108
improvement process that looks at a product
through five quality categories — material
health, material reutilization, renewable energy
and carbon management, water stewardship, and
social fairness. In addition, human activities in
buildings and the products that occupants bring
in must also be selected for health. Cleaning
supplies, plants, fertilizers and herbicides, and
office and teaching supplies must all be environ-
mentally benign. In addition, food and water
quality should be monitored for health, includ-
ing guidelines for vending machines. Waste
must be effectively managed since it is a natural
breeding ground for roaches, rodents, and other
pests and an opportunity for recycling or
composting. While this research team has not
evaluated the studies that may link poor mainte-
nance and operation practices to health con-
cerns, it is clear that degradation in as-built
performance can result in health consequences
equally serious as those of poor design, engi-
neering, and construction.
Sustainable and Healthy Built Environment,
Fig. 14 The true cost of business extends well beyond
mortgage and energy costs, to include salaries, benefits,
Sustainable and Healthy Built Environment
Calculating the Life Cycle Benefits of
Sustainable Design and Health
The work of the faculty, researchers, and graduate
students of the Center for Building Performance
and Diagnostics at Carnegie Mellon and the
Advanced Building Systems Integration Consor-
tium extends beyond the pursuit of building case
studies that link the quality of buildings to pro-
ductivity, health, and life cycle sustainability. The
development of the BIDS™ tool is based on the
identification of economic, environmental, and
human life cycle cost benefits related to buildings
and communities in order to calculate the return
on investment of high-performance building sys-
tems (see http://cbpd.arc.cmu.edu/ebids). Figure 14
helps to reveal the diverse building-related costs
of doing business in US offices, including salaries
and health benefits, technological and spatial
churn, rent, energy, and maintenance costs. This
cost is normalized in dollars per person per year,
technological and spatial churn. Improving the quality of
the built environment can be offset by sustained health
benefits
Sustainable and Healthy Built Environment 109

rather than cost per square foot, since the
employee represents both the greatest cost and
the greatest asset to an organization.
The CBPD research identified that across inde-
pendent nonprofit organizations, human resource
research firms, and the US government, the aver-
age employer cost for health insurance was
approximately $5000 per employee per year in
2003 [62–66]. Within this $5000 expense, the
CBPD continues to identify the cost of health
conditions and illnesses that can be linked to the
quality of the indoor environment, including
colds, headaches, respiratory illnesses, musculo-
skeletal disorders, and back pain (shown in
Fig. 14), which account for roughly $750 of the
$5000 annually spent per employee or 14% of all
annual health insurance expenditures.
The direct costs for medical attention and phar-
maceuticals would be multiplied further with the
indirect costs of reduced speed and accuracy on
task and lost work time due to absenteeism.
Beyond the organizational and human costs of
worker absenteeism, however, Paul Kemp in Har-
vard Business Review introduced the term “pre-
senteeism” to reflect the more typical and serious
condition of individuals coming to work sick
because they cannot afford to miss more work
hours or important meetings [67]. While the
measured costs of presenteeism are not well
documented, there is a modest literature to help
quantify the effective work time that is lost on the
job due to headaches, colds, flus, and back pain
(see Fig. 15), [68].
The importance of quantifying the financial,
environmental, as well as human health and pro-
ductivity impacts of design decisions is critical to
the advancement of sustainable buildings and
communities. In his 1998 book Cannibals with
Forks: The Triple Bottom Line of 21st Century
Business, John Elkington [69] introduces the
importance of adding social and environmental
impacts to economic performance in a triple net
present value calculation. To accomplish this, it is
critical to quantify the environmental costs of
using energy and raw materials without caution,
as well as the human health and performance costs
of poor land use planning and building design and
operation. For the past 10 years, the CMU Center
for Building Performance and Diagnostics has
been building the economic baselines for triple
bottom line calculations for offices, schools, and
hospitals (see Fig. 16).
For example, the calculation of life cycle ben-
efits of better design, engineering, and manage-
ment of hospitals would include variables such as
the average length of stay per illness, at 4.6 days

Average Aggregate
productivity ammual
Condition Prevalence loss loss
MEDICAL and
Migraine 12.0% 4.9% $434,385
PHARMACEUTICAL
24%($116.2M)
Arthritis 19.7 5.9 865,530
DIRECT MEDICAL COSTS
INDIRECT MEDICAL COSTS Chronic lower-back pain
PRESENTEEISM (without leg rain) 21.3 5.5 858,825
63%($311.8M)
Allergies or sinus trouble 59.8 4.1 1,809,945

Asthma 6.8 5.2 259,740

Long-term
disability
1% [$6M] GERD (acid reflux disease) 15.2 5.2 582,660

Dermatitis or other 16.1 5.2 610,740

skin condition

Flu in the past two weeks 17.5 4.7 607,005

Absenteeism Short-term
6% ($27M) disability Depression 13.9 7.6 786,600
6% ($27M)
Source: Debra Lerner, William M. Rogers, and Mong Chang, & Tofts-New England Medical Center
Source: Back One
Figures are based on annual data for 2000 workers’ compensation
accounted for less than 7% of indirect medical costs

Sustainable and Healthy Built Environment, Fig. 15 While absenteeism is a cost of business, presenteeism –
coming to work with colds, flus, and back pain, for example – may have an even greater impact on the bottom line
110
Sustainable and Healthy Built Environment, Fig. 16 Measuring “productivity and health” in different building
types will require careful identification of critical outcomes and consistent data collection
per patient in US hospitals [70]; average cost of
hospital stay, set at $1217 per day in US hospitals
[71]; patient reinfection rates, estimated at 2.16/
10,000 patient days in US hospitals [72]; average
cost of these nosocomial infections, estimated at
$27,000 plus 12-day increase in hospital stay
[73]; and the average cost of nurse turnover, at
$13,800 per nurse per year [74–76]. The magni-
tude of these costs would clearly justify signifi-
cant investment and reinvestment in the quality
of hospitals to ensure long-term health and
productivity.
Cars and laptops are purchased with far more
comprehensive life cycle considerations than build-
ings, and yet the life span of cars and laptops are
often 5 years or less. Since buildings are built for
30, 50, or even hundreds of years, it is imperative that
the client and design community begin to address life
cycle costs of materials, components, and integrated
systems with triple bottom line decision-making to
ensure the sustainability of economic, environmen-
tal, and human health and productivity.
Triple Bottom Line (TBL) accounting can
transform the value engineering process by intro-
ducing the environmental and human benefits of
investing in better building materials and assem-
blies. For example, to significantly improve visual
health and visual performance, the benefits of
lowering ambient light levels for today’s domi-
nantly computer-based tasks, and adding task
lights for the occasional paper task, result in pay-
back periods shortening from 3 years to 2 years to
8 months (see Fig. 17 [77–79]). The CMU Center
for Building Performance and Diagnostics has
been developing TBL calculations for a range of
Sustainable and Healthy Built Environment
high-performance building systems that impact
human health, to encourage investment to move
beyond first, least-cost decision-making.
Health and the Built Environment:
A Research Mandate
Sustainability is in truth all about health. Energy/
material extraction and use as well as atmospheric,
water, and land pollution are as significantly health-
related issues as they are environmental conserva-
tion issues. Certainly the design and maintenance of
building enclosures, HVAC, lighting, and interior
systems are directly linked to our short- and long-
term health, as the evidence collected in this chapter
has begun to prove. Human health in relation to the
built environment is one of the most critically
needed research efforts, requiring both extensive
experimental and field research efforts. Controlled
laboratory experiments need to be carried out simul-
taneously with experiments in the field – to map
chains of consequence – and identify possible
building-related causes for respiratory, digestive,
circadian, musculoskeletal, circulatory, and nervous
system illnesses, as well as other health-related con-
cerns. Yet in the USA, at least, there is remarkably
little federal investment in defining and valuing
healthy buildings and communities.
One cannot overstress the importance of defining
key national and international research directions for
addressing the impact of the built environment on
health. Bringing together emerging knowledge
about the importance of land use, building
Sustainable and Healthy Built Environment 111

+
Costs to Reduce Ambient Lighting and Add Task Lights
Per sq ft Per employee
Cost for reducing ambient light levels $0.16 $32
Cost for LED desk lamp $0.82 $164
First cost for the investment $0.98 $196
Initial Investment costs for a 100,000 sq ft building $98,000

1st Financial Capital savings

Per sq ft Per employee
Energy savings (40%)1 $0.27 $54
O & M Savings2 $0.05 $10
Annual 1st bottom line savings total +$0.32 +$64
Cumulative ROI (Financial) 32%
Payback Period 3 years
15 year Net Present Value $244,000

2nd Financial + Natural Capital savings

Per sq ft Per employee
Environmental benefits from energy savings of: 2.71 kWh 542 kWh
Air pollution emissions (SOX, NOX, PM)3 $0.04 $9
CO2 reductions 3 $0.03 $5
Water savings 4,5,6 $0.01 $2
Annual 2nd bottom line savings +$0.08 +$16
Cumulative ROI (Financial + Natural) 41%
Payback Period 2 years
15 year Net Present Value $305,860

3rd Financial + Natural + Human capital savings of Reducing Ambient and Adding Task
Per sq ft Per employee
Absenteeism reduction (1%)7 $0.03 $6
Productivity increase (11%)8 $0.90 $180
Health benefits (19%)9 $0.07 $14
Annual 3rd bottom line savings $1.00 $200
Cumulative ROI
140%
(Economic + Environment+ Equity)
Payback Period 8 months
15 year Net Present Value (10% discount rate) $1,058,550

Sustainable and Healthy Built Environment, Fig. 17 the health and productivity benefits, in this case for reduc-
(Triple Bottom Line) Calculations enable decision-makers ing ambient light levels and adding task lights for visual
to see the rapid reductions in payback periods, and the health and performance [77–79]
substantial increases in 15 year net present value, given

enclosure, HVAC, lighting, and interior design deci- deliver the highest-quality air, thermal control,
sions, with the life cycle justifications to ensure their light, ergonomics, and acoustic quality, as well as
implementation, is critically needed. Sustainable regionally appropriate access to the natural environ-
buildings and communities have the potential to ment, which are integral to human health.
112
In the face of rapid changes in the built envi-
ronment, the importance of proving that sustain-
able design and engineering improves health,
productivity, and quality of life has never been
more important. Indeed, the advances most criti-
cally needed for environmental sustainability will
constantly be slowed by least first-cost decision-
making, unless the health-related benefits of sus-
tainable buildings and communities are defini-
tively revealed.
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Regenerative Development
and Design
Pamela Mang1 and Bill Reed2
1
Regenesis Group, Santa Fe, NM, USA
2
Regenesis Group, Arlington, MA, USA
Article Outline
Definition of Regenerative Design and Its
Importance
Introduction
Regenerative Development and Design:
Redefining Sustainability
Overview: Ecological Sustainability and
Regenerative Development and Design
Regenerative Approaches to Sustainable
Development and Design: Key Framework
Premises and Methods Overview
Future Directions
Bibliography
Glossary
Biomimicry Sometimes called biomimetic
design; an emerging design discipline that looks
to nature for sustainable design solutions [1].
Cradle-to-cradle Framework for designing
manufacturing processes “powered by renew-
able energy, in which materials flow in safe,
regenerative, closed-loop cycles,” and which
“identifies three key design principles in the
intelligence of natural systems, which can inform
human design: Waste Equals Food; Use Current
Solar Income; Celebrate Diversity” [2, 3]
Ecoliteracy The ability to understand the natural
systems that make life on earth possible, includ-
ing understanding the principles of organization
of ecological communities (i.e., ecosystems) and
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
V. Loftness (ed.), Sustainable Built Environments,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-0684-1_303
Originally published in
R. A. Meyers (ed.), Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology, © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC,
part of Springer Nature 2019, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2493-6_303-4
using those principles for creating sustainable
human communities [4, 5].
Ecological sustainability A biocentric school of
sustainability thinking that, based on ecology and
living systems principles, focuses on “the capacity
of ecosystems to maintain their essential functions
and processes, and retain their biodiversity in full
measure over the long-term”; contrasts with tech-
nological sustainability based on technical and
engineering approaches to sustainability [4].
Ecology The interdisciplinary scientific study of
the living conditions of organisms in interac-
tion with each other and with the surroundings,
organic as well as inorganic.
Ecosystem concept “A coherent framework for
redesigning our landscapes, buildings, cities,
and systems of energy, water, food,
manufacturing and waste” through “the effec-
tive adaptation to and integration with nature’s
processes.” It has been used more to shape an
approach than as a scientific theory [6, 7].
Ecosystem “The interactive system of living
things and their non-living habitat” [6].
Living systems thinking A thinking technology,
using systemic frameworks and developmental
processes, for consciously improving the
capacity to apply systems thinking to the evo-
lution of human or social living systems [8].
Locational patterns The patterns that depict the
distinctive character and potential of a place
and provide a dynamic mapping for designing
human structures and systems that align with
the living systems of a place.
Pattern literacy Being able to read, understand,
and generate (“write”) appropriate patterns.
Permaculture A contraction of permanent agri-
culture or permanent culture, permaculture
was developed as a system for designing eco-
logical human habitats and food production
systems based on the relationships and pro-
cesses found in natural ecological communi-
ties, and the relationships and adaptations of
indigenous peoples to their ecosystems [9].
115
116
Place The unique, multilayered network of ecosys-
tems within a geographic region that results from
the complex interactions through time of the
natural ecology (climate, mineral, and other
deposits, soil, vegetation, water, wildlife, etc.)
and culture (distinctive customs, expressions of
values, economic activities, forms of association,
ideas for education, traditions, etc.) [10, 11].
Regenerate American Heritage Dictionary of
the English Language and Merriam Webster
Dictionary: • To give new life or energy; to
revitalize; to bring or come into renewed exis-
tence; to impart new and more vigorous life •
To form, construct, or create a new, especially
in an improved state; to restore to a better,
higher or more worthy state; refreshed or
renewed • To reform spiritually or morally;
to improve moral condition; to invest with a
new and higher spiritual nature • To improve
a place or system, especially by making it more
active or successful
Regenerative design A system of technologies
and strategies based on an understanding of the
inner working of ecosystems that generates
designs that regenerate socio-ecological
wholes (i.e., generate anew their inherent
capacity for vitality, viability, and evolution)
rather than deplete their underlying life support
systems and resources.
Regenerative development A system of devel-
opmental technologies and strategies that works
to enhance the ability of living beings to
coevolve, so that the planet continues to express
its potential for diversity, complexity, and crea-
tivity [10] through harmonizing human activi-
ties with the continuing evolution of life on our
planet, even as we continue to develop our
potential as humans. Regenerative development
provides the framework and builds the local
capability required to ensure regenerative
design processes achieve maximum systemic
leverage and support through time.
Regenesis Collaborative Development Group –
Restorative design Sometimes called restor-
ative environmental design; a design system
that combines returning “polluted, degraded or
damaged sites back to a state of acceptable health
through human intervention” [12] with
Regenerative Development and Design
biophiliac designs that reconnect people to
nature.
Source to sink Simple linear flows from
resource sources (farms, mines, forests, water-
shed, oilfields, etc.) to sinks (air, water, land)
that deplete global sources and overload/pol-
lute global sinks [13].
Systems thinking A framework for seeing inter-
relationships rather than things, and for seeing
patterns of change rather than static “snap-
shots.” It addresses phenomena in terms of
wholeness rather than in terms of parts [5].
Definition of Regenerative Design and
Its Importance
The emerging field of regenerative development
and design marks a significant evolution in the
concept and application of sustainability. Prac-
tices in sustainable or green design have focused
primarily on minimizing damage to the environ-
ment and human health and using resources more
efficiently, in effect, slowing down the degrada-
tion of earth’s natural systems. Advocates of a
regenerative approach to the built environment
believe a much more deeply integrated, whole
systems approach to the design and construction
of buildings and human settlements (and nearly all
other human activities).
Regenerative approaches seek not only to
reverse the degeneration of the earth’s natural
systems, but also to design human systems that
can coevolve with natural systems – evolve in
a way that generates mutual benefits and
greater overall expression of life and resilience
[10, 11]. The field of regenerative development
and design, which draws inspiration from the self-
healing and self-organizing capacities of natural
living systems, is increasingly seen as a source for
achieving this end.
This field is redefining the way that proponents
of sustainability are thinking about and designing
for the built environment, and even the role of
architecture as a field. As an indication of this
growing recognition, in May 2017 the Secretary-
General of the Commonwealth of Nations
(formerly the British Commonwealth), Patricia
Regenerative Development and Design
Scotland, announced the launch of a Common-
wealth initiative to reverse climate change
through regenerative development, noting that
“Regenerative development offers ways of tack-
ling climate change on a scale and by means that
can be adopted by the most vulnerable countries,
and are appropriate to the day-to-day lives and
livelihoods of their inhabitants” [14].
Introduction
Early Roots of Regenerative Design
In the 1880s, Ebenezer Howard wrote To-mor-
row: A Peaceful Path to Social Reform.
Re-issued in 1902 as Garden Cities of To-Morrow,
with an introductory essay by Lewis Mumford,
the book was an early and influential expression
of ecological thinking applied to human settle-
ment. It sought to reconnect humans to nature,
and featured use of natural rather than engineered
processes to ensure the health of the system. His
description of a utopian city in which man lives
harmoniously with the rest of nature stimulated
the founding of the garden city movement and the
establishment of several Garden Cities in Great
Britain in the early twentieth century [13, 15].
In 1915, Patrick Geddes published his study of
the urban growth patterns stimulated by the mass
movement of people into cities [16]. Geddes, a
biologist, saw cities as living organisms. He
believed that addressing the problems of
unsustainable growth required understanding a
city’s context – the surrounding landscape’s natu-
ral features, processes, and resources – and called
for a solid analytic method for developing that
understanding. His conclusion would influence
regional planning movements across Europe and
the United States. Geddes applied the terms
Paleotechnic and Neotechnic to distinguish the
industrial era producing this destructive growth
of human settlements from the era he predicted
would follow its demise. These terms would be
picked up by John Tillman Lyle some 80 years
later to differentiate industrial era and regenera-
tive technologies. Some trace the origins of
ecological design to the work of Patrick Geddes
[7, 13].
117
Development of the Ecosystem Concept and
Ecological Perspective
In 1935, Arthur Tansley introduced an entirely
new concept to ecology in his work, “The Use
and Abuse of Vegetational Concepts and Terms”
[6]. He proposed the term ecosystem as a name for
the interactive system of living things and their
nonliving habitat, and the application of systems
science as a way to bring more scientific rigor to
the study of nature’s complexity and the effect of
human activities on that complexity. Tansley and
other organismic biologists of the period were the
first to formulate a systems view of life. Seeking a
more accurate depiction of how life ordered and
organized itself within a particular landscape or
geographic location, he posited that neither a liv-
ing organism nor its physical environment could
be thought of as separate entities: “we cannot
separate them from their special environment,
with which they form one physical system.” Two
of the most significant implications of this depic-
tion of how life structures itself was the decon-
struction of the human/nature dichotomy that had
shaped Western design thinking, and the estab-
lishment of the premise that all species are eco-
logically integrated with each other, as well as
with the abiotic constituents of their biotope or
habitat. For Tansley and other ecologists
concerned about the increasing impact of humans
on natural systems, the ecosystem offered a valu-
able framework for analyzing the effect of human
activities on natural systems and resources. In
later years, the concept was further defined or
clarified to explicitly include a social complex
(human institutions and actions) and a built com-
plex (structures and infrastructures) and became a
framework for sustainable urban planning and
development [17, 18].
In the 1950s and 1960s, Eugene and Howard
Odum laid the foundation for the development of
ecology into a modern science, based on the core
concept of the ecosystem as the fundamental
ordering structure of nature. They published the
first textbook on ecology, The Fundamentals of
Ecology, in 1953. Their work brought attention to
the importance of understanding how the earth’s
ecological systems interact with one another.
Howard Odum further developed a number of
118
key theoretical concepts and methodologies
including his “energy systems language,” a set
of symbols used to compose energy flow dia-
grams for any scale of system. His study of wet-
lands pioneered the now widespread approach of
using wetlands as water quality improvement eco-
systems and served as an important contribution
to the beginnings of the field of ecological
engineering [19].
New Foundations for Systems Thinking
In 1968, biologist and systems theoretician
Ludwig von Bertalanffy published his General
System Theory: Foundations, Development,
Applications. General systems theory (GST)
introduced the concept of open systems, empha-
sized the difference between physical and biolog-
ical systems, and introduced evolutionary
thinking – thinking focused on change, growth,
and development [20]. GST opened the door to a
new science of complexity. The recognition that
complex systems cannot be understood through
simple analysis led to the emergence of systems
thinking as a major scientific field, a profound
change from the analytic, reductionist mode that
had dominated Western scientific thinking since
the time of Descartes, Newton, Galisteo, and
Bacon. GST also laid the basis for the develop-
ment of living systems science.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Charles Krone, sys-
tems theorist and architect of organizational pro-
cesses and structures, developed living systems
thinking as a developmental technology for con-
sciously improving systems thinking capacity. His
work greatly extended GST and Systematics, a
discipline developed by mathematician John Ben-
nett that uses systemic frameworks to understand
complex wholes within which people are partici-
pants rather than observers. The systemic frame-
works and developmental processes Krone
generated were applied and evolved within busi-
nesses. Their purpose was to create an understand-
ing of businesses, communities, and nature as
living systems and to build the consciousness
required to create reciprocally beneficial relation-
ships through better integration of industrial, com-
munity, and natural processes. Krone’s work
served as a core foundation for the emerging
Regenerative Development and Design
Regenesis Collaborative Development Group as
they developed and evolved regenerative devel-
opment processes and technologies, starting in the
1990s [10, 21, 22]. Of particular importance in the
evolution of regenerative development was
Krone’s framework depicting four natures of
work that are essential to any living system’s
continuing capacity for evolution. The underlying
premise is that all four “are necessary in order for
an entity to sustain itself in a world that is nested,
dynamic, complex, interdependent, and evolving”
[10]. The framework defines these different levels
of work within a hierarchy (Fig. 1) in which work
at the lower levels focuses on existence (what is
already manifested), increasing performance, and
efficiency. Work at the higher levels is concerned
with potential (what could be but is not yet
manifested), introducing potential for new life
and creativity and advancing the whole. The
understanding, aims, and goals developed at the
regenerative level work guide work at the other
levels. The framework was utilized as an instru-
ment for enabling “practitioners to design for the
integrated evolution of all work” and as “a lens for
seeing how and where different sustainability
strategies fit and how they can be leveraged
when aligned around a regenerative goal” [10].
Ecological Sustainability: Foundations of
Regenerative Development and Design
In 1969, landscape architect Ian McHarg
published Design with Nature, pioneering a tech-
nology for ecological land-use planning based on
Regenerative Development and Design,
Fig. 1 Levels of work. © Regenesis Group (Reprinted
with permission)
Regenerative Development and Design
understanding natural systems [23]. His book
became a foundational textbook for the ecological
view of urban landscape design, and its basic
concepts were later developed into today’s geo-
graphic information systems (GIS) – a critical tool
for ecological development.
In 1978, Bill Mollison, an Australian ecologist,
and one of his students David Holmgren coined
the word permaculture from a contraction of per-
manent agriculture or permanent culture. They
developed the field of permaculture as an ecolog-
ical design system to promote design of human
habitats and food production systems based on the
relationships and processes found in natural eco-
logical communities. Much of the inspiration was
drawn from the relationships and adaptations of
indigenous peoples to their ecosystems. Beyond
the integration of human and natural environ-
ments, Mollison and Holmgren developed design
technologies and practices for increasingly self-
sufficient communities and food production sys-
tems. By creating “man-made ecosystems,” per-
maculture demonstrated how to provide for a host
of human needs while reducing dependence on
environmentally destructive industrial practices.
While earlier iterations of ecological design pro-
moted integration of human and natural systems
for more sustainable development, permaculture
was the first ecological design system to introduce
the concept of a regenerative effect as a new
standard of ecological performance for the built
environment. Peramaculture was based upon the
generation of a surplus or overabundance of
energy and resources that could be reinvested to
evolve natural and human living systems as an
integrated whole. In support of that goal,
Mollison’s Permaculture: A Designers’ Manual,
published in 1988, introduced a hierarchy of
investments (regenerative, generative, and degen-
erative) as a framework for assessing the value of
potential actions for building regenerative capac-
ity in a system [9].
Also in the 1980s, Robert Rodale, son of
organic agriculture pioneer J. I. Rodale, advanced
the use of the word regenerative in relation to the
use of land, calling for going beyond sustainabil-
ity to “where what we are really doing with the
American Land is not only producing our food but
119
regenerating, improving, reforming to a higher
level the American landscape and the American
Spirit” [24]. Rodale used the term to describe the
continuing organic renewal of the complex living
system that he saw as the basis for healthy soil
and, in turn, for healthy food and healthy people.
He later applied the same principle of ongoing
self-renewal to regenerative economic develop-
ment [25]. While his work did not extend to the
built environment, his principles influenced John
Tillman Lyle’s work and are foundational for
the conceptualization and application of regener-
ative methodologies to all of the systems that
support life.
In 1984, John Tillman Lyle published Design
of Human Ecosystems [26] in which he argued
that “designers must understand ecological order
operating at a variety of scales and link this under-
standing to human values if we are to create dura-
ble, responsible, beneficial designs.” He defined
human ecosystems as “places in which human
beings and nature might be brought together
again” for mutual benefit and posited conscious
ecosystemic design as essential to a sustainable
future. The book introduced several key concepts
that laid the basis for his subsequent work on
regenerative design. “Shaping ecosystems, just
like shaping buildings” requires (1) a set of orga-
nizing principles drawn from “strong concepts of
an underlying order that holds the diverse pieces
and all their hidden relations together”; (2) “these
underlying concepts of order are drawn from ecol-
ogy,” and principles for ecosystem design “need
to comprehend and envision the ecosystem the
designer is seeking to shape as a dynamic
(living) whole”; and (3) ecological concepts are
“more or less analogous to the laws of mechanics
in architecture in that they provide us with orga-
nizing principles for shaping ecosystems much as
architects shape buildings.”
Ecological Design Systems Proliferate
The 1990s was a period of intense creative fer-
ment for ecological design thinking. A number of
foundational books were published laying out
both the practical and theoretical bases of design
for ecological sustainability, including Ecological
literacy: Education and the Transition to a
120
Postmodern World by David Orr (1992), From
Eco-Cities to Living Machines: Principles of Eco-
logical Design, by Nancy Jack Todd and John
Todd (1993), The Web of Life: A New Scientific
Understanding of Living Systems by Fritjoff
Capra (1995), Ecological Design by Sim van der
Ryn and Stuart Cowan (1996), and The Ecology of
Place: Planning for Environment, Economy, and
Community by Timothy Beatley (1997).
In 1992, Educator David Orr and physicist
Fritjof Capra coined the term ecological literacy
(also referred to as ecoliteracy) to describe the
ability to understand the natural systems that
make life on earth possible, including understand-
ing the principles of organization of ecological
communities (i.e., ecosystems) and using those
principles for creating sustainable human
communities [4].
Also in the 1990s, new ecological and living
system based metrics were introduced, including
architect Malcolm Wells’ Wilderness-Based
Checklist for Design and Construction, revised
by the Society of Building Science Educators
(SBSE) [27]. Their work furthers John Tillman
Lyle’s idea that sustainable design might be
merely breaking even, while regenerative design
renews the earth resources. On a larger scale,
Pliny Fisk’s EcoBalance land use planning and
design methods employ the principle of life cycles
as a framework for sustaining basic life
supporting systems, balancing human needs with
their ability to enhance the environment, using
appropriate technologies for augmenting natural
processes [28].
Emergence of Regenerative Development and
Design as Distinct Disciplines
In 1994, John Tillman Lyle established the Center
for Regenerative Design at California State Poly-
technic University, Pomona, to test, demonstrate,
and further evolve the theory and practice of
regenerative design. His book Regenerative
Design for Sustainable Development is the first
comprehensive articulation of and handbook for
regenerative design [13]. Written as a practical
guide to the theory and design of regenerative
systems, it laid out the framework, principles,
and strategies for design aimed at reversing the
Regenerative Development and Design
environmental damage caused by what Lyle
called industrial land use practices. The book
reflected the continuing evolution of the thinking
he had been pursuing as a landscape architect,
architect, and educator.
Deeply concerned about resource depletion
and environmental degradation in “the design of
our twentieth century landscape,” Lyle believed
that at the core of the growing environmental
crises lay the simplification of living systems
caused by “paleo” design and technologies
(a term he adopted from Patrick Geddes to depict
their relative crudity). “Where nature evolved an
ever-varying, endlessly complex network of
unique places adapted to local conditions,” he
wrote, “. . .humans have designed readily man-
ageable uniformity.” This creates relatively sim-
ple patterns and forms designed to be easily
replicable anywhere. Most important, in his
view, was the replacement of nature’s continual
cycling and recycling of materials and energy –
processes “core to the earth’s operating system” –
with one-way linear flows from source to sink.
“Eventually a one-way system destroys the land-
scapes on which it depends,” Lyle observed. “The
clock is always running and the flows always
approaching the time when they can flow no
more. In its very essence, this is a degenerative
system, devouring its own sources of sustenance.”
The degenerative patterns caused by these linear,
one-way flows, he believed, demanded a funda-
mentally different approach that he named
regenerative design. Accordingly, Lyle defined
regenerative design as the replacement of linear
systems of throughput flows with “cyclical flows
at sources, consumption centers, and sinks.” The
resulting systems provide for “continuous
replacement, through (their) own functional pro-
cesses, of the energy and materials used in their
operation” [13].
Lyle died just 4 years after publication of
Regenerative Design for Sustainable Develop-
ment. While he called redesign of the degenerative
systems created by industrial linear flows as the
“first order of work,” it is clear from the larger
body of his work and other writings [29] that he
saw regenerative design as encompassing far
more than this basic operational goal, as
Regenerative Development and Design
fundamental as it was. While much attention has
been given to his models and techniques for
designing self-renewing resource and energy
flows, Lyle always saw the heart of his work,
and the work of regenerative design, as the con-
scious design of whole ecosystems. The impor-
tance of developing a different nature of thinking
as the basis for regenerative design, which was
addressed in introductory chapters of the book,
was left without further development. The narrow
definition of the term regenerative as simply “self-
renewing” came to define the focus of regenera-
tive design for many architects and landscape
architects for decades thereafter.
In 1995, the Regenesis Group was founded and
began developing the theoretical and technologi-
cal foundation for regenerative development –
enabling human communities to coevolve with
the natural living systems they inhabit, while con-
tinuously regenerating environments and cultures.
Regenesis founders had practiced biocentric
design, inspired by natural processes, in a variety
of arenas for a number of years and knew the
power of this approach. They maintain that devel-
opment projects needed to be sources of ecologi-
cal health, even “engines of positive or
evolutionary change for the systems into which
they are built” [30] and that the primary drivers of
unsustainable patterns was not being addressed by
ecological design systems. They saw environmen-
tal problems as symptoms of a fractured relation-
ship between people and the living web of nature
and argued that the core issue was cultural and
psychological, rather than technological. Like
Lyle, they believed that addressing this issue
required a fundamental transformation in how
humans saw their relationship and role with
regard to the planet – moving from the current
view of standing apart from and using
(or protecting) nature to seeing a “co-evolutionary
whole, where humans exist in symbiotic relation-
ship with the living lands they inhabit” [30].
For regenerative design to take hold and be
successfully applied, the Regenesis team rea-
soned, a radical shift in thinking and understand-
ing would be required among design
professionals, stakeholders, and all the human
inhabitants of a place. They proposed the term
121
regenerative development for the more compre-
hensive work of creating the conditions and build-
ing the capacities required for achieving this shift,
with the aim of making development a source of
harmonious integration with nature [10, 31, 32].
Regenerative Development and Design
Emerge as Significant for the Sustainability
Movement
While awareness and appreciation of regenerative
approaches to sustainability grew through the
early 2000s, regenerative development and design
continued to be largely an edge phenomenon for
much of the decade. In the following decade,
however, a series of initiatives in multiple disci-
plines began to transform practice toward regen-
erative goals:
• Regenerative Built Environment and City
Design Studies: In 2010, the World Futures
Council published the first of a series of reports
introducing the concept of Regenerative Cities,
the result of an International Expert Commis-
sion on Cities and Climate Change. These
reports, followed up by the book “Creating
Regenerative Cities” by Herbert Girardet,
launched a multi-pronged effort to promote
the creation of regenerative cities – cities that
work to actively improve and regenerate the
productive capacity of the ecosystems on
which they depend [33].
• Regenerative Approaches to Economy and
Business: JPMorgan Managing Director John
Fullerton founded The Capital Institute in
2010, a nonpartisan think-tank dedicated to
developing and promoting regenerative econ-
omy models. This led to the launch of the Field
Guide to a Regenerative Economy and the
subsequent white paper, “Regenerative Capi-
talism: How Universal Principles and Patterns
Will Shape the New Economy” as a framework
for regenerative economies [34]. In 2016, the
Regenerative Business Summit was launched
to “elevate and enrich the conversation about
regeneration and focus it on innovative enlight-
ened disruption in business and industries”
[35]. The following spring, London-based
Lush Cosmetics launched the Lush Spring
122
Prize to support the “regeneration movement
through an annual 200,000 pound prize fund”
and “a high-profile annual conference, bring-
ing people together to share their skills and
experiences in raising awareness of regenera-
tion and its potential” [36].
• Regenerative Education Initiatives: In 2013,
Regenesis launched “The Regenerative Practi-
tioner,” a blended distance learning series for
practitioners interested in integrating regener-
ative development into their practice. While
most course participants were initially profes-
sionals within the built environment, the geo-
graphic diversity was soon matched by a
growing diversity of professions, a reflection
of the widening interest in regenerative devel-
opment. New Zealand hosted the eighth series
“for business leaders, cultural leaders, design,
development, and planning professionals,
researchers, artists, healers, facilitators, com-
munity activists, creative entrepreneurs, sus-
tainability managers, permaculturists and
community organisers” [37].
Jason McLennan, founder of Living Build-
ing Challenge and Living Futures Institute,
announced the opening of the School of Regen-
erative Design in 2017 as “a small, specialized,
interdisciplinary design school that focuses on
personal transformation, practical knowledge-
based internships, grounded in world-class
design and ecological thinking” [38].
• Regenerative Design to Address Climate
Change: The annual meeting of High Commis-
sioners representing Commonwealth countries
adopted regenerative development as the Com-
monwealth of Nations strategy for reversing
climate change. Of the strategy, Patricia Scot-
land, Secretary-General of the Commonwealth,
notes: “Firstly, it is saying that it is possible to
reverse the human impact of climate change by
2050 and secondly it is framing climate change
as one of our greatest opportunities for innova-
tion and advancement” [39].
Regenerative Design Publications and Confer-
ences: By the mid-2010s, a growing number of
journals, books, and conferences, along with
dozens of videos on regenerative design and
Regenerative Development and Design
development, reflect the increasing interest in
regeneration as a means of reframing sustainable
and green practices. Both Building Research and
Information journal and the Journal of Clean Pro-
duction published special issues on the theory
andpractice of regenerative design and develop-
ment and the regenerative sustainability paradigm
[40, 41]. Book titles from this period include:
2010 Urban Regeneration and Social Sustainability:
Best Practice from European Cities [42]
2013 Regenerative Sustainable Development of
Universities and Cities: The Role of Living
Laboratories [43]
2014 Creating Regenerative Cities [33]
2015 The Permaculture City: Regenerative Design for
Urban, Suburban, and Town Resilience [44]
2015 Designing for Hope: Pathways to Regenerative
Sustainability [11]
2016 Designing for Regenerative Cultures [45]
2016 Regenerative Development and Design: a
Framework for Evolving Sustainability [10]
2017 The Regenerative Business: Redesign Work,
Cultivate Human Potential, Achieve
Extraordinary Outcomes [46]
Regenerative Development and Design:
Redefining Sustainability
Introduction
Sustainable development and design has been
described as falling broadly into two streams – one
primarily technical and engineering based
(technological sustainability) and the other based
in ecology and living systems principles
(ecological sustainability) [4, 7]. Green or high-
performance building, sometimes called eco-
efficient design, emerged out of the first stream,
and regenerative development and design out of
the second. Green building, like the conventional
building field before it, defined the built environ-
ment as “all the structures people have built when
considered as separate from the natural environ-
ment” (MacMillan Dictionary). Green movements
defined a sustainable built environment as one that is
resource efficient and has minimal or neutral envi-
ronmental impact. While that definition is evolving,
the primary aim of green building continues to be
increasing the efficiency of energy, water, and
Regenerative Development and Design 123

material use while reducing local and global impacts
on the natural environment.
In the past decade, however, the definition of a
sustainable built environment is changing rapidly.
Sarah Jenkin and Maibritt Pedersen Zari proposed
in “Rethinking the Built Environment” that
“While aiming for neutral or reduced environmen-
tal impacts in terms of energy, carbon, waste or
water are worthwhile targets, it is becoming clear
that the built environment must go beyond this. It
must have net positive environmental benefits for
the living world” [12].
The rising field of regenerative development and
design, which emerged from the ecological stream,
is not only leading the charge to redefine sustain-
ability, but also to redefine what the built environ-
ment encompasses and what its role must
be. Advocates of a regenerative approach to the
built environment believe that a much more
comprehensive, deeply integrated, and whole-
systems approach is needed. They propose that
eco-efficient design technologies and strategies
must be integrated within an ecologically based
approach that reverses the degeneration of both the
earth’s natural systems and the human systems that
inhabit them. The regenerative methodology
focuses on the development of human settlements
that partner with natural systems and processes to
actively regenerate the health of their place as a
whole and the spirit of the people who inhabit it
(Fig. 2).
The philosophical and technical foundations for
regenerative development and design as a distinc-
tive field within ecological sustainability were laid
in the 1990s, though they draw from scientific and
technological advances reaching back into the
early part of the last century previously outlined.
Held together by a common philosophical core,

An Ecology Qualitative
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BE ACCOMPLISHED WITHOUT REDUCING required.
Less initial
THE DAMAGE; YET REDUCING THE DAMAGE cost;
IS AN INADEQUATE RESPONSE ON ITS OWN. Less operating Living Systems/
Regenerating
cost. Consciousness

Conventional Green Sustainable Restorative Regenerative

Buildings Degenerating
Infrastructure
More
Energy
required.
Greater
Technical System Design
Cost
Efficiency - doing things right
Technologies & techniques
Fragmented thinking
Quantitative

Trajectory of Ecological Design

© All rights reserved. Regenesis 2000-2017 - Contact info@regenesisgroup.com for permission to use

Regenerative Development and Design, Fig. 2 Trajectory of ecological design. © Regenesis Group (Reprinted with
permission)
124
regenerative practices extend beyond the tradi-
tional aspects of design to address a different nature
of thinking and interactivity that is required to
design and engage in a regenerative process.
While regenerative approaches are attracting
growing interest among sustainability design
practitioners, transitioning from green building
to a regenerative practice has presented a number
of challenges. The holistic and deeply integrated
nature of the regenerative approach does not lend
itself to a “menu approach” – selecting several
regenerative technologies without understanding
the underlying principles that assure a regenera-
tive outcome. Another challenge is reconciling the
two radically different worldviews shaping tech-
nological and ecological sustainability within the
way one’s practice is carried out. Few architects
and engineers are familiar with, let alone trained
in an ecological paradigm. Yet as David Orr notes:
Ecological problems are in many ways design prob-
lems: our cities, cars, houses, and technologies
often do not fit in the biosphere. Ecological design
requires the ability to comprehend patterns that
connect, which means looking beyond the boxes
we call disciplines to see things in their larger con-
text. Ecological design is the careful meshing of
human purposes with the larger patterns and flows
of the natural world; it is the careful study of those
patterns and flows to inform human purposes. Com-
petence in ecological design requires spreading eco-
logical intelligence—knowledge about how nature
works. [47]
Overview: Ecological Sustainability and
Regenerative Development and Design
Ecological Sustainability
Ecological sustainability has been defined as the
“capacity of ecosystems to maintain their essen-
tial functions and processes, and retain their bio-
diversity in full measure over the long-term”
(www.businessdictionary.com). While accurate
and straightforward, the seeming simplicity of
this definition is deceptive. To understand and
then deliver what is required to “maintain” and
“retain” requires first understanding the nature of
ecosystems and the nature of the ecological
world in which they exist. That, in turn, requires
understanding the ecological perspective – the
Regenerative Development and Design
use of ecological concepts from biology as a
metaphor for understanding and designing
environments.
All development of the built environment
involves changing the landscape and, perforce,
the natural systems embedded within it – modify-
ing and adapting them for human purposes. The
design of that change is ultimately based on the
designer’s understanding of the “nature of
nature” – how nature works and, concomitantly,
humans’ relationship to it. That understanding, in
turn, is shaped by the fundamental model or par-
adigm held by the larger culture and how it under-
stands nature [7, 13, 26, 40, 41].
Divergent ecological versus technological
approaches to sustainability can be attributed
in large part to their being grounded in very
different worldviews. Ecological sustainability,
and the design systems within it, emerged from
the profound shift in worldview that occurred
over the last century as a result of advances in
both the physical and biological sciences.
Fritjof Capra has described this as a shift from
the mechanistic worldview of Descartes and
Newton. In the mechanistic paradigm, the dom-
inant metaphor for understanding the world
(and all organisms within it) was that of a
machine composed of separate parts. In con-
trast, the ecological worldview sees the world
as a self-organizing, continuously evolving,
interdependent web of living systems, and the
concept of ecosystem is the dominant metaphor
for understanding the world. The ecosystem
concept, as it has been evolved by living sys-
tems science, has been particularly influential in
shaping an ecological and regenerative under-
standing of the world and the role of humans
within it, with profound implications for sus-
tainability and development [5, 17, 18].
The industrial-era metaphor of machine was
particularly influential in shaping much of the
built environment in the developed world and
continues to play a significant role even today.
By the first decade of the twenty-first century,
however, Le Corbusier’s image of the modern
house as a “machine for living” was being chal-
lenged by the image of living buildings and com-
munities as ecosystems.
Regenerative Development and Design
As the ecosystem emerged as a new
“governing concept of relationship between
humanity and nature” [17], it confronted some of
the most basic premises of the technologies, pro-
cesses, and goals of the design field at the time,
including the role of buildings, the definition of
the built environment, the role of designers, and
even the role of humans on the planet. As
designers concerned about sustainability began
to explore the implications of this new paradigm,
it became clear that new ways of thinking and
working, along with new forms of design and
development and new standards of ecological per-
formance were required. Some of the most com-
prehensive articulations of the key premises that
shape the distinctive character of the field of eco-
logical sustainability can be found in the writings
Regenerative Development and Design, Fig. 3 Levels of ecological design. © Regenesis Group (Reprinted with
permission)
125
of Sim Van der Ryn, Stuart Cowan, David Orr,
and Fritjoff Capra [4, 5, 7]
Regenerative Development and Design
Ecological strategies for sustainability developed
during the 1980s and 1990s were organized
around the core set of philosophical, theoretical,
and scientific concepts. All were aligned around a
commitment to net positive goals for the built
environment, and to that end were committed to
integrating human structures, processes, and
infrastructures with natural living systems. To
some extent, they differed in the systemic scope
they encompassed, falling into four broad catego-
ries along a spectrum of comprehensiveness
(Fig. 3).
126
1. Biophilic – As a design philosophy addressing
the “urge to affiliate with other forms of life”
[48], biophilia is relational in its approach – it
is somewhat passive in its engagement with
life and is anthropocentric in its purpose. It
acknowledges that humans will, if given a
choice between nature and a human-made con-
text, choose an environment or situation that
utilizes, or is in contact with, living systems
and their processes. Human health is positively
influenced by connectivity and diminished if
separated from living system connectivity. The
design fields that employ biophilic approaches
consciously use: Physical Engagement and
Connections to natural features and elements;
Facsimile Connections in terms of the use of
nature imagery and materials; and Evocative
Connections that use the qualities and attri-
butes of nature in design such as sensory var-
iability, prospect and refuge, serendipity,
discovered complexity [49].
2. Biomemetic – Cradle to cradle and
biomimicry are design philosophies that look
to nature as inspiration. They are a functional
approach that uses nature – its forms and its
processes – as a model for humans to follow, an
anthropocentric perspective. Technical product
design, buildings, manufacturing processes,
agriculture, and human activity will function
best and be more in harmony with ecological
processes if nature is used as a model and
guide. Nature’s services and techniques are
generally much more effective and certainly
more sustainable than technical engineering
approximations [50]. The principles guiding
biomemetic thinking are essentially derived
from an ecological understanding of how life
works and provide a conceptual starting point
to move into more comprehensive and regen-
erative systems.
3. Restorative – Restorative approaches seek to
improve current systemic performance,
returning living systems to a state of health,
and reestablishing the self-organizing capabil-
ity required to maintain that health. This is an
approach that acknowledges that humans have
a role to play. It is more highly integrated than
biomemetic approaches and more active than
Regenerative Development and Design
biophilic approaches – yet it generally is an
episodic and finite engagement. This approach
typically intervenes on an initial basis to
reestablish the health of a subsystem of an
ecosystem and community – such as wetlands,
woods, riparian corridors, beach dune systems,
social systems, and so on. It is a biocentric
approach. When the intervening human role
is finished however – once the capacity of the
system to self-organize is set in motion – the
humans leave the engagement [51].
4. Regenerative – Regenerative approaches
embed the capacity to continue to improve
performance through time and through varying
environmental conditions. Regenerative devel-
opment and design, as articulated by Regenesis
Group and Lyle, recognizes that “humans,
human developments, social structures and
cultural concerns are an inherent part of eco-
systems,” making humans integral, and partic-
ularly influential participants in the health and
destiny of the earth’s web of living systems.
According to this view, the sustainability of the
real estate development industry, which works
directly on these webs, is largely determined
by whether humans participate in them as part-
ners or as exploiters [10]. This might be termed
a process of biobecoming – the development of
a whole system of inter-related living
consciousness – a new mind. “Design inevita-
bly instructs us about our relationships to
nature and people, that makes us more or less
mindful and more or less ecologically compe-
tent. The ultimate object of design is not arti-
facts, buildings, or landscapes, but human
minds” [4].
M. Kat Anderson supports this way of being in
“Tending the Wild”:
Wilderness is a negative label for land that has not
been taken care of by humans for a long time . . .
California Indians believe that when humans are
gone from an area long enough, they lose the prac-
tical knowledge about correct interaction, and the
plants and animals retreat spiritually from the earth
or hide from humans. When intimate interaction
ceases, the continuity of knowledge passed down
through generations is broken, and the land
becomes “wilderness.” [52]
Regenerative Development and Design
Together, regenerative development and
design provide a framework for creating, apply-
ing, adapting, and integrating a blend of modern
and ancient technologies to the design, manage-
ment, and continuing evolution of sustainable
built environments, accomplishing positive eco-
logical and social results that include:
• Improving the health and vitality of human and
natural communities – physical, psychological,
economic, and ecological
• Producing and reinvesting surplus resources
and energy to build the capacity of the under-
lying relationships and support systems of a
place needed for resilience and continuing evo-
lution of those communities
• Creating a field of caring, commitment, and
deep connection to place that enables the
changes required for the above to take place
and to endure and evolve through time [10, 30].
The first comprehensive articulation of the the-
oretical and practical basis of regenerative
approaches to the built environment emerged sep-
arately for regenerative development and regener-
ative design in the mid-1990s, from two separate
sources – the work of Regenesis Group and John
Tillman Lyle. Their respective bodies of work
each reflected a convergence of disciplines in
addition to architecture, including: landscape
ecology, geohydrology, landscape architecture,
permaculture, regenerative agriculture, general
systems theory and cybernetics, living systems
theory and thinking, and developmental
psychology.
In his paper, “New Context, New Responsibil-
ities: Building Capability” [53], Ray Cole articu-
lated some of the key implications of a
regenerative approach, including:
• Seeing the responsibility of design as “design-
ing the ‘capability’ of the constructed world to
support the positive co-evolution of human and
natural systems” versus designing “things”
(buildings, infrastructure, etc.), and defining
sustainable buildings as “buildings that can
support sustainable patterns of living.”
127
• Emphasizing the “role of building in positively
supporting human and natural processes” ver-
sus “building as product.”
• Positioning “building as central in creating
higher levels of order and, as such, creating
increased variety and complexity.”
• Seeing the building as within and connected to
a larger system – place, shifts “the current
emphasis of greater energy self-reliance at the
individual building level” to “opportunities for
positive connections and creative synergies
with adjacent buildings and surrounding natu-
ral systems.”
A Distinction Between Regenerative
Development and Regenerative Design
For ecological sustainability to succeed, it requires
a far broader and deeper scope of engagement than
an individual building or even community design
[54]. Yet the structure of the development and
construction industry, for the most part, works to
narrow the designers’ role and scope, often as a
result of decisions made before the design process
even begins. Regenerative development was devel-
oped as a discipline in part to address this concern.
Regenerative approaches view development and
design as two distinct yet synergistic processes,
both of which play an essential role in ensuring
that greater scope, neither of which is sufficient
without the other.
The following dictionary definitions provide
insight into the different roles of development
and design:
Development: O.Fr. desveloper, “an unfolding,
bringing out the latent possibilities,” from
des- “undo” + veloper “wrap up” a state in
which things are improving; the act of improv-
ing by expanding or enlarging or refining; pro-
gression from a simpler or lower to a more
advanced, mature, or complex form or stage;
an unfolding; the discovering of something
secret or withheld from the knowledge of
others; disclosure.
Design: L. designare “mark out, devise,” from de-
“out” + signare “to mark,” an act of working
out the form of something; to create or contrive
for a particular purpose or effect.
128
“Regenerative development provides an inte-
grated conceptual framework through which
human communities can grow their shared under-
standing of the unique places in which they live
and work. This understanding provides the
armature for creating a system of sustainable
design strategies and processes tailored to the
unique character of a place” [10]. Jenkin and
Zari, in their study, “Rethinking the Built
Environment,” write that “Regenerative
development. . .investigates how humans can par-
ticipate in ecosystems through development, to
create optimum health for both human communi-
ties (physically, psychologically, socially, cultur-
ally and economically) and other living organisms
and systems” [12]. They describe regenerative
development as defining the desired outcome in
terms of new systemic capabilities, and regenera-
tive design as the means of achieving it. In con-
trast, John Tillman Lyle [26] defined design
within the context of the built environment as
giving form to physical processes, and regenera-
tive design as the replacement of linear systems of
throughput flows with “cyclical flows at sources,
consumption centers, and sinks.” The resulting
systems provide for “continuous replacement,
through (their) own functional processes, of the
energy and materials used in their operation.”
Regenerative development works at the inter-
section of understanding and intention, generating
the patterned, whole-system understanding of a
place, and developing the strategic, systemic
thinking capacities and the stakeholder engage-
ment that are required to ensure designs and
design processes achieve maximum systemic
regenerative leverage and support. To that end, it
integrates building, human and natural develop-
ment processes within the context of place.
Regenerative development also creates an envi-
ronment that greatly enhances the effect and effec-
tiveness of restorative and biomimetic designs.
The roles of regenerative development, more
specifically, are to:
1. Develop the whole-systems understanding of
the inner working of ecosystems in a specific
place required to determine the right phenom-
ena to work on or to give form to, in order to
Regenerative Development and Design
inform and provide direction for regenerative
design solutions that can realize the greatest
systemic potential; and
2. Build a field of commitment and caring in
which stakeholders step forward as cocreators
and ongoing stewards of those solutions.
Regenerative design solutions that are grown
from the uniqueness of a place rather than from a
set of universal best practices regenerate rather
than deplete underlying life support systems and
resources, and work to integrate the flows and
structures of the built and natural world “across
multiple levels of scale, reflecting the influence of
larger scales on smaller scales and smaller on
larger” [55, 56].
Regenerative Approaches to Sustainable
Development and Design: Key
Framework Premises and Methods
Overview
Key Premises
The following four premises are drawn from the
work of Regenesis and Lyle. They offer key
elements for framing regenerative approaches
[10, 13, 21, 26, 31, 32, 57]. The four premises
work as a system to integrate and align motivation
and means, providing the framework within
which methodologies and approaches from other
ecological design systems can be integrated into a
regenerative practice (Fig. 4). The first two define
and shape motive and motivation in a regenerative
project. The last two relate to how a project is
carried out to ensure that ends and means stay
congruent, that the process stays on course toward
a regenerative result.
1. Place and Potential – Regenerative projects
are based on the richest possible understanding
of the evolutionary dynamics of a place in
order to identify the potential for realizing
greater health and viability as a result of
human presence in that place [58].
2. Goals Focus on Regenerative Capacity –
Regenerative projects are defined by the capac-
ity that must be developed and locally
Regenerative Development and Design
Regenerative
Development and
Design,
Fig. 4 Framework
depicting key premises and Ground:Place and
processes characterizing
Potential
regenerative approaches.
© Regenesis Group.
Reprinted with permission
embedded to support ongoing coevolution of
the built, cultural and natural environments,
and the humans who utilize and tend to them –
toward higher (more complex, diverse, and gen-
erative) levels of order for all their constituent
members, as well as for the larger systems they
are a part of and dependent on [10, 57].
3. Partnering with Place – Regenerative projects
require taking on a new role, moving from a
“builder of systems we control” to a gardener,
working in partnership with a place and its
processes [10, 21].
4. Progressive Harmonization – Regenerative
projects seek to catalyze a process of continu-
ally increasing the pattern harmony between
human and natural systems across scales and
require indicators and metrics that can track
dynamic, holistic, and evolving processes [59].
Place and Potential
Potential: ‘the inherent capacity for growth, devel-
opment or coming into being.’ (American Heritage
Dictionary of the English Language)
William McDonough often describes design as an
expression of human intention. Both that intention
and the resultant design, however, are shaped by the
potential the designer sees and seeks to realize for a
particular project. Regenerative potential is defined
as the ability to leverage human interventions to
achieve greater systemic health through time – for
the place they occupy and depend on [31].
Many projects fail to achieve a regenerative
effect because the potential they target is too
limited – focused on an element or a problem
without seeing its systemic connections. Others
fail because they seek to realize a potential defined
129
Direction: Progressive Harmonization
Means
Goal: Regenerative
Motivation
Capacity
Instrument:
Partnering Place
by human ideals but fail to align with the essence
of a place and the larger patterns of life that make
that place work. When a project is grounded in a
rich patterned understanding of its place, and a
vision of its role and potential within that place
guides its design, even small interventions can
ripple out into large systemic transformations –
what Curitiba’s long-time mayor Jaime Lerner
called “urban acupuncture” [60], with ecological
as well as social and economic ramifications.
“Place” in regenerative development is alive, a
living system or entity that is “. . .a unique con-
stellation of patterns nested within patterns, inter-
woven with other patterns in families and guilds
and social relationships, all endlessly changing,
cycling, evolving and building to greater levels of
complexity over time. . .an incredibly dynamic
and complex being” [59]. A unique, multilayered
dynamic network of natural and human ecosys-
tems within a geographic region, this network
forms a socioecological whole that is the result
of complex interactions through time between and
within its constituent ecosystems. The natural
ecosystems include wildlife and vegetation, local
climate, mineral and other deposits, soil, water,
geologic structures, etc.; human ecosystems
include distinctive customs, expressions of
values, economic activities, forms of association,
ideas for education, traditions, physical artifacts
such as buildings and constructed infrastructure,
etc. [10, 13, 30, 57, 61, 62].
Regenerative Capacity: Defining Goals for
Realizing Regenerative Potential
The central element for regenerative development
and design is the performance not of a single
130
building, but rather of its living context – the
unique socioecological system or “place” in
which the building is just one of many
interdependent and interactive elements and
dynamics. Within that context, regenerative
goals are set and performance measured in terms
of the intended contribution of the built environ-
ment to the regenerative capacity of that larger
living context – (i.e., its capacity to realize and
express more of its full potential as a source of
increasingly healthy life for all its constituent
members as well as for the larger systems it is a
part of and depends on).
Characteristics of a regenerative goal include:
• Place sourced and place specific
• Evolutionary, going beyond improving current
systemic performance (what is often called
restorative) to embedding into the system the
capacity to continue to improve performance
through time and through varying environmen-
tal conditions
• Beyond functional performance goals. Recog-
nizing “human aspiration and will as the ulti-
mate sustaining source of our activities” [27],
regenerative goals address qualitative and
spirit dimensions that shape the quality and
degree of caring humans bring to their place
and its capacity to continue to thrive
• Focusing on the processes physical structures
enable as central
Growing Capacity Versus Producing Things:
Regenerative projects set place and project spe-
cific goals that address all three aspects of regen-
erative built environments:
• Operational capacity
• Organizational capacity
• Aspirational capacity
Operational Capacity Goals: Operational
goals focus on systemic functional effectiveness
in growing the potential of the underlying
resource base – energy, materials, and support
systems that enable the evolution of life in a
place. Regenerative projects set goals for ensuring
that the energies and nutrients flowing through it
Regenerative Development and Design
are used and invested optimally to grow the health
of the system and all the life it supports.
Organizational Capacity Goals: Organiza-
tional capacity focuses on “who” a place is, and
addresses two dimensions – what is core to how
this place works as a living system (what we can
“mess” with and what we can not), and what is the
core qualitative character (its essence or distinc-
tiveness) or nature that humans can connect to at a
heart level. Goals for this aspect deal with how to
utilize the built environment and the design pro-
cess to both illuminate and enhance the distinctive
character of a place as something to be cherished.
Historic codes and zones are often used to this
end, but they tend to focus on surface appearance
rather than essence, and over time the code and its
restrictions come to take center stage, over-
shadowing the living core of the place they
intended to protect [21, 63].
Aspirational Goals: Growing the systemic
regenerative capacity of a place requires an inte-
gration of human aspirations with the distinctive
ecosystems of that place and their drive to evolve
their own health and generativity. This means
harnessing inherent human creativity and aligning
it with the creativity of nature, and creating oppor-
tunities for people to experience themselves as
able to make significant and meaningful contribu-
tions to their place [13].
Partnering with Place: a New Role for Humans
and Buildings
In an ecological paradigm, sustainability requires
a fundamental shift in how humans conceive of
and carry out their role on the planet. In the words
of Joshua Ramo, people must “change the role we
imagine for ourselves from architects of a system
we can control and manage to gardeners in a
living, shifting ecosystem. For hundreds of years
now we have lived in our minds as builders:
constructing everything from nations to
bridges. . . In a revolutionary age, with rapid
change all around us, our architects’ tools are
deadly. It is time for us to put them down and
follow (Nobel Laureate Friedrich von) Hayek’s
injunction to live and to think as gardeners.” –
gardeners who see themselves as partners in
coevolution with the living system in which they
Regenerative Development and Design
work, cultivating “growth by providing the appro-
priate environment, in the manner a gardener does
for his plants” [64, 65].
Successful regenerative development ultimately
requires all the stakeholders in a place, not just the
development/design team to move from the role of
“builder” to “partner–gardener.” To this end, a pre-
mise of regenerative development is that “Projects
should be vehicles for catalyzing the cooperative
enterprises required to enable evolution.” These
cooperative enterprises work to bring together
stakeholders – people and groups with a stake in
growing the potential of their places, around what
Stuart Kauffman called “coevolving mutualism,” a
progressive and mutually beneficial harmonization
of human and natural systems [10, 56].
Partnering with place also requires understand-
ing place as a living whole. Regenerative devel-
opment starts with a whole systems assessment
that looks at a wide range of patterns covering
multiple scales of systems and a number of differ-
ent facets. The place intelligence it develops is a
resource that can be mined to inform each stage of
design to help ensure that the patterns generated
by the project harmonize with the larger patterns
of place. To generate the experience of connection
and caring that creates a partnership, an under-
standing of “who” a place is as a living being – its
distinct spirit and ways of working – is needed in
addition to how it functions. Every living system –
whether a person, a tree, or a place – has an
ongoing and distinctive core from which it orga-
nizes the complex arrays of relationships that pro-
duce its activities, its growth, its evolution. Being
able to grasp and share the distinctive core or
essence of a place among and between the design
team and local stakeholders provides an enduring
basis for strong partnering relationships, in the
same way it builds strong human partnerships.
• Regeneration Is a New Way of Thinking:
Learning how to apply a regenerative approach
begins not with a change of techniques but rather
with a change of mind—a new way of thinking
about how we plan, design, construct, and operate
our built environment. [31]
Growing stakeholders and designing and
constructing projects that can work as “place
131
gardeners” requires bringing and developing
whole systems thinking that is capable of
comprehending, ordering, and organizing the
systemic complexity and dynamism of a living
place and its multiple scales of nested systems,
interactions of multidisciplinary teams over
extended periods, and extensive local stake-
holder participation [17, 18, 21]. This nature
of systems thinking is characterized by:
– Being grounded in ecoliteracy and pattern
literacy. Ecoliteracy applies an understanding
of the fundamental principles that govern how
living systems work to specific situations and
conditions. Pattern literacy involves being
able to read, understand, and generate appro-
priate patterns that harmonize with and enable
a place and its inhabitants to more fully realize
what they can be [59].
– Requiring the practitioner to see what they
are working on as a system of energies or life
processes, rather than as things – to illumi-
nate the reach toward being more whole and
alive, a state inherent in living systems that
is the fuel for regeneration [32, 66].
– Enabling a diversity of participants to grow
their own systems thinking capacity in order
to take on more challenging, value-adding
roles [10, 22, 66].
• Regeneration Is a New Way of Working:
Regenerative development and design does
not end with the delivery of the final drawings
and approvals, or even with build out of a
project. The responsibility of a regenerative
designer includes putting in place during the
development and design process, what is
required to ensure the ongoing regenerative
capacity of the project, and the people who
inhabit and manage it. Regenerative develop-
ment employs developmental design processes
that encompass integrative design (integrative
and interdisciplinary beyond traditional build-
ing disciplines, open and participatory), and go
beyond to embed self-managed learning pro-
cesses into the work of conceptualizing,
designing, constructing, managing, and evolv-
ing regenerative projects [10]. These design
processes integrate the traditional organizing
for task accomplishment with the development
132
of new thinking capacities required to design
processes not things, make ecologically sound
place-appropriate decisions. They create the
connection to and emotional resonance with
place that generates the will to follow through
on regenerative development and design
decisions.
Progressive Harmonization
The “pole star” or overarching source of direction
for regenerative projects derives from the ultimate
effect every regenerative project seeks to achieve: an
enduring and mutually beneficial relationship
between the human and natural systems in a partic-
ular place. Pattern is the language of relationship
and regenerative development and design in a living
system is a process of patterning human communi-
ties to align with the energetic patterns of a place in a
way that both humans and the place coevolve.
Christopher Alexander was speaking of pattern har-
mony when he wrote “When you build a thing, you
cannot merely build that thing in isolation, but must
also repair the world around it, and within it, so that
the large world at that one place becomes more
coherent, and more whole; and the thing which
you make takes its place in the web of nature, as
you make it” [67]. While his initial work focused
primarily on the pattern relationship between a
building and the human community and life sur-
rounding, his later work has increasingly
encompassed all living systems. Wendell Berry, in
his essay “Solving for Pattern,” speaks to creating
pattern harmony between human communities and
activities and the biosphere they take place in
[68]. “A bad (design) solution is bad,” Wendell
Berry notes, “because it acts destructively upon the
larger patterns in which it is contained. . .most likely,
because it is formed in ignorance or disregard of
them. A good solution is good because it is in
harmony with those larger patterns. . . A bad solu-
tion acts within the larger pattern the way a disease
or addiction acts within the body. A good solution
acts within the larger pattern the way a healthy organ
acts within the body” [68].
Pattern harmony however is not a stable state; a
good solution today may become a bad one in a
few years, so solving for pattern requires a pro-
gressive rather than one-time harmonization, a
Regenerative Development and Design
continuous re-patterning. Theoretical biologist
Stuart Kauffman called this mutually beneficial
relationship “co-evolving mutualism” –
coevolving because its ecosystems are always in
the process of self-organization and reorganiza-
tion, increasing in complexity, definition and
information content” [26, 69, 70].
Regenerative Practice Methodologies
Regenesis, collaborative members explored, prac-
ticed and evolved a regenerative development
methodology over 20 years of fieldwork. The
diagram in Fig. 5 was developed as a depiction
of the essential phases and developmental pro-
cesses that are considered key to a regenerative
practice that creates and sustains an evolutionary
spiral, growing systemic capacity as it actualizes a
project [21].
The Three Key Phases of Regenerative Practice:
• Understand the Relationship to Place: Integral
Assessment – a whole systems (cultural, eco-
nomic, geographic, climatic, and ecological)
assessment of site and place as living systems
lay the foundational understanding and think-
ing required to see how humans can enable the
health and continuing evolution of the place
and themselves as a part of it. A Story of
Place ® is codeveloped with the client and/or
community. It uses the power of story telling to
articulate the essence of a place, how it fits in
the world, and what the role of those who
inhabit it can be as collaborators in its evolu-
tion (reference).
• Design for Harmony with Place: Translate this
understanding into design principles and sys-
temic, integrated plans, designs, and construc-
tion processes that optimize the presence of
people in a landscape by harmonizing human
activities with the larger pattern of place.
Buildings and infrastructure improve land and
ecosystems, and the unique attributes of the
land improve the built environment and those
who inhabit it. Synergy with the land and eco-
systems leverages the effectiveness of green
design features and technologies and lowers
costs while improving ecosystem health and
productivity.
Regenerative Development and Design
Regenerative
Development and
SUSTAIN
Design,
Fig. 5 Regenerative
practice methodology
framework. © Regenesis
HARMONIZE
Group. Reprinted with
permission
UNDERSTAND
• Design for Co-Evolution: In the words of the
Urban Sustainability Learning Group
“. . .sustainability means maintaining the
dynamic potential for further evolution. Living
systems survive by maintaining a condition of
dynamic equilibrium with the environment
through constant change and adaptation. In
the game of evolution, equilibrium is death”
[71]. This phase unfolds during and from the
work of the previous two phases. If they have
succeeded in creating a culture of coevolution
in and around the project, and not just a phys-
ical product, its effect can be seen even before
final build out. The role of designer becomes
one of resource, providing processes and
methods for sustaining the connection to
place as a context that enables owners, man-
agers, contractors, and community stake-
holders to recognize and incorporate new
social, economic, and ecological opportunities
as their place evolves.
The Three Key Development Processes in
Regenerative Practices:
Success in the above three steps is determined
by how we think, how we identify harmonies and
harmonize the human role, and how we engage
133
lution
co-evo
design for harmony
bu
ild
the
fo un
dation
whole systems thinking
sse
rs
olde
roce
akeh
ing p
ng st
anag
growi
tive m
integra
© Regenesis Group
stakeholders throughout the planning and devel-
opment process. Specifically, through:
• Applying whole-systems thinking to the design,
planning, and decision-making processes
• Managing integration and harmonization
across disciplines, between phases and team
members and local stakeholders
• Growing stakeholders understanding and
appreciation of the place and the new potential
offered, and their capacity to be increasingly
effective partners with the system of evolving
life
Illustrations of Regenerative Practices
The three key phases of regenerative practice –
understanding the relationship to place, designing
for harmony with place, and designing for
coevolution – capture the richness of the prece-
dents in regenerative thinking described in this
entry. The following paragraphs illustrate regen-
erative thinking and practice frameworks and
methodologies applied within the three phases,
some developed by Regenesis, some drawn from
other ecological design systems.
In understanding the relationship to place, the
principles from permaculture and biomimicry are
134
helpful in developing specific land use, building,
and infrastructure design strategies. As a design
system rooted in the ability to discern the patterns
that are structuring both natural and human sys-
tems, and to generate new patterns that weave the
human and nature together into a dynamic whole,
permaculture assessment methodologies provide
a source for developing holistic site assessments.
“Pattern as Process,” an article by Regenesis prin-
cipal Tim Murphy and Vickie Marvick, provides a
detailed description of their method for under-
standing and interpreting the patterning of a site
and its place [59]. The challenge is to ensure that
the scope being assessed is whole enough to
encompass the interweaving of human and natural
systems, dynamics and flows that shape the dis-
tinct character of a place (Fig. 6).
Regenesis developed the following framework
as a means of illuminating the core patterns struc-
turing a place as the basis for “mapping” their
dynamic and evolving interrelationships. These
patterns include:
DEVELOPING THE
RIGHT MIND
Will
Being
Function
FOODING
VALUE ADDING
PROCESSES SHELTERING
TRANSACTING
ADORNING
RE-CREATING
COMMUNING
Regenerative Development and Design,
Fig. 6 Integral Assessment Scope framework. Used as a
means of illuminating the core patterns structuring a place
Regenerative Development and Design
• The ecological, social, and cultural systems
creating and managing the conditions that
shape how life expresses itself in a place
• The value adding processes that life engages in
within the context of those conditions and how
they influence and are influenced by them and
• The developmental implications and opportu-
nities for how individuals (people and build-
ings) can enable the health and continuing
evolution of place and themselves – through
how they function, the qualitative state of
being they seek and enable, and what they
value and express will toward (adapted from
a framework developed by Charles Krone as
part of his thinking technology [8]).
Capturing the essence understanding that con-
veys “who” a place is as a living being emerges
from the whole systems assessment. Questions
used to reveal the essence include: What is at the
core of a system, around which it is organized?
What is the web or larger context of reciprocal
SYSTEMS OF PLACE
Ecological Social Cultural
Psychological
Values
Beliefs
Settlement
Economic
Developmental
Geophysical
Hydrological
Biological
© Regenesis. Reprinted with permission
as the basis for “mapping” their dynamic and evolving
interrelationships. © Regenesis Group. Reprinted with
permission
Regenerative Development and Design
relationships within which it is embedded, since
all systems are comprised of smaller systems and
part of larger systems? And what is the potential
inherent in a living system, since this is the fuel for
regeneration – the constant reaching toward being
more whole, being more alive?
• A simple example of patterns and the essence
of a system is offered through a case study of
Mahogany Ridge, Idaho, USA [72].
A reductionist approach or an approach that
abstracts life into a checklist might state that noth-
ing should be built on existing farmland. This might
be a good principle if the agriculture system was
truly symbiotic with nature. In this case, water-
intensive monoculture farming had nearly
destroyed three distinct ecological systems, each
of which had played an essential role in shaping
the landscape and its potential for life. An integral
assessment looked for patterns of life that had
enabled high levels of reciprocal relationship
between species and ecological niches, patterns
that had been obscured and disrupted by farming
practices but could be regenerated:
The aerial photo in Fig. 6 depicts approxi-
mately 3,500 acres of current farmland along the
eastern edge of the Big Hole Mountains, just west
Regenerative Development and Design, Fig. 7 Aerial photo of Mahogany Ridge Resort Community site
135
of the Grand Tetons, that was being considered
for development. Originally, these mountain
watercourses and alluvial fan supported beaver,
otter, native cutthroat trout, salmon, turkeys,
grouse, and mega-fauna, such as deer, elk,
moose, and bears. These animals were all respon-
sible for carrying nutrients back upstream into the
mountains to feed the forest and diversify the
terrestrial and riparian ecosystem. Pioneers of
European descent arrived in this place 100 years
ago and used row-crop agriculture techniques to
farm on this alluvial fan. As a result, ninety per-
cent of the water from the Big Hole Mountains
(in picture) was being used for agricultural pur-
poses (spray irrigation), the salmon were no lon-
ger breeding in the river, the Yellow Tail cutthroat
trout were in species decline, the river was pol-
luted from overloads of nitrogen, and the
upstream forests were in decline.
The area farmers were going out of business or
bankrupt due to the short growing season. The
farms, in the past, had been used to support local
needs. Twenty to forty acre-per-home zoning is
planned as the alternative to large farms.
Looked at closely, this photo in Fig. 7 reveals
that farming was superimposed on top of this allu-
vial fan between the stream in the mountain valley
(top center of the photograph) and the river. The
soils mapping indicated in Fig. 8 reveals the pattern
more clearly.
136
Regenerative Development and Design, Fig. 8 Soil map of Mahogany Ridge site showing alluvial fan patterns
Before farming took place here, these radiating
streams and drainage ways served as additional
corridors of cover for wildlife moving back and
forth between the mountains and the river. When
farmers settled the land, they diverted this perennial
stream along the highest possible course
(in elevation) to irrigate fields that were gridded
over a highly productive and robust prairie ecosys-
tem. This action severely simplified and
destabilized the ecosystem that once was there.
The farming pattern did not preserve the integrity
of the ecosystem that contained it; rather, this larger
healthy pattern was obliterated. The ecological
function of this alluvial fan, and one of the core
patterns of the ecosystem in this place, is that of a
“living bridge” between the mountains to the west
and the Teton River.
The pattern of a living nutrient bridge between
the mountains and the valley that had been
revealed in the assessment indicated that a higher
level of ecological health could be reestablished in
this mountain, alluvial fan, and River system. The
development of homes in tight clusters could be
used to pay for the restoration of the stream and
habitat corridors that originally connected the
Teton River and the mountains and provide wild-
life corridors as well as many ecosystem services
for community residents. To support the
reestablishment of wildlife corridors, native
grasses would be planted (minimal turf grass), no
fences would be allowed, as well as no off-leash
dogs to disrupt nesting and the establishment of
territory by new wildlife.
Regenerative Development and Design
By integrating the community into the develop-
ment and management of these systems, they could
produce food (through diversified agriculture and
wild harvesting), timber, and other products, as well
as the development of a diversified economy while
insuring the provision of ecosystem services for
their community. The human involvement in these
patterns and processes is key to the ongoing regen-
eration and development of the potential of the site.
Once the essence understanding of a place is
developed as a shared context, designing for Har-
mony with Place, engages the principles of
biomimicry, permaculture, and an essential living
process framework. The Biomimicry Guild’s Life’s
Principles and their Genius of Place program pro-
vide guidance and models for establishing locally
attuned strategies for design elements through
studying the adaptation and survival of local spe-
cies within the conditions of a particular site and its
surroundings (www.biomimicryguild.com). Per-
maculture principles, which draw both on an
understanding of ecology and of how indigenous
people engaged with their place, also provides a
lens for developing design strategies that respond
to site conditions and opportunities in a way that is
mutually beneficial.(http://permacultureprinciples.
com; www.tagari.com) Malcolm Wells created an
Regenerative Development and Design
environmental checklist for the evaluation of
design and development solutions that merges
sets of outcomes into a unified whole in
A Regeneration-Based Checklist for Design
and Construction (www.sbse.org/resources/
docs/wells_checklist_explanation.pdf).
The Essential Living Processes framework was
developed by Regenesis for setting overarching
project aims, goals, and indicators to guide the
design and construction process. It is based on
the six critical processes that enable living sys-
tems to support the evolution of life. They include
the ability to support the basis for life processes –
nourishment, shelter (habitat), and the generation
and exchange of resources for growing and evolv-
ing more life. Because humans cannot be sepa-
rated from today’s living systems, the factors go
beyond material factors that form the outer land-
scape of a place. They also include the “inner
landscape” that sources our spirit and will and
drives us to cherish and protect the places we
inhabit. They include the ability of a living system
to create a sense of identity and foster belonging
through its culture, to support meaningful and
contributory lives, and to invoke the spirit and
inspiration that sustains caring. The framework
enables setting aims and goals (and later develop-
ing indicators and measuring systems) for how the
processes generated by the project support eco-
logical, economic, and social health in each of the
Regenerative
Development and
Design,
Fig. 9 Framework
showing interrelationship of
the 6 essential living
processes and how they
cross ecological, societal,
and economic arenas. Used
to set holistic, integrative
goals and indicators. ©
Regenesis Group.
Reprinted with permission
137
six areas. Figure 9 represents the interrelationship
of these processes and the need to integrate and
align how they work across ecological, societal,
and economic arenas in order to realize whole-
system regenerative effects.
Future Directions
While regenerative development and design still
occupy a relatively small niche in the larger world
of sustainability efforts, interest in regenerative
approaches to the built environment is on the
rise. Beyond the USA, growing interest has been
particularly marked in Australia and
New Zealand, including a government commis-
sioned research report that recommended the
adoption of regenerative development as a
national policy [12].
A number of interrelated factors, working as a
system, are creating a favorable climate that is
likely to continue to feed interest in regenerative
development and design, including: more practi-
tioners encountering the limits of green building
approaches to address the global crises; shifting
market dynamics and public awareness; the grow-
ing influence of the ecological perspective and the
ecosystem concept; the movement toward integra-
tive design with its reliance on interdisciplinary
teams; and the growing recognition of the need for
138
community engagement and participation to sup-
port the behavior changes required for enduring
sustainability.
In the 1990s, the most discussed issue for aspir-
ing green designers was how to convince clients to
incorporate sustainability features. By 2010, the
discussions increasingly were about how to meet
clients’ demands for making their project “the
greenest” of their kind. Over the same period,
appreciation and understanding of ecological sus-
tainability and the ecosystem perspective as it
applies to human settlements and institutions has
been significantly reshaping thinking in such fields
as public health, education, economic and commu-
nity development, and urban planning, as well as
design of the built environment. The core concepts
of ecological sustainability, especially the concept
of seeing communities as ecosystems in which
nature and culture, human and natural designed
features are interwoven and interdependent, are
driving a move toward increasingly systemic and
comprehensive goals. These comprehensive goals
are in turn defining new standards of sustainability.
Projects seeking to be “the greenest” now include
social, economic, educational, and aesthetic goals
as well as goals around energy efficiency and pol-
lution. More comprehensive goals affecting multi-
ple fields are necessarily stimulating more
integrative and interdisciplinary approaches. They
are also adding the need to build community sup-
port and stewardship to the list of essential design
issues. The ecological and ecosystem perspectives
are providing a common “language” or set of
frameworks across those fields that is facilitating
integrative and participatory approaches across dis-
ciplines and between design teams and the public,
and in the process further reinforcing an ecological
worldview.
One effect of this system of factors has been the
application of explicitly regenerative approaches
across a wider spectrum of fields, and the integra-
tion of these fields in regenerative design and com-
munity development. Regenerative development
has already begun to shift the old, building-centric
definition of the built environment to include the
relationships between and among buildings, infra-
structure, and natural systems, as well as the cul-
ture, economy, and politics of communities. The
Regenerative Development and Design
concept of place-sourced design that is core to
regenerative development is providing a means
for engaging the will of a community to align
human and natural communities around shared
purposes. These shifts are opening up new roles
and new challenges for designers. They are being
invited to move “from working on things and
structures in isolation from their context to the
design of living systems with built-in evolutionary
capacity,” to use their design skills to foster “the
inherent creativity of the systems in which they are
working” [10] instead of viewing those systems as
a palette for expressing their own creativity.
Regenerative development makes possible a
new and critically needed role for developers
and developments, the full potential of which is
still unfolding. In the future, all developments
could be called to serve as instruments for revers-
ing ecological damage, enabling ecological evo-
lution, and ensuring economic futures for
sustainable livelihoods. We are just beginning to
see glimpses of how, through weaving the many
stories of place into a mutually appreciative
whole, a regenerative development becomes a
harmonizing force within communities and
among stakeholders, inspiring new relationships
to place, and offering new patterns for shaping the
fields of development and design.
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 Hazard An event or condition that may cause
Resilient Design injury, illness, or death to people or damage
to assets.
Alex Wilson1 and Mary Ann Lazarus2 Integrative design An integrative process, inter-
1
Resilient Design Institute, Brattleboro, VT, USA disciplinary beyond traditional building disci-
2
MALeco, Washington University, St. Louis, plines, open, and participatory [2].
MO, USA Mitigation Processes that can reduce the amount
and speed of future climate change by reducing
emissions of heat-trapping gases or removing
Article Outline them from the atmosphere.
Non-climate stressor A change or trend
Glossary [1] unrelated to climate that can exacerbate
Definition of the Subject hazards.
Introduction Passive systems Use natural resources such as
The Resilient Design Principles sunlight, wind, temperature differences, or
Climate Change Impacts gravity to achieve desired conditions without
Climate Resilient Design Strategies the use of electricity or fuel.
Resilient Design Planning Process Risk The potential cost if something of value is
Voluntary Resilience Standards damaged or lost considered together with the
Resilient Design at Different Scales likelihood of that loss occurring. Risk is often
Resilient Design Strategies evaluated as the probability of a hazard occur-
Resilient Design Strategies for Infrastructure ring multiplied by the consequence that would
Failures result if it did happen.
Future Directions Sensitivity The degree to which a system, popu-
Bibliography lation, or resource is or might be affected by
hazards.
Glossary [1] Vulnerability The propensity or predisposition
of assets to be adversely affected by hazards.
Active systems rely on electricity or fuel to
maintain desired conditions.
Adaptation The process of adjusting to new Definition of the Subject
conditions in order to reduce risks to valued
assets. The Resilient Design Institute [3] has defined
Adaptive capacity The ability of a person, asset, resilience as “the capacity to adapt to changing
or system to adjust to a hazard, take advantage conditions and to maintain or regain functionality
of new opportunities, or cope with change. and vitality in the face of stress or disturbance. It is
Assets People, resources, ecosystems, infrastruc- the capacity to bounce back after a disturbance or
ture, and the services they provide. Assets are interruption.”
the tangible and intangible things people or Resilient design applies to both existing and
communities value. new buildings, along with landscapes, neighbor-
Climate stressor A condition, event, or trend hoods, communities, infrastructure, and regions –
related to climate variability and change that designed to provide a safer, more livable, better
can exacerbate hazards. place for people before, during, and after a disrup-

© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020 143

V. Loftness (ed.), Sustainable Built Environments,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-0684-1_1031
Originally published in
R. A. Meyers (ed.), Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology, © Springer Science+Business Media LLC 2018
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2493-6_1031-1
144
tion. It is also about adaptation to changing con-
ditions that are resulting from climate change.
Resilient design is a companion to sustainable
design, but it is different. While many resilient design
strategies directly contribute to sustainability (such as
more energy-efficient buildings that will maintain
livable conditions in the event of an extended
power outage), other strategies may conflict with
sustainability features, such as redundant power or
water systems that have greater embodied energy.
This chapter primarily focuses on resilient
design recommendations for buildings.
Introduction
Resilient design is an emerging priority in the
design community. Major storm disruptions in
recent years, including Hurricane Katrina in
2005, Tropical Storm Irene in 2011, and Super-
storm Sandy in 2012, have drawn attention to the
vulnerabilities our buildings face and demon-
strated the need for resilience. Resilience became
even more front page news after the triple hurri-
cane storms of Harvey, Irma and Maria in summer
2017. As the climate warms over the coming
decades and centuries, many of these vulnerabil-
ities are expected to increase. As storms become
more intense, sea levels rise, precipitation patterns
are altered, and heat waves become more fre-
quent. At the same time, there is now an ever-
present risk of terrorist actions and growing con-
cern about cyberterrorism, including a potentially
targeted electric grid that could lead to widespread
and prolonged power outages [4].
We cannot eliminate these vulnerabilities, but
we can design our buildings and communities to
be better prepared for these situations and to keep
building occupants far safer. This is the purpose of
resilient design.
This article will examine the key elements of
resilient design at the building scale as well as
community scale.
The Resilient Design Principles
The Resilient Design Principles, developed by the
Resilient Design Institute [5], provide a good
Resilient Design
starting point for understanding resilience and
resilient design.
1. Resilience transcends scales. Strategies to
address resilience apply at scales of individ-
ual buildings, communities, and larger
regional and ecosystem scales; they also
apply at different time scales – from immedi-
ate to long term.
2. Resilient systems provide for basic human
needs. These include potable water, sanita-
tion, energy, livable conditions (temperature
and humidity), lighting, safe air, occupant
health, and food; these should be equitably
distributed.
3. Diverse and redundant systems are inher-
ently more resilient. More diverse commu-
nities, ecosystems, economies, and social
systems are better able to respond to interrup-
tions or change, making them inherently more
resilient. While sometimes in conflict with
efficiency and green building priorities,
redundant systems for such needs as electric-
ity, water, and transportation improve
resilience.
4. Simple, passive, and flexible systems are
more resilient. Passive or manual override
systems are more resilient than complex solu-
tions that can break down and require ongo-
ing maintenance. Flexible solutions are able
to adapt to changing conditions both in the
short and long term.
5. Durability strengthens resilience. Strategies
that increase durability enhance resilience.
Durability involves not only building prac-
tices but also building design (beautiful build-
ings will be maintained and last longer),
infrastructure, and ecosystems.
6. Locally available, renewable, or reclaimed
resources are more resilient. Reliance on
abundant local resources, such as solar
energy, annually replenished groundwater,
and local food, provides greater resilience
than dependence on nonrenewable resources
or resources from far away.
7. Resilience anticipates interruptions and a
dynamic future. Adaptation to a changing
climate with higher temperatures, more
intense storms, sea level rise, flooding,
Resilient Design
drought, and wildfire is a growing necessity,
while non-climate-related natural disasters,
such as earthquakes and solar flares, and
anthropogenic actions, like terrorism and
cyberterrorism, also call for resilient design.
Responding to change is an opportunity for a
wide range of system improvements.
8. Find and promote resilience in nature. Nat-
ural systems have evolved to achieve resil-
ience; we can enhance resilience by relying
on and applying lessons from nature. Strate-
gies that protect the natural environment
enhance resilience for all living systems
9. Social equity and community contribute to
resilience. Strong, culturally diverse communi-
ties in which people know, respect, and care for
each other will fare better during times of stress
or disturbance. Social aspects of resilience can
be as important as physical responses.
10. Resilience is not absolute. Recognize that
incremental steps can be taken and that total
resilience in the face of all situations is not
possible. Implement what is feasible in the
short term, and work to achieve greater resil-
ience in stages.
Climate Change Impacts
Climate change is already having observable
effects on the environment from increased tem-
peratures, reduced growing seasons, changes in
precipitation patterns, more droughts and heat
waves, more frequent and intense storms,
flooding, and sea level rise [6]. In many cases
scientists predict that climate change will make
past hazard and climate-related events more fre-
quent and intense. As climate and environmental
conditions change, associated negative impacts
will as well, so damages from past events can be
considered as a baseline when considering what is
vulnerable. These impacts can have a cascading
impact. For example, drought, which climate
models predict will become more frequent and
of longer duration in some areas, increases wild-
fire risk, as does the die-off of trees that can occur
when warming winters fail to keep wood-boring
beetles in check, as has occurred in the Northern
Rockies in recent decades.
145
All these impacts challenge those in the design
and construction of the built environment to
design future facilities and renovations to adapt
to changing yet unclear conditions. With shifts
underway, designs should be based on future cli-
mate scenarios and conditions rather than rely on
historical data. Designing for warming conditions
is challenging since future scenarios are unknown
at both the macroscale (e.g., business as usual
versus different degrees of emission reduction)
and the microscale (e.g., understanding local vul-
nerabilities, risk factors, and program goals).
Many new and developing resources are
becoming available that define a range of future
outcomes to be incorporated into the planning and
design process. The impacts of climate change in
the United States by region and sector are
included in the US National Climate Assessment
Report [7]. Many national, international, and
regional government resources provide location-
specific climate projections that address tempera-
ture, precipitation, sea level rise, flooding, and
other attributes. Many cities across the globe are
developing climate action plans that identify their
high priority climate vulnerabilities and strategies
that should be considered in future building and
neighborhood design. The Rockefeller Founda-
tion’s 100 Resilient Cities initiative defines a
holistic approach to fostering resilience across
physical, social, and economic systems in 100 cit-
ies across the globe [8].
Climate Resilient Design Strategies
Design for climate change requires solutions that
are specific to the identified conditions of a par-
ticular site and program. Many of the resilient
design strategies described in this chapter apply
to design for climate change. That being said,
there are a few overarching design strategies that
particularly apply when considering climate
resilience:
1. Seek solutions that promote adaptability
and flexibility: Given the many unknown
natural and man-made future circumstances,
resilient design prioritizes design solutions
that enable future adaptations. This includes
146
strategies such as modular systems or provid-
ing room for expansion of systems over time,
looking for ideas that can take advantage of
change rather than seeking to maintain the
status quo. Designing for adaptability and
flexibility has the added advantage of poten-
tially minimizing deconstruction and recon-
struction, a significant contribution to waste
and emissions.
2. Draw solutions and issues from the (future)
vernacular: Resilient design looks to vernac-
ular and natural system strategies in climates
similar to those projected in your future (see
Fig. 1). As with the changes in plant habitat
zones, climate science predicts significant
shifts in weather patterns so that historical
solutions will no longer be valid over time. In
Upstate NewYork
1961–1990
2010–2039
2040–2069
2070–2090
2040–2069
2070–2090
Higher-Emissions
Lower-Emissions
Resilient Design, Fig. 1 Migrating upper New York
state climate (Source: Northeast Climate Impacts Assess-
ment Team (2007) Confronting Climate Change in the US
Northeast: Science, Impacts and Solutions, p.7 [11])
Resilient Design
addition to studying building solutions from
the (future) vernacular, it will be critical to
identify strategies based on natural systems in
that future climate for inspiration. New threats
may need to be addressed due to climate shifts,
for example, the spread of insect-borne disease
with climate shifts that requires consideration
of design solutions to inhibit infiltration [9].
3. Focus first on the building site and envelope:
Resilient design prioritizes solutions that miti-
gate and adapt to climate shifts in the design of
the site and building envelope. Siting and
envelope decisions far outlast the building
mechanical systems which are on a regular
replacement cycle. Solutions include siting
buildings and base floor elevations based on
future conditions for the anticipated life of the
building and providing higher levels of insula-
tion in the building envelope to mitigate
against warmer temperatures. In addition to
these priority passive solutions, climate shifts
will also require active or hybrid systems, stra-
tegically managing changes in system loads
and incorporating renewables. (See Design
for Future Climate [10] by Bill Gething for
suggested design strategies.)
Resilient Design Planning Process
Integrating resilience into the design and planning
process begins at the earliest stages through an
integrative design approach. See Fig. 4 as a pro-
totype resilience process diagram. Site- and
program-specific variables – such as project loca-
tion, goals, program requirements and criticality,
population exposure, and sensitivity – should
determine which hazards and vulnerabilities to
address.
A resilience design planning process generally
includes these steps:
1. Form a team representing a diverse group of
stakeholders to review and determine resil-
ience parameters throughout the planning,
design, and construction process. The compo-
sition of this group will change over time, but
core members should be included throughout
Resilient Design 147

to maintain continuity. A resilience standard sensitivity to disruption based on the identified

can help structure the process.
2. Explore and identify hazards related to local
weather conditions, climate trends, and natural
hazards. Wherever possible, use third-party
authoritative resources to identify any hazards
that may pose a high risk to the project. Include
the potential impact of man-made hazards such
as power and water infrastructure failures and
terrorism. The team, using the best available
information and expertise, should determine
their climate projection scenario based on the
service life of the facility. Some climate scien-
tists advise that any facility planned for occu-
pancy after 2030 should take into account
climate change impacts in order to provide a
future habitable, functional space. Figure 2
identifies natural hazards and climate change
hazards to be explored.
3. Identify the primary assets, functions, and
occupant populations of the facility or set of
facilities in your project. In the process of
identifying primary assets, it is critical to deter-
mine the importance of maintaining function-
ality in case of disruption and of protecting
sensitive populations, such as the elderly, chil-
dren, or those in healthcare settings.
4. Assess vulnerabilities for the assets, and
determine resilience goals. The project team
should rate the vulnerability of each primary
function and occupancy by considering its
hazards along with climate and non-climate
stressors. Climate stressors exacerbate the
impacts of hazards and damages. For example,
the Institute of Medicine of the National Acad-
emies report on “Climate Change, the Indoor
Environment and Health” identified the seri-
ousness of climate change for the indoor envi-
ronment and occupant health due to shifts in
concentrations of indoor pollutants, dampness,
infectious agents and pests, and increased ther-
mal stress. Non-climate stressors should also
be considered, such as a change in natural
drainage due to adjacent planned construction.
Once the sensitivity is determined, assess vul-
nerability of each function by comparing sen-
sitivity against adaptive capacity. Adaptive
capacity addresses the ability to adjust to
change or improve in new situations. Generally
the higher the sensitivity and lower the adap-
tive capacity, the greater the vulnerability.
Finally, determine the risk level for the most
vulnerable aspects of the project based on the
probability of an occurrence along with its
potential damage. Agree on resilience goals
and performance outcomes that should be
incorporated into the project design based on
the assessment process. A spreadsheet avail-
able at the US Climate Toolkit website [12] can
be used to document the vulnerability and risk
assessment process (see Fig. 3).

Resilient Design, Natural Hazards to investigate may include but are not limited to:
Fig. 2 Common Hazards ● Flooding
to Assess in Resilient ● Hurricanes
Planning ● High-Winds
● Tornado
● Earthquake
● Tsunami
● Wildfire
● Drought
● Landslides and Unstable Soils
● Extreme Heat
● WInter Storms
● Man-made Events

Climate Change Hazards may include but are not limited to:
● Sea Level Rise and Storm Surge
● River Flooding
● Temperature Changes
● Precipitation Changes
● Degree Day Changes
● Extreme Weather Events
148 Resilient Design

Risk Characterization Matrix

Probability of a loss >

In column A below, list the most vulnerable or important-to-
protect assets you identified on the Vulnerability tab. For each
asset, rank the Probability of a Loss as high, medium, or low in
column B. In column C, rank the Magnitude of the potential Loss.
Once your table is complete, use the rankings to place each asset
in the appropriate section of the Risk Charatcterization Matrix.
Magnitude of (potential) loss >
Probability of a
Loss (high, med, Magnitude of the
Most Vulnerable Assets low) Loss (high, med, low)
Relative Risk
Low
Medium
High
Very High

Resilient Design, Fig. 3 NOAA, risk characterization matrix, US climate resilient toolkit, documenting steps to
resilience 170405 Workbook

5. Research and brainstorm potential solu-

tions for the identified priority functions and
populations. Use case studies and resilience
planning and design resources, such as the
Resilient Design Principles, the US Climate
Toolkit website, and insights into design strat-
egies further discussed in this chapter.
6. Using an integrative design model, continue
to refine the resilience solutions against
goals during the entire design and construction
process. Develop a plan to monitor the effec-
tiveness of the resilience solutions over the
long term, especially when disruptions occur.
Make improvements and adaptations as
required, and share results (Fig. 4).

Voluntary Resilience Standards
As the interest in planning and design for resilience
has grown in the past decade, a number of volun-
tary standards for the built environment are being
developed. These standards address resilience at
the building, site, community to infrastructure
scales, as well as different aspects of resilience:
from individual hazards to a broad, holistic analy-
sis. Together, they represent a move toward foster-
ing the integration of resilience into the design of
all facilities. The Energy, Kresge, and Barr
Resilient Design, Fig. 4 Los Angeles building resilience
planning process. Los Angeles building resilience: a
primer for facilities [13]
Foundations completed a study in 2017 summariz-
ing the current state of the US-based resilience
standards for facilities (see Fig. 5).
Highlights of a few of the building and
community-specific standards:
• Enterprise Green Communities Strategies for
MultiFamily Building Resilience [15]: This
Resilient Design 149

Resilient Design, Fig. 5 Comparative framework of resilience standards. Voluntary resilience standards: an assessment
of the emerging market for resilience in the built environment [14], May 2017, page 8

guideline describes 19 design and program-
matic strategies to enhance resilience for
affordable multifamily housing across four cat-
egories: protection, adaptation, backup, and
community. In addition to building-related
strategies, the guideline includes program-
matic concepts to enhance community resil-
ience, outlining a resilience planning process
and defining a Green Communities Criteria
certification incorporating the strategies.
• FORTIFIED standards[16]: Developed by the
Insurance Institute for Business and Home
Safety, the FORTIFIED standards give specific
prescriptive criteria for a system-based
approach to building resilience for extreme
weather including hurricanes, high winds and
hail, and flooding. The standards apply to com-
mercial properties and include a third-party
certification process with multi-tiered certifica-
tion levels.
• LEED Pilot credits: The LEED pilot credits
from the USGBC consist of a suite of three
credits that cover planning for resilience,
design for enhanced resilience, and passive
survivability and functionality during disrup-
tions. These are currently under redevelop-
ment. They follow the LEED system with a
third-party review to achieve credits.
150
• Resilience-based Earthquake Design Initiative
(REDi) [17]: The REDi rating system, devel-
oped by Arup, is a standard for resilience-
based earthquake design for buildings. It
gives criteria to allow for business operations
and livable conditions to resume quickly after a
major seismic event.
• Resiliency Action List and Credit Catalog
(RELi) [18]: RELi is a national consensus
standard developed by a consortium of part-
ners that covers buildings, communities,
homes, and infrastructure. It incorporates a
holistic approach including resilience, restora-
tion, regeneration sustainability, and wellness.
The action list is set up with prerequisites and
optional credits. There is currently no third-
party review process.
• The National Institute of Standards and Technol-
ogy (NIST) Community Resilience Planning
Guide [19]: A step-by-step guide that includes
a triple bottom-line definition of goals to incor-
porate into economic development, zoning, mit-
igation, and other planning activities for
buildings and infrastructure systems.
Resilient Design at Different Scales
Each scale of resilient design provides different
opportunities and impacts:
Building Scale Resilience
New construction projects provide significant
opportunities to incorporate resilience goals into
decision-making for all aspects of a project from
the outset: building siting and massing, landscape
design, building layout, envelope design, material
selection, and building systems. New construction
designs for net zero carbon also address the mitiga-
tion goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to
slow climate change through reducing building sec-
tor energy consumption. This is the focus of the
Architecture 2030 initiative [20] which promotes
zero carbon in the built environment by 2030 for
new construction and substantial renovations.
Retrofits of the existing building sector, how-
ever, provide the greatest near-term impact in
fostering resilience. Mitigation can take place
Resilient Design
through large-scale building envelope retrofits
and systems upgrades for existing buildings. In
addition to mitigation, there is an urgent need to
address adaptation of the existing built environ-
ment to better prepare for and respond to change
through resilient design. Some of these actions
can be low cost/no cost and implemented through
zoning, building code changes, or recommended
best practices, as illustrated by New York City’s
Urban Green [21] 33 actionable recommendations
developed after Superstorm Sandy, many of
which have been put into place. These include
actions that address flood and wind hazards
(adaptation) as well as energy reductions and tran-
sition to renewable sources (mitigation) such as:
• Elevating buildings and building systems
• Providing sidewalk flood protection
• Safeguarding toxic material storage
• Removing barriers to cogeneration and the use
of solar energy
• Supplying drinking water without power
In addition as our planet warms, health scien-
tists predict increased mortality without wide-
spread adaptation measures in existing buildings.
According to one study by Columbia University
“Towards More Comprehensive Projections of
Urban Heat-Related Mortality: Estimates for
New York City under Multiple Population, Adap-
tation, and Climate Scenarios”... [22] “the sub-
stantial reduction of heat-related mortality,
particularly under the high-adaptation scenario,
provides evidence of the importance of public
policy measures leading to continuous heat adap-
tation.” Implementing adaptation actions to
address rising temperatures includes insulating
and tightening existing building envelopes,
increasing solar reflectance and shading, and
reducing glazing. These have the mutual benefit
of creating more livable environments while
gaining emissions reductions.
Neighborhood Scale Resilience
Several resilience strategies become more viable
when implemented at the neighborhood or larger
scale, allowing for closed-loop systems or scaling
Resilient Design
up of impacts. In the study “Avoided Heat-Related
Mortality through Climate Adaptation Strategies
in Three US Cities,” [23] authors looked at Phil-
adelphia, Atlanta, and Phoenix and found that
“combinations of vegetation and albedo enhance-
ment...offset projected increases in heat-related
mortality by 40% to 99% across the three metro-
politan regions.” Working at the neighborhood
scale, building massing and spacing can create
self-shading solutions to reduce solar heat gain.
When provided at the neighborhood scale, funda-
mental services increase resilience with less sus-
ceptibility to outages and reduced waste: micro-
grid energy systems, potable water and wastewa-
ter, and transit and food systems. Neighborhood
services can also add a level of redundancy in case
the larger service grid fails in times of disruption.
Community Resilience
As major disruptions are taking place more fre-
quently in urban centers throughout the world, the
recognition of the importance of community-based
resilience has grown significantly. As Craig Fugate,
former US FEMA administrator, said in 2012, “We
found that our first responder is often your neighbor.
They are a resource, so you have to figure out how to
bring them into the team.” [24] Since then, many
government and nonprofit organizations are focused
on strengthening community resilience. These
efforts work to strengthen community relationships
and networks, expand local knowledge, and
improve neighborhood connections to services.
The importance of community resilience reinforces
the role that specific building types can play toward
this goal. For example, local schools, libraries, and
community centers can serve the dual role of pro-
viding neighborhood gathering places for ongoing
community building while acting as accessible resil-
ience refuges or cooling centers in times of disrup-
tion. Other “third places” such as local coffee shops
could also serve in this capacity.
Resilient Design Strategies
Resilient design involves a collection of strategies
that are designed to protect buildings and keep
building occupants safe from natural disasters or
151
other events, including terrorism and accidental
power outages. Such strategies are highly variable
and depend on the location, building type, and
building design – as explained in the sections
that follow:
Wind-Resistant Construction Practices
As climate change advances over the coming
decades, the intensity of storms is expected to
increase. According to the Geophysical Fluid
Dynamics Laboratory of the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration at Princeton Univer-
sity, warmer temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean and
Gulf of Mexico will result in warmer air tempera-
tures and more intense tropical storms [25].
At the same time, warmer land temperatures in
the United States are expected to increase convec-
tive air potential energy (CAPE). According to the
NASA Earth Observatory [26], CAPE is a mea-
sure of how much raw energy is available for
storms – the cause of severe thunderstorms, super-
cells, derechos, and tornadoes.
As a result, intense storms with high winds are
expected to become a greater concern in the
decades ahead. Buildings that are able to with-
stand high winds from hurricanes, severe thunder-
storms, supercells, and derechos are built
incorporating best practices for wind, such as
specialized building codes in hurricane regions.
The Resilient Design Institute proposes that the
Miami-Dade County Hurricane Code, or a similar
standard, be adopted nationwide or used as a
guideline for structural reinforcement [27].
Wind-resistant construction practices vary
widely depending on the building type. With
light-frame construction, FEMA provides
in-depth guidance on construction practices in
high-wind locations, including volume 2 of the
Coastal Construction Manual [28]. Another use-
ful resource, also for light-frame construction, is
the FLASH (Federal Alliance for Safe Homes)
Resilient Design Guide [29].
Except for certain emergency services build-
ings, it is not economically feasible to design
buildings to withstand tornadoes, which can
have winds exceeding 250 miles per hour. For
buildings in the most tornado-prone locations, it
makes more sense to provide safe rooms, where
152
building occupants can safely ride out tornadoes.
Even in EF5 tornadoes, the most severe, there are
no known examples where people were killed
when sheltered in a property designed safe room.
Guidelines for safe room construction are avail-
able from FEMA [30].
Design for Flooding
Flooding is projected to become a more signifi-
cant problem with our changing climate: sea level
rise will make coastal flooding more frequent and
lead to tidal flooding even in clear weather; more
intense tropical storms will cause more frequent
and more severe coastal flooding; more intense
rainfall events will contribute to more frequent
and more severe inland flooding.
Given these vulnerabilities, design for flooding
is one of the most important resilient design pri-
orities. Key aspects on flood-resilient design are
the following:
1. Avoid flood-prone building sites. While
FEMA and NFPI guidelines generally call for
no construction in the 100-year flood zone (1%
risk of flooding each year), many experts rec-
ommend significantly exceeding that mini-
mum, by avoiding the 500-year flood zone
(0.2% risk of flooding each year) or keeping
buildings well above the base flood elevation
(BFE). The LEED pilot credits on Resilient
Design call for keeping occupied spaces
above BFE + 5 (5 feet above the BFE).
2. Within the 500-year flood zone, incorporate
wet floodproofing practices in residential build-
ings. With wet floodproofing, floodwater is
allowed to enter and exit a building through
openings in the foundation or lower floors so
that hydrostatic forces do not destroy the build-
ing or result in significant structural damage.
3. Within the 500-year flood zone, incorporate
dry floodproofing practices in new commercial
buildings. With dry floodproofing, water is
kept out of the building using flood barriers,
floodgates, and other components. Significant
hydrostatic forces will result on foundation and
well systems, so this technique requires careful
structural engineering and is usually not feasi-
ble for older buildings.
Resilient Design
4. All flood-prone locations in a building – and
even in buildings that are not located in flood
zones as a defense against flooding caused by
leaking pipes or the roof – use building mate-
rials and components that can dry out after
flooding without causing permanent damage
or risk of mold growth. In general, cellulosic
materials should be avoided in flood-prone
locations in a building, including paper-faced
drywall, wood, and carpeting.
5. Keep mechanical and electrical equipment out
of any floodable areas in a building. In existing
buildings that are in flood zones, mechanical
and electrical equipment should be elevated in
the building. In commercial buildings, locating
mechanical systems on the roof ensures they
will not be subject to flooding.
Design for Earthquakes
Seismic risk is a function of the underlying geol-
ogy and location of tectonic plates. Most areas
with significant seismic risk in the United States
are well known and mapped by the US Geological
Survey [31]. In the Lower 48 States, the greatest
areas of risk are the Pacific Coast, the Western
Mountain States, and several locations in the Mid-
west and Southeast.
New understanding of the Cascadia Subduc-
tion Zone fault off the coast of Oregon and
Washington has elevated awareness of risk in
those states in recent years [32]. There has also
been an increase in seismic activity in places with
extensive oil and gas development such as Okla-
homa. The “induced earthquake” activity is likely
a result of the wastewater injection that occurs
with well drilling and hydraulic fracturing
(fracking) for oil and gas recovery [33].
Minimizing earthquake risk is in part about site
selection: avoiding sites on or close to earthquake
faults. But because earthquakes extend over wide
areas – far from the actual faults – building design
to minimize earthquake damage is also critically
important.
Seismic codes are an important part of earth-
quake design. Such codes have been an important
part of building codes since the Great San
Francisco Earthquake in 1906, but it is important
to understand that the intent of seismic codes is to
Resilient Design
provide for safe egress from a building during and
immediately after an earthquake. Building to
these codes is not a guarantee that the building
will maintain functionality after an even modest
earthquake.
For this reason, there has been an interest in
earthquake resilience standards that go beyond
standard seismic codes. The most robust of these
is the REDi Rating System developed by seismic
engineers at the international engineering
firm Arup.
A new San Francisco building, 181 Fremont,
completed in 2016, is the first large building to
utilize the REDi Rating System in its design. The
developer recognized the benefit of maintaining
functionality in the event of a major earthquake
and invested the extra cost in measures needed to
achieve the rating. The building’s insurer also rec-
ognized the benefits of REDi certification and
discounted the insurance by $100,000 per year [34].
Design for Landslides
As land to build on becomes scarce, developers
are turning to more marginal land, including
building lots on steep slopes. Depending on the
soils, buildings on such sites may be vulnerable to
landslides. Furthermore, with climate change,
precipitation patterns are expected to change,
with more intense storms and more rapid melting
of winter snowpack causing more severe flooding,
which may exacerbate landslides on steeper
slopes.
Designing for landslides is mostly about
avoiding steep or unstable sites. In hilly terrain,
collaboration with a civil engineer, soil scientist,
or geotechnical expert can identify landslide risk.
Local universities with a geology department can
be a good source of information on landslide risk.
Maps showing historical landslides are also valu-
able because landslides tend to repeat.
The US Geological Survey (USGS) maintains
a Landslide Hazards Program, offering a wealth of
information on landslide vulnerability, warning
signs of landslides, and what to do in the event
of a landslide [35]. Their Landslide Overview
Map of the Conterminous United States [36] pro-
vides a general overview of landslide risk, but the
map is dated (1982) and the resolution inadequate
153
to inform siting decisions on a local level. More
detailed information on landslide risk is often
available from state and local governments.
Many states, particularly in the West, maintain
state geological surveys and publish geologic
hazard maps.
On sites where landslide vulnerability is a
concern, there are measures that can be taken to
protect buildings, such as maintaining existing
vegetative cover on the land, providing deep
footings designed by engineers expert in land-
slide risk and mitigation, and modifying surface
runoff and mudflows through the construction of
swales and channels. It also makes sense to pro-
vide flexible pipe fittings for buried natural gas
and water lines to reduce risk of breakage or
leaks.
Design for Extreme Heat
According to the US EPA, “Extreme Heat Event
(EHE) conditions are defined by summertime
weather that is substantially hotter and/or more
humid than average for a location at that time of
year. Because how hot it feels depends on the inter-
action of multiple meteorological variables (e.g.,
temperature, humidity, cloud cover), EHE criteria
typically shift by location and time of year” [37].
Concerns are greatest when the number of days
lengthen to weeks or more. Their effects are par-
ticularly significant in urban settings due to the
urban heat island effect which can lead to
increased mortality, particularly for vulnerable
groups like the very young, the elderly, and dis-
advantaged populations without access to air con-
ditioning. The 2003 heat wave in Europe is
estimated to have caused 30,000 deaths
[38]. The impact was especially strong because
the existing built infrastructure of the typically
mild summer climate could not adapt to the
extreme heat.
There are some basic strategies that should be
followed in the design for extreme heat and future
warming conditions. Many of these are consistent
with fundamental passive design solutions found
in much further detail elsewhere in this Encyclo-
pedia. A useful resource is “Design for Future
Climates” by Bill Gething which outlines three
major approaches to design for extreme heat: on
154
the building site, reduce the heat island effect and
provide for external spaces by incorporating max-
imizing shade, native planting, and permeable
pavement systems. For the building enclosure,
design to reduce heat gain and allow for passive
cooling, incorporting improved envelopes, roof
coverings that meet the Cool Roofing Rating
Council [39] standards, shading devices and nat-
ural ventilation systems. For the building condi-
tioning systems, design for optimum cooling
efficiency and future expansion and flexibility. If
not currently available, systems should be
designed to allow for future connections to renew-
able energy and/or district energy solutions.
Design for Drought
Climate change is predicted to increase precipita-
tion in some regions and seasons and reduce it in
others. In the mid-latitudes, in particular,
increased summer drying is expected [40]. With
drought, the output of hydroelectric generators
drops, and with severe drought, thermoelectric
power plants can be affected, as the water level
in reservoirs and other surface waters drop and
cooling water becomes less available. (The vast
majority of US power plants are thermoelectric
plants that depend on cooling water for their
operation.)
Severe drought can also result in infrastructure
failures that contribute to wasted water and water
shortages. For example, during the severe drought
in Fort Worth, Texas, in 2011, shrinking clay soils
resulted in more than 200 water main breaks. The
same year, drought-related wildfires in Lubbock,
Texas, knocked out power to 20% of the city’s
water supply for 2 weeks [41].
Creating buildings that are more resilient to
drought involves, first and foremost, maximizing
water efficiency. Specifying the most water-
conserving plumbing fixtures and appliances
goes a long way toward reducing water consump-
tion and allowing continued functioning with
curtailed water supply. Outdoor landscapes
should be designed for xeriscaping using native,
drought-adapted plantings that can survive with-
out irrigation.
Beyond water conservation measures, we can
rely on on-site water storage. Water storage can be
Resilient Design
integrated with rainwater harvesting, or it can rely
on municipal or well water. Cisterns are available
in a wide range of sizes and can be buried, ground
mounted, or roof mounted. With elevated cisterns
(rooftop or otherwise), delivery of water by grav-
ity flow can enhance resilience.
To be used for potable applications, harvested
rainwater or water that has been stored for any
length of time in a cistern should be filtered and
treated. However, a cistern designed for landscape
irrigation without a high level of filtration can be
used in emergency situations with a simple ultra-
fine hand filter or treatment with water treatment
tablets to kill bacteria and viruses.
Redundant water supplies can further enhance
resilience. Buildings on municipal water systems
would be more resilient if they also had rainwater
harvesting systems and/or a drilled well. Rural
homeowners with deep wells and submersible
pumps might want to develop a spring
(if feasible) or install a rainwater harvesting
system.
Design for Winter Storms
Winter storms have for centuries brought hardship
to affected communities, and that is expected to
continue even as the planet warms overall. The
changing precipitation patterns described above
may also increase winter storm intensity. In more
northern climates, being prepared for winter
storms is an important component of resilient
design.
Preparing for winter storms involves both
building design and a strategy for ensuring safety
and functionality during power outages.
Relative to building design, preparing for win-
ter storms may involve the following:
• Ensuring adequate structural design to carry
significant snow loads.
• Ensuring high levels of insulation and air tight-
ness to capture internal heat sources.
• Designing an air-sealing and/or roof-
ventilation strategy to minimize the risk of
ice dams.
• Ensuring proper design to minimize the risk of
frozen pipes, such as avoiding running water
pipes through exterior walls.
Resilient Design
• Providing a plan for removing snow during
extreme snowfall events. This might include
stair access to low-slope roofs on commercial
buildings and space on the building site to store
snow piled up by plowing.
• Ensure building safety and functionality in the
face of power, gas, and water infrastructure
failures, to be further discussed below.
Resilient Design Strategies for
Infrastructure Failures
Design for Power Outages: Passive
Survivability
Extended power outages may occur as a cascading
impact of many natural disasters as well as certain
terrorist actions (including cyberterrorism). For
these reasons, we should be designing buildings –
particularly homes, apartment buildings, schools,
and other buildings that may serve as shelters – so
that they will maintain habitable temperatures
should they lose power. This is the concept of
passive survivability, an idea first proposed by
BuildingGreen [42] and addressed in The New
Orleans Principles [43].
To achieve passive survivability (or thermal
habitability), the following design features should
be included:
1. A highly insulated building envelope.
2. High-performance windows or glazing sys-
tems (triple-glazing and dual low-emissivity
coatings recommended in colder climates).
3. Tight construction – achieving Passive House
standards for air tightness is recommended,
with mechanical ventilation relied on during
normal building operation to ensure adequate
fresh air.
4. Cooling-load avoidance measures, including
such features as overhangs above windows,
vegetative shading, window treatments to con-
trol solar gain (exterior roller shutters, interior
insulating blinds, interior louvered shutters,
reflective coatings, etc.).
5. Passive solar heating with more glass oriented
to the south in all climates with heating loads
and thermal mass to store heat.
155
6. Natural ventilation.
7. Daylighting
Backup and Redundant Power Systems
While buildings should be able to maintain habit-
able temperatures during power outages (passive
survivability), a greater level of functionality can
be retained in a building that has backup power.
Backup power systems come in various forms and
provide varying levels of automation and con-
trols. The most common options are described
below:
Portable, gasoline-fuel generators. The most
prevalent backup power systems for homes are
fuel-fired generators. Portable, gasoline-fueled
generators are common for homes, with outputs
ranging from about 500 watts to about 10 kilo-
watts (kW). These can be started up outdoors, and
critical electrical loads can be plugged into them:
emergency lighting, a refrigerator, radio, etc. Most
of these portable generators are not wired into the
home’s electrical panel or even a critical-loads
subpanel. Most are totally separate from the
house wiring and require the homeowner to plug
the appliance, lighting fixture, and other electric
loads into outlets on the generator. Larger gener-
ators have more outlets than smaller ones, and
some offer 220 volt as well as 110 volt output.
For safety reasons, they should be operated out-
doors, not inside a building or even a garage.
Stationary generators. Stationary generators
are typically larger than portable generators.
These are typically fueled by diesel, propane, or
natural gas, and they range in size from about
5 kW to several hundred kW, with much larger
generators serving large commercial and indus-
trial facilities.
Access to Potable Water
For situations in which building occupants must
shelter in place following a disaster, access to
potable water is critically important. How this is
addressed depends on the water source for the
building. According to the USGS, approximately
86% of the US population lives in buildings
served by municipal wastewater systems; the
remaining 14% are on private wells, springs, or
other sources [44].
156
Most municipal water systems are reasonably
resilient. The pumps needed to deliver the filtered
water typically have backup generators to maintain
operation during power outages. So, unless the
water mains are damaged or there are problems at
the pumping station or filtration plant (as could hap-
pen with an earthquake), municipal delivery of pota-
ble water to the building can usually be assumed.
In high-rise buildings served by municipal
water, however, there are often pumps within the
building that are needed to deliver water to higher
floors. In New York City, for example, gravity
flow from reservoirs serving the city will deliver
water to about the 6th floor, but pumps are needed
within the buildings to deliver water to higher
floors (and provide adequate water pressure for
even low-rise buildings) [45].
To address the need to provide residents of taller
buildings with access to potable water, faucets can
be installed on lower floors (low enough that the
municipal water is delivered without in-building
pumps) that are accessible to all residents. This
solution is now required in New York City for all
new high-rise residential buildings [46].
To protect against the prospect of a municipal
water source becoming inoperable or unavailable as
a result of a disaster or other event, potable water
can be stored onsite. The Sphere Handbook, an
internationally recognized set of “common princi-
ples and universal minimum standards in life-
saving areas of humanitarian response,” lists per
capita potable water requirements as follows [47]:
• Survival needs (water intake): 2.5–3 liters per
day (0.7–0.8 gallons per day), depending on
climate and individual physiology
• Basic hygiene practices: 2–6 liters per day
(0.5–1.6 gallons per day), depending on social
and cultural norms – although this does not
include toilet flushing
• Cooking: 3–6 liters per day (0.8–1.6 gallons
per day), depending on food type and social
and cultural norms
• Totals: 7.5–15 liters per person per day
(2.0–4.0 gallons per person per day)
The duration of an emergency for which water
should be stored is hard to predict. For residential
Resilient Design
buildings in earthquake-prone locations, adequate
water storage for 5 or 7 days is reasonable. Water
can be stored in packaged water bottles, 5-gallon
carboys, specialized vessels for water storage in
buildings, or more sophisticated cisterns. Keeping
water containers sealed to keep out contaminants
is advised, as is keeping them in a dark location to
prevent algae growth.
For buildings that are not served by a municipal
water supply, resilience can be provided either by
storing water (as above) or by providing an alter-
native means of pumping or delivering water. Most
buildings with their own water supplies are rural
homes that are served by deep wells and submers-
ible pumps. Emergency water supplies can be pro-
vided by having a backup generator to power the
submersible pump (note that most submersible
pumps in North America are 240 volt), a solar-
powered pump that can work during the day on
sunny days, or a hand pump. State-of-the-art hand
pumps today maintain their prime for months,
include weep holes for freeze protection, and can
pump from a depth of several hundred feet [48].
In rural areas, some homeowners may have
access to a spring. If that is an option, the spring
should be tested to ensure that the water quality is
adequate. This provides the ultimate in water
resilience.
Resilient Wastewater Systems
Depending on the building and the toilet fixtures,
wastewater disposal can be one of the most chal-
lenging problems in the event of a disaster, power
outage, or loss of municipal wastewater.
Gravity-flush toilets (with tanks and removable
lids) tend to be more resilient than “blow-out”
toilets that rely on water pressure for flushing. If
a power outage eliminates the water source or
there is a problem with the water supply, the toilet
tank of gravity-flush toilets can be manually filled
with water by removing the lid and then flushed as
usual. That is not possible with blow-out toilets
relying on water pressure for flushing or for
pressure-assist toilets that have an inner pressure
tank within the tank above the toilet bowl.
There may also be a problem with toilet flushing
in multifamily residential or commercial buildings
when the sewer line in the basement has been
Resilient Design
closed off with a manual valve to protect against
backflow into the building through the sewer line.
Backflow preventers (one-way valves) should not
be a problem, but manual-closure valves are some-
times installed as an extra precaution.
The most resilient wastewater system is a
composting toilet system with a large composting
chamber located beneath the toilet – usually in the
basement. Most composting toilets do not require
water or electricity (other than for ventilation). An
exception is a composting toilet served by foam-
flush toilets; these require both electricity and a
small amount of water for operation.
Usually, the compost vessel in a commercially
sized composting toilet will not fill up following a
disaster, because most interruptions are short
term, but in an exceptional climate or infrastruc-
ture failure event, emptying out waste before that
waste is fully composted may be necessary. In
such a situation, significant caution should be
exercised, because pathogens from the human
waste could be present.
In larger multifamily buildings, the suggestion
is sometimes made to provide two composting
toilets (one for men, one for women) on the
ground floor that can be used in the event of an
emergency [49].
Future Directions
We live in a world of complacency. Most of us
have enough on our plates that we do not want to
add new concerns – like what to do about a poten-
tial flood or earthquake or power outage due to
cyberterrorism. That complacency is interrupted,
from time to time, by major events, such as Hur-
ricane Katrina, Superstorm Sandy, the California
Drought of the 2010s, and “Snowmageddon” in
February 2010.
Immediately after such events – sometimes for
several years – there is a lot of interest in how to
enhance our resilience to climate disturbances.
But as memories fade, that awareness of the
need for greater resilience gradually shifts to the
back burner to make room for other concerns.
In some cases, our complacency is interrupted
by predictions about potential events – as
157
occurred in the Pacific Northwest following pub-
lication in The New Yorker of an article, “The
Really Big One,” with the attention-grabbing
lead: “An earthquake will destroy a sizeable por-
tion of the Pacific Northwest. The question is
when” [50]. That article on the Cascadia Subduc-
tion Zone fault inspired a flurry of resilience
actions in Portland and other cities in Oregon
and Washington. But such instances are fairly
rare. We tend to sit back and then express surprise
when something happens, or we blame officials
for not doing something about that risk.
Each of these events, however, does move the
needle forward, even if slightly. We have been
lucky, to date, that the well-publicized, wide-
spread power outages that affected major popula-
tion centers of the US over the past several
decades have occurred during moderate weather.
A week-long power outage in New York City in
July, with temperatures in the upper 1990s and
relative humidity over 90%, would likely result in
significant fatalities and increase demand for
changing building codes to ensure that at least
new buildings provide for passive survivability.
Climate change and global terrorism are likely
to increase the frequency of these crises,
reminding us that resilient design is a high prior-
ity. Resilience will move back onto the front
burner, and we will see many resilient design
initiatives and codes implemented. We should
take action to avoid the losses and hardships that
accompany the increasing number of natural and
man-made disasters, by ensuring that resilient
design becomes standard design.
Bibliography
Primary Literature
1. U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit. Glossary. https://
toolkit.climate.gov/content/glossary
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proposals. Urban Green, New York
 Part II
Urban Design for Sustainability

Sustainable Urbanism
Douglas Farr
Founding Principal, Farr Associates, Chicago,
IL, USA
Article Outline
Glossary
Definition of the Subject
Introduction
Topic 1: Building a Movement
Topic 2: Thresholds of Sustainable Urbanism
Future Directions
Bibliography
Glossary
Biophilia The human love of nature based inon
the intrinsic interdependence between humans
and other living systems.
Charrette A planning session in which partici-
pants brainstorm and visualize solutions to a
design issue.
Comprehensive plan (also master plan or gen-
eral plan) A municipal document(s) based
upon establishing long-term goals and objectives
that serves as a guide for making land use
changes, preparation of capital improvement
programs, and the rate, timing, and location of
future development. Elements include economic
development, environment, housing, land use,
recreation and open space, and transportation.
Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) An
organization founded in 1993 by six
architects – Peter Calthorpe, Andrés Duany,
Elizabeth Moule, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk,
Stefanos Polyzoides, and Daniel Solomon –
united around a shared vision of promoting
traditional urbanism as an antidote to conven-
tional sprawl created an ad hoc organization to
convene annual congresses.
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
V. Loftness (ed.), Sustainable Built Environments,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-0684-1_1044
Originally published in
R. A. Meyers (ed.), Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology, Springer Science+Business Media LLC 2018
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2493-6_1044-1
Degree-day A measurement of indoor heating
requirements affected by outside temperatures.
The number of degree-days for any given day
is calculated by subtracting the mean outside
temperature from 65  F, and the total degree-
days for any longer period is the sum of the
degree-days of the individual days in that
period.
Green building or green design Building
design that yields environmental benefits,
such as savings in energy, building materials,
water consumption, and reduced waste
generation.
Greenfield Newly developed real estate on what
was previously undeveloped open space.
Infill development Development occurring
within established areas of a city.
Integrated design A design approach that opti-
mizes the performance of a building as an
entire system, which improves a building’s
performance at little or no added cost simply
by shifting money within the project.
LEED-ND USGBC’s Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design (LEED) standards for
Neighborhood Development (ND), which
expands the LEED brand for green buildings
beyond the scale of the individual building to
address multiple buildings, infrastructure, and
neighborhood-scale developments.
Mixed-use A development that combines resi-
dential (multifamily such as fourplexes,
condos, apartments, townhouses), commercial,
retail, and/or office uses, either in a vertical
fashion (i.e., a single building that allows res-
idential uses above ground-floor commercial
uses) or a horizontal fashion (i.e., a neighbor-
hood urban center of adjacent buildings and
uses clustered together in a development less
than 40 acres).
New urbanism Neighborhood design approach
to promote community and livability. Charac-
teristics include narrow streets, wide side-
walks, porches, and homes located closer
together than typical suburban designs.
163
164
Planning The process of setting development goals
and policy, gathering and evaluating information,
and developing alternatives for future actions
based on the evaluation of the information.
Sprawl Patterns of urban growth that include
large acreage of low-density residential devel-
opment, rigid separation between residential
and commercial uses (and/or walled residential
subdivisions that do not connect), leapfrog
development (areas of vacant land between
areas of developed land), minimal support for
non-motorized and non-automobile transporta-
tion methods, and a lack of integrated transpor-
tation and land use planning.
Streetscape The space between the buildings on
either side of a street that defines its character.
The elements of a streetscape include building
frontage/façade, landscaping, sidewalks, street
paving, street furniture, signs, awnings, and
street lighting.
Traditional neighborhood design (TND) A
basic unit of new urbanism containing a center
that includes a public space and commercial
enterprises; an identifiable edge, ideally a
5-min walk from the center; a mix of activities
and variety of housing types; an interconnected
network of streets, usually in a grid pattern; and
prominently located civic buildings and open
space that includes parks, plazas, and squares.
Transit-oriented development (TOD) A form
of development that emphasizes alternative
forms of transportation other than the
automobile – such as walking, cycling, and
mass transit – as part of its design. Transit-
oriented development locates retail and office
space around a transit stop. This activity center
is located adjacent to a residential area with a
variety of housing options, such as apartments,
townhouses, duplexes, and single-family
houses. It is similar to a traditional neighbor-
hood development.
Urban growth boundaries Boundary lines
around urban developments beyond which
land development is not permitted.
Zoning A legislative process that regulates
building dimensions, density, design, place-
ment, and use within different areas and dis-
tricts of a community.
Sustainable Urbanism
Definition of the Subject
Sustainable urbanism is walkable and transit-
served urbanism integrated with high-
performance buildings and high-performance
infrastructure. Sustainable urbanism emphasizes
that the personal appeal and societal benefits of
neighborhood living – meeting daily needs on
foot – are greatest in neighborhoods that integrate
compactness (density), completeness, connected-
ness, and biophilia (human access to nature).
Sustainable urbanism is really a call for integrat-
ing all human and natural systems that make up a
neighborhood or corridor (groups of neighborhoods).
It compiles many of the social, economic, and eco-
logical systems that support complete neighborhoods
and corridors. As with integrated building design, the
magnified benefits may come at little or no additional
cost. The locations with the greatest potential for
cross-system integration are dense, mixed-use, and
served by transit. Rights-of-way offer significant
potential for better integration. Potentially immense
economic and environmental benefits may result
from integrating high-performance transport, water,
sewer, lighting, and power systems with high-
performance buildings that consume few to no
resources and produce little to no waste.
Sustainable urbanism is based on the neighbor-
hood unit, an early planning construct.
A performance-based definition of neighborhood
is a settlement that has a defined center and an
agreed-to extent, is walkable, and is diverse in
terms of building types, people, and uses. Sustain-
able urbanism expands the role of the neighbor-
hood to address its proportionate share of
society’s social and environmental needs.
Figure 1 shows a potential template for a sus-
tainable urbanist neighborhood. This diagram
builds on two previous neighborhood diagrams:
Clarence Perry’s diagram of the neighborhood
unit, published as part of the 1929 Regional Plan
of New York and Its Environs [1], and the Duany
Plater-Zyberk (DPZ) urban neighborhood dia-
gram, which is based on Clarence Perry’s
neighborhood unit.
There are five distinctions in the resulting
urban neighborhood diagram: (1) the sustainable
neighborhood aspires to be a building block for a
Sustainable Urbanism 165

Sustainable Urbanism, Fig. 1 Sustainable neighborhood diagram. Doug Farr, Leslie Oberholtzer, and Christian
Schaller (© Farr Associates)

transit corridor; (2) there is a fixed-route high- performance infrastructure, district power, dim-
intensity transit mode (BRT, trolley, light rail) at mable streetlights, and a share car per block;
the center; (3) it is fitted out with high- (4) the mix and density support car-free housing
166
and a “third place” setting; and (5) habitat and
infrastructure greenways offer the neighborhood
an agreed-upon spatial extent.
The importance of sustainable urbanism is
pressing in the United States, where decades of
single use zoning and sprawl have eliminated
these historic distinctions. These distinctions are
also urgent for emerging developments in Asia,
Eastern Europe, Africa, and the Americas where
US land use approaches are aspirational and con-
sidered signs of “progress.” For all of us, the
guidelines and metrics of sustainable urban pat-
terns will be critical.
Introduction
Humans are now a “superspecies”; humans make
personal and national choices that together deter-
mine the world that future generations will inherit,
as well as the fate of many of the world’s other
species. The American lifestyle puts society and
the planet on the wrong course. Sustainable
urbanism celebrates the power of design and
offers an emerging pattern of human settlement
that can strengthen the interdependence, and
therefore the success, of all life on Earth.
To understand how sustainable urbanism offers
a solution, it is important to first understand the
current problem. Americans are experiencing a
serious deterioration in public health. The US pop-
ulation is sedentary and deprived of exercise, and
the result is a rising incidence of obesity. Today’s
average American weighs 25 pounds more than a
generation ago [2]. While four-, five-, and even six-
story residential walk-up buildings were common-
place in most large American cities during the
nineteenth century, the use of stairs has been
actively discouraged by elevators and the fire stair
enclosure requirements of twentieth- and twenty-
first-century US building codes.
Lives are also increasingly lived indoors. New
streetscapes are hostile to pedestrians and discour-
age travel by foot. New buildings are designed
with air-conditioning for indoor living rather than
operating with open windows and doors that draw
people outdoors.
The lack of human contact with nature has
inured and possibly blinded people to the terrible
Sustainable Urbanism
damage being done to the planet. An unequivocal
international scientific consensus backs the fact
that, after only a few generations of the petroleum
age, the resulting increase in human population
and the increasing per capita impact from human
activities have changed the Earth’s climate [3].
A prime reason for this, and a lifestyle choice
made early and rarely questioned, is the love affair
with the automobile. Most Americans rely on cars
to meet their daily needs. The “freedom of the
road” is cherished and safeguarded with a zeal-
ousness that suggests it was written into the
Constitution.
The joint addiction to driving and oil comes at
an extremely high cost to individuals and families.
As of 2016, the average cost of owning, operating,
and maintaining a new car is estimated to be over
$8,500 per year [4].
Parking exacts its own toll on business, gov-
ernment, and the environment. Street networks
and parking spaces are expensive to build. The
cost of constructing parking spaces is high
($2,500 to $5,000 for a surface spot and $30,000
to $50,000 for underground spaces) – a national
capital investment of between $5 trillion and $10
trillion. Despite this enormous investment in
parking, it is generally offered free to users, paid
for by the private sector through increased busi-
ness prices and by the public sector in taxes.
Less than 1% of the 8,271,117 lane-miles [5] of
highways, roads, and streets in the United States
charge tolls [6]. Gas taxes pay most of the cost of
highway construction and maintenance, while the
vast majority of local roads are paid for with local
taxes [7]. Furthering the challenge, from 1950 to
1990 Americans developed land at more than
three times the rate of population growth [8].
This low-density development results in the
highest per capita demands on natural systems and
habitats.
The conventional view in America is to think of
cities as the source of the pollution that is causing
climate change. Indeed, per unit of land area, cities
generate a great deal of pollution (Fig. 2, traditional
view). However, on a per capita basis, city dwellers
generate the least CO2 (Fig. 2, emerging view).
The American dream of a large house on a large lot
in the suburbs is what’s most responsible for
cooking the planet.
Sustainable Urbanism 167

Sustainable Urbanism, Fig. 2 Cities and CO2 (© Center for Neighborhood Technology 2007)

While energy codes adopted by states and
municipalities over the last few years have
increased building energy efficiency per square
foot, the square footage of the average American
house appears to be increasing more quickly, can-
celing out efficiency gains.
The public infrastructure required to support this
low-density development is also expensive to build
and maintain, especially when measured per capita.
National studies show that low-density development
increases the cost of hard infrastructure and with it
the tax burden for all, by an average of 11% [9].
168
Despite the many benefits urbanism bestows
on the Earth, conventional urbanism obliterates
virtually all the systems of nature it comes into
contact with. While the lower densities of conven-
tional postwar suburbs allowed a higher percent-
age of the land area to consist of vegetation, much
of it is residual and fenced into small private
parcels, devaluing the utility of this unbuilt land
for both human delight and nonhuman habitat.
As a consequence of this suppression of nature,
most people live out of daily contact with natural
systems. Without feedback regarding the enor-
mous stress that their lifestyle places on nature,
they conduct their daily lives largely
unconstrained by concerns about it. This discon-
nect from nature is increasingly thought to con-
tribute to a number of psychological harms, such
as increased stress and attention deficit hyperac-
tivity disorder (ADHD) [10].
It should be clear now that the lifestyle choices
made by Americans (and subsequently others
around the world) have inexorably altered the
built and natural environment. Americans are pay-
ing a terribly high price in individual health, a
general sense of well-being, and happiness. Peo-
ple in the United States are alienated from
sustenance-providing nature. Perhaps worst of
all, the United States is jeopardizing the global
climate and is confused as to the causes.
Within the context of these wrongs, the goal of
sustainable urbanism is to chart a compelling future.
Topic 1: Building a Movement
Pioneering Reforms: Setting the Stage for
Sustainable Urbanism
Sustainable urbanism draws attention to the enor-
mous opportunity to redesign the built environment
Sustainable Urbanism, Fig. 3 The natural transect. Drawing by the office of Wallace, Roberts, McHarg, and Todd,
circa 1970 (© Wallace Roberts, McHarg & Todd, LLC)
Sustainable Urbanism
in a manner that supports a higher quality of life and
promotes a healthy and sustainable American life-
style. The basis for this transformation of the built
environment is a synthesis of urbanism – the
millennia-old tradition of human settlements –
with the late twentieth-century environmentalism
that started with Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring.
The synthesis of these two intellectual and practical
histories requires a new consensus on the role of
humans in nature.
The 1969 book Design with Nature [11], by
Scottish landscape architect Ian McHarg, was the
first to explain to a relatively wide audience geo-
graphic information systems (GIS), the natural
transect (Fig. 3), and other ecological principles.
However, Design with Nature stopped short of
trying to improve cities by fully integrating their
design with natural systems. This obliviousness is
revealed in the built work – essentially well-
landscaped, auto-dependent suburbs – which are
still mistakenly seen by many as a sustainable
practice.
Transcending McHarg, sustainable urbanism
grows out of three late twentieth-century reform
movements that highlight the benefits of integrat-
ing human and natural systems: the smart growth,
new urbanism, and green building movements.
Even these movements, highly worthy both
individually and collectively, have a myopia
when it comes to searching for long-term solu-
tions. Further, there has been an understandable
but unfortunate tendency toward self-validation,
resulting in an unwillingness to engage in a larger,
more comprehensive agenda. For instance, a cer-
tified green building isn’t really a positive contri-
bution to the environment when it is surrounded
by a massive paved parking lot, since a walkable
neighborhood is hard to sustain when its houses
are isolated.
Sustainable Urbanism
Sustainable urbanism attempts to bring these
three important movements together and knit
them into a more comprehensive design philoso-
phy to allow and create truly sustainable human
environments.
Smart Growth: The Environmental Conscience
of Sustainable Urbanism
Smart growth has its roots in the environmental
movement of the 1970s. The unique burst of fed-
eral environmentalism from that decade included
the National Land Use Policy Act, which was
intended to encourage states to develop coordi-
nated state land use plans, and proposed a new
federal agency and a land-planning database
[12]. While the proposed act failed, its proposal
for state-by-state land use planning was adopted
in several pioneering states in the intervening
years.
In 1973 Oregon’s legislature passed a law
requiring all the state’s municipalities to designate
urban growth boundaries (UGBs), rings beyond
which land development was not permitted
[13]. UGB succeeded in controlling the scope of
land development, thus preserving the state’s sce-
nic treasures; however, it did little to ensure the
quality of development within the UGB, leading
to well-located bad development (aka “smart
sprawl”). A piece of Maryland legislation, the
Smart Growth and Neighborhood Conservation
Program, was enacted in 1997 and designated
urban growth areas that were eligible for state
infrastructure.
The smart growth movement embraced a
broader agenda in 1996 with the development of
ten principles of smart growth. At the time, many
environmentalists were simply anti-growth and
viewed all development, largely without distinc-
tion, as hostile to the environment. The principles
were successful in uniting a decentralized grass-
roots movement of local and regional citizen
activists and municipal leaders under the smart
growth banner. However, the vagueness of the
standards, and the smart growth movement’s deci-
sion to lend its name to development projects of
sometimes minimal incremental improvement,
worked to devalue the smart growth “brand.”
169
Congress for the New Urbanism:
Sustainability’s Urban Design Movement
The Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) was
founded by six architects in 1993 around a shared
vision of promoting traditional urbanism as an
antidote to conventional sprawl. Throughout the
1990s, new urbanism became an increasingly
large part of mainstream development discourse.
It has excelled at creating mixed-use neighbor-
hood developments and transit villages, featuring
town centers, fine-grained walkable street grids,
and a highly diverse ensemble of traditional build-
ings and regional architectural styles. Because the
projects are routinely deemed illegal under local
zoning laws and go against most conventional
development practices, the new urbanists have
pioneered new approval techniques (notably the
town planning charrette) and zoning recommen-
dations [14]. The CNU desire to control the long-
term placement and design of buildings led to the
development of form-based coding, a high-
performance alternative to conventional Euclid-
ean zoning (Fig. 4).
Despite its many achievements, the CNU has
proved only somewhat successful in reforming
state or national practices. In large part this is
because the CNU has focused on convincing
local regulators to create exceptions to conven-
tional practice and to allow the approval of indi-
vidual projects. While effective on a case-by-case
basis, this pragmatic approach has left intact a
foundation of hostile single-issue standards as
well as a built environment that remains domi-
nated by climate-changing sprawl.
USGBC: Sustainability’s Building Performance
and Certification Movement
The oil shocks of the 1970s jump-started a move-
ment for building energy efficiency and solar-
heated and solar-powered buildings. Inspired by
the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, the American Insti-
tute of Architect’s Committee on the Environment
published The Environmental Resource Guide in
1993, a comprehensive catalogue on the theory,
practice, and technology of “environmental”
buildings. This subsequently inspired the creation
of the US Green Building Council (USGBC). The
USGBC made two very smart moves to accelerate
170 Sustainable Urbanism

Sustainable Urbanism, Fig. 4 Three forms of development regulation: conventional zoning, design guidelines, and
form-based codes (© Peter Katz and Steve Price)
Sustainable Urbanism
the adoption of environmental or green building
practices: it expanded its audience outside the
architecture profession, and it sought to mobilize
the private sector.
The USGBC drafted the pioneering Leader-
ship in Energy and Environmental Design
(LEED) standards for green building. The LEED
standard combines prerequisites with optional
credits that earn points toward an overall score,
which then corresponds to LEED certification
categories from Certified to Platinum. This flexi-
bility works well in the marketplace, allowing a
project to incorporate those green building strate-
gies most attainable by the project.
The US General Services Administration’s
requirement for all government-owned and
government-developed buildings to be LEED-
certified created a market for LEED-rated build-
ings and continues to deliver large square footages
of LEED-certified projects every year. As a result,
LEED has become increasingly mainstream,
refocusing the entire building industry toward
more sustainable practices. As of May 2016,
there were about 80,000 projects participating in
LEED and over 200,000 professionals with LEED
credentials [15].
The backbone of the success of LEED has been
the ability of the USGBC to quickly scale up –
increasing its staff, its technical advisory groups,
and certification operations at a geometric pace
while maintaining quality and integrity. A second
engine driving green building practice is the con-
cept of integrated design: working in interdisci-
plinary teams to optimize overall building
performance without adding construction cost.
The dominant unit of reform within the LEED
system remains the stand-alone building. This
greatly limits the power of LEED certifications
for individual buildings to have any effect on
their surrounding context. In 2005, in a significant
signal of its intention to move beyond the stand-
alone building, the USGBC board modified its
mission to address both buildings and community
through the creation of LEED for Neighborhood
Development (LEED-ND).
The professional cultures of urban designers
and architects are shifting; it is no longer accept-
able to build a high-performance building in a
171
greenfield, automobile-dependent context and
have it certified as “green.” It is also no longer
good enough to develop in a responsible location
and build an admirable, walkable, mixed-use
neighborhood while ignoring the level of
resources required to build and maintain the build-
ings within that location.
The work and principles of the aforementioned
groups and movements – smart growth, new
urbanism, and green communities as represented
by LEED-ND – are heartening developments.
They are essential stepping-stones. Individually,
however, none can solve the challenges that soci-
ety is facing. Only with a concerted effort, only by
fusing their various initiatives into a cooperative
whole, can there be a new framework that sup-
ports a truly sustainable lifestyle.
Pilgrimage Sites: Case Studies in Sustainable
Urbanism
The best sustainable urbanist neighborhoods are
more than assemblages of energy-saving technol-
ogies. Sustainability embraces context. While
cookie-cutter subdivisions and nondescript strip
malls blanket the country like so many inter-
changeable parts, the best sustainable urbanism
locks in to celebrate place. Sustainable urbanism
takes stock of an area’s environmental, social, and
economic wealth and augments it through neigh-
borhood and corridor design. Case studies give
the opportunity to see how various participants
worldwide have adapted the principles of sustain-
ability to the places they know and love.
Developing sustainable urbanism requires a
level of design coordination and of development
sophistication beyond conventional practice. Yet
pioneers have chosen to pursue this approach in
projects worldwide. Amazingly, many projects
needed only one well-placed champion to steer
them in pursuit of a sustainable urbanist vision.
These leaders can be mayors, planners, devel-
opers, activists, or any combination thereof.
When so many barriers to the sustainable urbanist
movement exist, vision and leadership are without
doubt the most valuable assets these projects
possess.
One exemplary case study is the redevelop-
ment of Uptown Normal. Since the year 2000,
172 Sustainable Urbanism

the Town of Normal, Illinois, has been
implementing their transformative Uptown
Renewal Plan. One component, Uptown Circle,
became a community-defining plaza and green
infrastructure innovation, treating Uptown’s
stormwater sustainably. Uptown also kept up
with changing sustainability benchmarks – first
certifying as LEED-ND Silver in 2009, followed
by becoming a Living Community Challenge
Pilot in 2014. The project experienced so much
success; the Town completed an Uptown 2.0 Plan
in 2015 to explore strategies that would expand
Uptown’s benefits to adjacent areas. When pro-
jects incorporate urban design, nature, and tech-
nology, they can become exemplary and can serve
as powerful catalysts for continued improvements
across the nation and globe.
Part of the sustainable urbanist movement is
maintaining a database of such exemplary projects.
These can be found at www.thepatternproject.org.
Lasting Impact
The sustainable urbanism movement seeks to cre-
ate a brand, agenda, and standards that can lever-
age further progress in the field of sustainable
built environments. While no formal measures of
impact exist, sustainable urbanism is moving the
field forward. For example, the 2012 book Sus-
tainable Urbanism and Beyond continues the con-
versation about safe, healthy, and lovable urban
environments and includes critiques of the sus-
tainable neighborhood diagram (Fig. 1).
The movement aims to accelerate the parallel
reforms and efforts needed to create a tipping
point in support of widespread adoption of sus-
tainable urbanism. The progression from LEED
certification for buildings to LEED certification
for communities – a fundamental aspect of sus-
tainable urbanism – has resulted in myriad new
systems for evaluating and improving sustainable
communities, including the Living Community
Challenge, EarthCraft, STAR (Sustainability
Tools for Assessing and Rating) Communities,
EcoDistricts, etc. While there are plenty of pro-
jects that have the more generic “sustainable”
label without actually producing sustainable out-
comes, projects that meet the requirements of
these certifications generally align with sustain-
able urbanist principles.
Implementation: Steps and Leadership
Agendas
See Tables 1 and 2.

Sustainable Urbanism, Table 1 The three steps of sustainable urbanism

The three steps of
sustainable
urbanism Citizen/resident/voter Planner/developer Elected official
1 agreeing to Having a standard for a I can use LEED-ND to build, Creating incentives such as
weights and certified walkable, healthy develop, and market the best expedited permitting or
measures: Making neighborhood adds value, possible projects for my reducing impact fees can
a market for like a seal of approval customers encourage more sustainable
sustainable developments that embrace
urbanism rating systems such as
LEED-ND
2 dismantling Subsidies and zoning laws Density is no longer a dirty Current codes are outdated
petroleum-era are benefiting special word but in fact provides and isolate America’s
barriers to interests and are not in the opportunities for mass transit communities, forcing people
sustainable best interest of my that can liberate people from to drive
urbanism community their cars
3 A national Getting involved in a national The 2030 community The 2030 community
campaign to campaign such as the 2030 challenge is good for challenge can conserve
implement community challenge makes business and good for the scarce public money and help
sustainable me feel like I am contributing planet the environment. It’s just
urbanism to something bigger good government
Sustainable Urbanism 173

Sustainable Urbanism, Table 2 Implementation agendas for leaders

Catalyzing action
Promote sustainable urbanism
Hire sustainable urbanist
professionals
Select and support sustainable
urbanist developers
Benchmark sustainability goals
Revise outdated regulations
Initiate a catalytic sustainable
urbanist project
Develop a sustainable
neighborhood
Develop a sustainable corridor
Create places conducive to all
forms of life
Implementation agenda
Communicate the many benefits of sustainable urbanism. Update progress on
sustainability
Sponsor a sustainable urbanist lecture series to increase awareness and build the
capacity to integrate sustainable urbanism into each and every project
Hire staff and a development team with a sustainable urbanist outlook
Require that an experienced sustainable urbanist be included on each project team
Include sustainable urbanist developers on project teams
Evaluate the level of public support for a given project
Develop benchmarks for a municipality’s sustainability goals. Track progress
toward those benchmarks regularly
Modify comprehensive plan law to require sustainable initiatives and
benchmarking of all sustainability goals in future municipal land use plans
Replace parking, lighting, and building setback minimums with maximums
Replace building height, density, and share car maximums with minimums.
Adopt standards that address multiple variables on a per capita or sliding scale
Find a model project of the appropriate size to emulate in your town
Initiate a carshare program. Municipal planners should perform GIS analysis of
neighborhoods to determine the number that can viably support car share.
Increase this area by 5% per year
Develop a car-free housing project
Assess neighborhood completeness
Municipal planners should map neighborhoods in terms of auto-dependent zones,
pedestrian zones, and mixed zones. Aim to increase pedestrian zones by 5% per
year
Prepare a master land use plan identifying transportation, infrastructure, and
wildlife corridors and the adjacent areas of influence
Transit agencies should adopt “corridor transit warrants” that require the
provision of public transit service when corridor land development conforms to
minimum densities
Meet demand for transit-oriented development by planning for regional corridors
Integrate wildlife corridors into the regional network and protect them from
development

Topic 2: Thresholds of Sustainable developing sustainable urbanism. These dimen-

Urbanism
Over the last 25 years, leading planners and urban
designers have become sophisticated in their abil-
ity to conceive and sell attractive infill and master-
planned urbanist developments. The projects typ-
ically include networks of narrow streets, mixes of
housing and other building types, and a variety of
walk-to parks and address automobile parking in
creative ways. These leading projects reveal
thresholds, or rules of thumb, for designing and
sional or relational metrics, illustrated in the fol-
lowing sections, are based on expert judgment of
what will satisfy “the 80% rule” guidance that
applies most of the time and in most conditions.
Neighborhood Compactness: Increasing
Sustainable Effectiveness through Density
Many self-declared “neighborhoods” are either
too small to support any land use variety or too
large to be considered walkable.
174
Victor Dover addresses this problem by pro-
posing a minimum neighborhood size thresh-
old of 40 acres and a maximum of 200 acres,
with a neighborhood center comprising
between 6% and 10% of the total land
(Table 3).
Compactness, as compared to conventional
development, is essential to achieving sustainable
urbanism’s potential benefits for communities,
regions, and the planet.
Sustainable urbanism is simply not achievable
at low densities, below an average of seven or
eight dwelling units per acre [16]. Christopher
Leinberger of the Brookings Institution echoes
this: FARs (floor area ratios are the percentage of
land covered by the equivalent of one story build-
ings) between 0.05 and 0.30, typical of current
drivable suburban development, “do not effi-
ciently support transit” and result in neighbor-
hoods where “there are generally no destinations
that are walkable on a day-in, day-out basis” [17].
For these reasons, sustainable urbanism
requires minimum development densities of
approximately eight dwelling units per acre
(roughly four times higher than the average
new US development density of two dwelling
units per acre).
Sustainable urbanism requires that any
parking be sold separately from the dwelling
unit and that a minimum of one carsharing
vehicle and space be available for every ten
dwellings (Table 4).
Neighborhood Completeness: Daily and
Lifelong Utility
For neighborhoods to meet both one’s short-term
daily needs and one’s long-term needs over a
lifetime, as well as to support robust life choices,
they need to include a wide variety of land uses,
building types, and dwelling types. Design to
meet daily needs on foot creates universal inde-
pendence at opposite ends of the age spectrum –
the youngster who is not yet licensed to drive and
the senior who can no longer drive – as well as for
people with mobility impairments. Walkability
and mixed-use are a critical aspect of
completeness.
Sustainable Urbanism
Completeness also refers to the diversity of
dwelling types needed to accommodate the varied
needs for housing over a lifetime. Maintaining
lifelong relationships with family and friends has
been shown to increase health and longevity
[18]. Aging in place allows relationships to be
foot-powered, avoiding the expense and energy
use of cars or airplanes. A neighborhood that pro-
vides a full range of housing types allows people
and families to remain in the neighborhood even
as their housing needs change.
Research from Zimmerman/Volk Associ-
ates, Inc. shows that the optimum residential
mix in a downtown or intown neighborhood
(new construction or adaptive reuse) is 82%
attached and 18% detached (Table 5).
Traditional neighborhood design (TND) goes
beyond walkability, density, and housing type to
recommend: a center that includes a public space
and commercial enterprises; an identifiable edge,
ideally a 5-min walk from the center; a mix of
activities and variety of housing types; an
interconnected network of streets, usually in a
grid pattern; and prominently located civic build-
ings and open space that includes parks, plazas,
and squares. One of the primary advantages of
traditional neighborhood-designed (TND) com-
munities over conventional suburbs is the oppor-
tunity to walk to shopping and entertainment
venues. However, few communities based on
new urbanism have successfully implemented
retail centers. Given the number of housing units
common in America’s TND communities, retail
centers fail to meet minimal sales necessary for its
business owners to earn a reasonable income.
Approximately 1,000 households are neces-
sary to support the average corner store; con-
venience centers need about 2,000 households;
and neighborhood centers require 6,000–8,000
households (Table 6).
Neighborhood Connectedness: Integrating
Transportation and Land Use
Sustainable urbanism means that people have
abundant opportunities to walk, ride, bike, and
even use a wheelchair around the neighborhood,
as well as having access to good transit service to
adjacent neighborhoods and regional destinations.
Sustainable Urbanism, Table 3 Neighborhood definition
Sustainable Urbanism

Number of Number of Net residential S.F. of

Size % Area devoted to primary accessory density commercial Net commercial
Name Location (acres) center (acres) dwellings dwellings (DU/acre)a space area (S.F./acre)
Historic city of Charleston, SC 1,015 9% (88 acres) 5,428b Unknownc 7.6 Unknownc Unknownc
Charleston
Four wards in Savannah, GA 50 9% (4.5 acres) 320b Unknownc 9.1 180,200e 3,604
historic Savannahd
Seaside (original Seaside, FL 80 5% (4.1 acres) 330b Unknownc 8.2 153,034e 1,912
80 acres)
The Boston north Boston, MA 148 7% (10.3 acres) 6,600b Unknownc 82.6 708,319f 4,785
end neighborhood
Forest Hills gardens Queens, NY 142 2.8% (4.1 acres) 800b Unknownc 7.2 7,500e 52
Callery-judge grove Palm Beach 89 3% (2.7 acres) 460 350g 9.96 18,000 390
county, FL
Pulelehua Maui, HI 108 6.4% (6.9 acres) 438 101g 11 62,768 1,586
Juniper point Flagstaff, AZ 151 9.5% (14.4 acres) 1,739 342g 20 116,200 1,417
Optimum range 40–200 3–10% 400 minh 100–400
a
Residential Density = Dwelling Units – Acres (which do not include roads, parks, and public areas); Source: ArcGIS 9 ESRI Data and Maps
b
Source: US Census, 2000
c
Data unavailable
d
The four wards chosen are bounded to the north by Rt. 25, to the east by Lincoln Street, to the west by Whitaker Street, and to the south by Oglethorpe Avenue
e
Source: ArcGIS Business Analyst
f
Source: Boston Redevelopment Authority
g
Potential number of units once completely built
h
This minimum is based on 2007 assumptions about conventional retail channels of distribution and per-household purchasing. The number will change as sustainable urbanism
advances
175
176 Sustainable Urbanism

Sustainable Urbanism, Table 4 Sustainable urbanist thresholds for residential parking regulations.
Policy
Off-street parking spaces
Reduced parking
requirements
For-sale parking spaces
Shared-car parking and car
On-street parking in front of
development
Conventional practice
Minimum number
required per dwelling
Not permitted
Sold with dwelling
None required
Cannot be used to meet
requirements
Sustainable urbanism
Maximum number allowed per dwelling
Provision for shared car with shared car replaces up to
five off-street parking spaces
Sold separately
Minimum one per every ten dwellings
Can be used to meet off-street or shared car requirements

Sustainable Urbanism, Table 5 Optimum residential mix by housing type for downtown and intown neighborhoods
(new construction and/or adaptive reuse)
Rental lofts/ For-sale lofts/ For-sale rowhouses/ For-sale urban
apartments (%) apartments (%) townhouses/duplexes (%) detached houses (%)
Percent Range 23–55 17–36 15–30 10–32
of all
units
Average 37 25 20 18 100%

To achieve internal connectedness, the residential and nonresidential sites, respec-

entire neighborhood needs sidewalks on both
sides of the street, and the distance between
intersections needs to be relatively short, ide-
ally no longer than 300–500 ft.
The highest quotient of walkability will
result when the buildings that shape the street
space are set close enough to the front property
line to spatially define the streets as public
spaces, with a minimum degree of enclosure
formed by a building-height-to-street-width
proportion of 1:3 or closer.
The majority of the street network should be
designed for a maximum automobile speed of
20–25 miles per hour, and the widest street
should have no more than two travel lanes
between curbs (Table 7).
Transportation demand management com-
prises physical aspects of the built environment,
as well as behavioral aspects of how people con-
duct themselves within them.
Physical measures of the built environment
determine up to 90% of the trips generated in
residential sites and up to 35% in non-
residential sites; behavioral measures deter-
mine up to 8% and 32% of trips generated in
tively (Table 8).
Parking price elasticities will vary
according to context but generally range
from 0.1 to 0.3, that is, every 10% increase
in parking price results in a 1–3% decrease in
parking demand.
Biophilia: Connecting Humans to Nature
Sustainable urbanism seeks to connect people to
nature and natural systems, even in dense urban
environments. People are three times more likely
to walk along landscaped pedestrian routes
[19]. Mature tree cover can further encourage
daily outdoor activity by cooling outdoor summer
temperatures between 5 F and 10 F [20]. It can
also increase the value of adjacent real estate by
3–6% [20]. Regular walking can reverse age-
related brain deterioration [21]. Dense vegetation
provides viable habitat for songbirds, adding an
aural benefit. Taken together, the human benefits
of living proximate to vegetation and habitats are
immense.
Among the most neglected realms in town
planning are walk-to neighborhood parks and
plazas. Parks and plazas with a high degree of
 Sustainable Urbanism

Sustainable Urbanism, Table 6 Neighborhood requirements for various retail types

Dwellings TNDS necessary to Sales Average
Gross retail necessary to support retail per annual rent Average trade Urban
area (S.F.) support retaila (6 DU/Gross acre) S.F. ($) per S.F area Parkingb form Anchor stores
Corner store 1,500–3,000 1,000 1 210 $14–16 Neighborhood On-street Mixed- Any small-
(5-min walk) use scale retail
corner
building
Convenience 10,000–30,000 2,000 2 225 $12–18 1-mile radius 4.0 cars/ Main Specialty food
centers 1,000 S.F of street market or
gross building pharmacy
area
Neighborhood 60,000–80,000 6–8,000 6 to 8 245 Highly 1–2- 4.0 cars/ Mixed- Supermarket,
center varied from mile radius 1,000 S.F. Of use main pharmacy, and
$7.25 to gross building street video store
$40.00 area
a
This number can be reduced significantly if the store is located along a major road with 15,000 cars per day and reduced nearly to zero if gasoline is sold
b
Combines on-street and off-street parking
177
 178

Sustainable Urbanism, Table 7 Street types appropriate for low-speed urban contexts
Maximum Target
Street through-traffic operating Travel lane Bicycle Curb Driveway Intersection
types lanes speed (mph) widthsa (ft) Transit facilities Freight Median parking access Pedestrian spacing (ft)
Boulevard 6 30–35 11–12 Express Parallel Regional Yes Optional Limited Sidewalk 660–1,320
and local paths or truck
routes bike lanes routes
Avenue 4 25–30 10–11 Local Bike lanes Local Optional Yes Yes Sidewalk 300–660
routes truck
routes
Street 2 25 10–11 Local Bike lanes Local No Yes Yes Sidewalk 300–660
routes deliveries
a
On-street parking lanes are 7–8 ft in width
Sustainable Urbanism
Sustainable Urbanism 179

Sustainable Urbanism, Table 8 Site-level vehicle trip generation

Residentiala Nonresidential
Physical measures
Net residential density Up to 55% N/A
Mix of uses Up to 9% Up to 9%
Local-serving retail 2% 2%
Transit service Up to 15% Up to 15%
Pedestrian/bicycle friendliness Up to 9% Up to 9%
Physical measures subtotal Up to 90% Up to 35%
Demand management and
similar measures
Affordable housing Up to 4% N/A
Parking supplyb N/A No limit
Parking pricing/cash out N/A Up to 25%
Free transit passes 25% reduction for 25% reduction for transit service
transit service
Telecommutingc N/A No limit
Other TDM programs N/A Up to 2%, plus 10% of the credit for transit and
ped/bike friendliness
Demand management subtotald Up to 8% Up to 32%
a
For residential uses, the percentage reductions shown apply to the ITE average trip generation rate for single-family
detached housing. For other residential land use types, some level of these mitigation measures is implicit in ITE average
trip generation rates, and the percentage reduction will be lower
b
Only if greater than sum of other trip reduction measures
c
Not additive with other trip reduction measures
d
Excluding credits for parking supply and telecommuting, which have no limit

Sustainable Urbanism, Table 9 Park proximity sales premium

Distance to park in feet Distance to park in miles (Approx.) Round-trip walk in min Sales premium
100 1/50 1 24%
300 1/16 2.5 15%
600 1/8 5 5%
1,300 1/4 10 Insignificant
Source: Miller, Andrew Ross, “Valuing Open Space: Land Economics and Neighborhood Parks”
MIT Department of Architecture Thesis, 2001

landscaping, a naturalized stormwater feature, or a
view of the night sky play a key role in supporting
biophilia.
When designing parks or high-quality open
spaces, consider the following standards: be
within a 3-min walk of every dwelling, have a
minimum park area of 1/6 acre, be bounded on
at least two sides by public rights-of-way, and
ideally not fenced and locked at night (only if
necessary for security).
Parks also increase the price homebuyers are
willing to pay to live close by, providing a very
good return on investment. One study
documented a willingness of homebuyers to pay
up to a 24% premium for a house and lot facing a
park or natural area (Table 9) [22].
In contrast to traditional stormwater engineer-
ing practices, which are designed to treat water as
a waste product and direct water away from where
it falls, sustainable approaches to site and regional
180
water resource management strive to consider
water as a resource. The sizing of stormwater
management solutions depends on the type and
area served (Table 10).
To strengthen each human’s interdependence
with natural systems, sustainable urbanism
believes that human settlements need to be
designed to make resource flows visible and expe-
riential. For example, a wastewater system that
extracts nutrients to grow food in one’s neighbor-
hood creates an incentive not to dump toxic
chemicals down the drain. The ability to see and
experience where resources are produced, and
where they go after they are used, promotes a
human lifestyle better integrated with natural
systems.
It is important to remember that treating all site
and building water as waste carries a large energy
burden for processing and redistributing our pota-
ble water. At approximately 800,000 kWhr/yr.
per 1 million gallons demanded, the amount of
pollution generated by a coal-powered electri-
cal generating facility equals the amount of
water pollution removed. Above that threshold,
more pollution is being generated by the treatment
facility than is being removed (Fig. 5).
Finally, sustainable urbanism is committed to
the ongoing livelihood of nonhuman species
located in habitats close to human settlements.
While sustainable urbanism recognizes the harm
caused by human encroachment on natural habi-
tats, it also recognizes the greater benefit of pro-
viding immersive and continuous nature within a
reasonable walking distance of human
settlements.
Equally important to human and nonhuman
existence is managing light pollution. Lighting
design in a sustainable urbanist neighborhood
uses light where it is most useful – at potential
vehicle/pedestrian conflict zones, to accent build-
ing façades, and to light wayfinding elements.
Reduce energy consumption and the
adverse impacts of light on the nighttime envi-
ronment by allowing only low ambient light in
general urban neighborhoods, achieved by
lighting level maximums, adjustable/dimmable
lighting fixtures, and integrated lighting infra-
structure (Tables 11 and 12).
Sustainable Urbanism
High-Performance Buildings and
Infrastructure with Integrated Design
In addition to connecting people to elements of
the natural world, sustainable urbanism incorpo-
rates high-performance infrastructure and inte-
grated design to help reduce the impact that
urban areas have on natural ecosystems. Sustain-
able urbanism aims to achieve per capita building
energy efficiencies through both square foot
energy efficiencies and per capita energy effi-
ciencies, often engaging district systems where
appropriate.
Multifamily dwellings found in urban set-
tings engage shared walls and floors to reduce
energy use on a per square foot basis in all
climates with mechanical conditioning
(Figs. 6, and 7).
Following deep energy conservation in build-
ings, sustainable urbanism often incorporates dis-
trict energy heating, cooling, or combined heat
and power (CHP) systems to maximize energy
efficiency. While there is no universal standard
for the configuration of a district energy system
that will be applicable in all settings, there are
minimum requirements and ranges to consider
when investigating the economic and technical
feasibility of a district energy system:
– For district heating systems, a minimum of
4,000 heating degree-days in a year.
– For district cooling systems, customers typi-
cally should consume more than 1,000 equiv-
alent full-load hours (aka a 200-ton peak-
demand building should consume 200,000
ton-hours over the course of a year).
– The maximum distance between a production
plant and the end of the distribution network
for an economical steam line is 3–5 miles; the
maximum distance for a hot-water line when
thermal energy is derived from a municipal
solid waste incinerator is 3 miles and 15 miles
when derived from an electrical power plant.
– Sites predominantly occupied by newer build-
ings with existing in-building boiler and chiller
equipment will not prove to be economical for
a district energy system, as owners of these
buildings may not be inclined to connect to
the system.
Sustainable Urbanism, Table 10 Conventional and sustainable urbanist stormwater management facilities
Horizontal Stormwater Rule of thumb for sizing
Approach surface facility Brief description Area served by facility stormwater facilitya
Lot Block Neighborhood
Sustainable Urbanism

Conventional
Soil Centralized Excavated basin designed to 8–12% of site area
detention temporarily detain stormwater
basin runoff to meet locally defined
allowable release rate
Sustainable urbanist
Soil Bioretention Yard depression planted with Yard and 10–15% of roof area – Less for
rain garden perennial vegetation. Includes layer of adjacent to permeable sandy soils
organic and sand amended topsoil bottom of
above a gravel drainage layer (where downspouts
needed)
Soil Bioretention Depressed parking lot or roadside Edge of paving Parkways 10–15% of impervious area –
swale islands planted with perennial and Less for permeable sandy soils
vegetation. Includes layer of organic medians
and sand amended topsoil above a
gravel drainage layer (where
needed)
Soil Naturalized Detention basin naturalized with Stormwater 8–12% of site area. Size may be
detention shallow side slopes and native parks, reduced where upstream
wetland and prairie vegetation parkway bioretention, permeable paving,
medians or greenroofs are utilized
Hardscape Permeable Paving designed to allow water to Sidewalks and Streets Net paved area
paving pass through surface using porous driveways and alleys
asphalt or concrete or using
interlocking concrete permeable
pavers. Water can be stored in open-
graded stone beneath the surface to
meet local detention requirements
(continued)
181
 182

Sustainable Urbanism, Table 10 (continued)

Horizontal Stormwater Rule of thumb for sizing
Approach surface facility Brief description Area served by facility stormwater facilitya
Lot Block Neighborhood
Roof Extensive Vegetated roof with drought-tolerant Building roof Net buildable roof area
greenroof species requiring little or no inputs
for vegetative maintenance.
Typically 3 to 4 inches of growing
medium, depending on vegetation
Roof Intensive Vegetated roof with a wide range of Building roof Net buildable roof area
greenroof vegetation, including grasses,
shrubs, and even trees. May require
irrigation and fertilization. Typically
8 inches and deeper growing
medium, depending on vegetation
a
Varies based on local stormwater standards and site imperviousness
Sustainable Urbanism
Sustainable Urbanism 183

Sustainable Urbanism, Fig. 5 Typical energy consumption of various wastewater treatment systems (© 2007 Tom
Ennis)

Sustainable Urbanism, Table 11 Descriptions and general lighting allowances for lighting zones
LZ0 LZ1 LZ2 LZ3 LZ4
Transect zone Rural and Reserve and General Urban center Urban core
reserve suburban neighborhood
Allowed initial lamp 1.25–1.6a 2.5–3.2 3.3–4.2 7.6–9.7 10.9–13.9
lumens/SF
Base allowance (lumens) 0 17,000 24,000 44,000 60,000
Lighting design criteria No ambient Very low Low ambient Medium High ambient
light ambient light light ambient light light
Chart data compiled from Model Lighting Ordinance (draft), Illuminating Engineering Society of North America
(IESNA), and International Dark Skies Association (IDA)
a
This minimal lighting should be turned off most of the time

Sustainable Urbanism, Table 12 Current and ideal lighting practices

Current practice 2030 sustainable urbanist ideals
Public expectation Outdoor brightness Outdoor darkness
Light level regulations Minimums Maximums
Control technology On-off Addressable ballasts allow nighttime dimming
Control Municipally controlled Block and neighborhood controls
Roadway lighting Pole-mounted Incorporated into roadway fabric
Human links to nature Glare obscures all but a handful of stars Milky way visible across North America
184 Sustainable Urbanism

Sustainable Urbanism,
Fig. 6 Building massing
and orientation types OPTION 1 DETACHED,
included in an energy model SINGLE-FAMILY
S/V = 0.21 GLAZING = 25% WALL AREA
(© Alan Chalifoux) ’
64
25
’
10’ FLOOR HEIGHT, TYPICAL ALL OPTIONS

OPTION 2
S/V = 0.21 64
’
’
25

OPTION 3
S/V = 0.20
40 ’
’ 40

OPTION 4 TOWNHOUSE,
ONE PARTY WALL
S/V = 0.15 GLAZING = 30% WALL AREA
25 ’
’ 32

OPTION 5 25 ’ TOWNHOUSE,
’ 32 TWO PARTY WALLS
S/V = 0.11 GLAZING = 35% WALL AREA

OPTION 7
ADDS SHADING

OPTION 6 32 ’
’
25
S/V = 0.11

OPTION 8
ADDS SHADING N

Future Directions need of novel approaches to measuring the urban-

The process of developing and implementing sus-
tainable urbanism exposes areas of research nec-
essary to advance the movement. For example, the
impacts of sustainable urban design on humans
are not well qualified. The field is in desperate
ism factors of greatest significance for human and
environmental health outcomes. It is still unclear
what impact local projects have on their surround-
ing communities, as well as whether and how they
contribute to regional gains. Arguably most
important is the question of whether sustainable
Sustainable Urbanism
Sustainable Urbanism,
Fig. 7 Annual energy use
for building types across US
climate zones. Energy
model results (© Alan
Chalifoux)
urbanism projects are having their intended posi-
tive effects on both humans and the environment.
Sustainable Nation: Urban Design Patterns
for the Future (2018) offers more rules of thumb
for how to achieve sustainable neighborhoods
across the United States and beyond. While
change must happen faster than ever before in
order to avoid the lasting negative effects of cli-
mate change, there has never been a better time to
unite around common passions and move forward
on creating positive change neighborhood by
neighborhood.
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Primary Literature
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overweight.htm
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pdf. Accessed 19 June 2017, p 7
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7. Litman T (2007) Whose roads? Defining bicyclists’
and pedestrians’ right to use public roadways, Victoria
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wth.pdf. Accessed 13 Feb 2007, p 4
13. Oregon State Senate, Oregon Land Use Act (SB 100),
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docs/bills/sb100.pdf. Accessed 5 Feb 2007
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book: the essential guide for accelerated, collaborative
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Chicago
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16 years of steady growth. http://www.usgbc.org/
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articles/leed-numbers-16-years-steady-growth. Posted
in LEED, May 27, 2016
16. LEED for Neighborhood Development requires a min-
imum of seven dwelling units per acre. U.S. Green
Building Council, LEED for Neighborhood Develop-
ment Rating System (Pilot Version), Neighborhood
Pattern and Design Prerequisite 2: Compact Develop-
ment. http://usgbc.org/ShowFile.aspx?DocumentID=
2310. Accessed 24 Feb 2007
17. Leinberger CB (2007) Back to the future: the need for
patient equity in real estate, Brookings Institution,
January 2007. http://www.brookings.edu/metro/pubs/
200701226_patientequity.htm. Accessed 24 Feb
2007, p 3
18. Ewing H, Kreutzer R (2006) Understanding the rela-
tionship between public health and the built environ-
ment, https://www.usgbc.org/resources/understanding-
relationship-between-public-health-and-built-environ
ment-report-prepared-lee, p 92, U.S. Green Building
Council, 2006.
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19. Simmons M, McLeod KB, Hight J “Healthy neighbor-
hoods,” Chapter 7: Sustainable urbanism: urban
design with nature, John Wiley & Sons, 2008
20. Center for Urban Horticulture, University of
Washington, College of Forest Resources
(1998) Urban forest values: economic benefits of
trees in cities, November 1998. http://www.cfr.wash
ington.edu/research.envmind/Policy/EconBens-FS3.
pdf. Accessed 25 Feb 2007
21. News Bureau, University of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign (2006) Exercise shown to reverse brain
deterioration brought on by aging, November
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1120exercise.html. Accessed 25 Feb 2007
22. Miller AR (2007) Valuing open space: land economics
and neighborhood parks, master’s thesis, Department
of Architecture, Massachusetts Institute of Technol-
ogy. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/8754.
Accessed 26 Feb 2007

Water and Sustainable Design
Herbert Dreiseitl
DREISEITL consulting GmbH, Überlingen,
Germany
Article Outline
Glossary
Introduction
Water Challenges to Be Met by the Built
Environment
Water Contributions to the Built Environment
Water Technologies and Functionality for a
Sustainable Future
Innovative Waterscapes and Blue-Green
Infrastructures
BGI Benefits for Health and Well-Being: Bishan-
Ang Mo Kio Park
Conclusion: Water’s Position in Sustainable
Urbanism
Ten Guidelines for Working with Water in
Sustainable Urban Design
Bibliography
Glossary
Blue-green infrastructures (BGI) new profes-
sional practices that integrate the diverse disci-
plines needed for comprehensive water design
through an approach to water management that
protects, restores, and emulates the natural
water cycle with extensive landscape (green
infrastructure) improvements.
Deluge period of abnormally high rainfall that
may result in severe flooding.
Drought a prolonged period of abnormally low
rainfall that may result in a shortage of water.
Green infrastructures an approach to water
management that protects, restores, and emu-
lates the natural water cycle.
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
V. Loftness (ed.), Sustainable Built Environments,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-0684-1_1032
Originally published in
R. A. Meyers (ed.), Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology, © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC,
part of Springer Nature 2020, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2493-6_1032-1
Technical water systems the integration of
design and engineering of green and gray infra-
structures, into solutions for deluge, drought,
and water contamination. Technical water sys-
tems combine water retention and infiltration
techniques with water storage, treatment, and
reuse through the integration of green (natural
landscape) and gray (constructed) systems.
Water contamination water that is fouled by
agricultural, industrial, construction, and
human waste due to inadequate containment,
aggravated by flooding.
Water-sensitive regenerative cities the success-
ful integration of water at the beginning of the
planning process, comprehensively and beau-
tifully designed.
Watersheds the natural path of rainfall and
stream flows given the topographic and geo-
logic construct of the land, flowing into rivers,
lakes, wetlands, or the sea.
Introduction
Good water is even more urgently important to us
than our daily food. Water in the built environment
is everywhere [1], but not always visible and often
not in our thoughts. In architecture and engineer-
ing, we manage and control water in an infrastruc-
ture of pipes, canals, and storage facilities that are
mostly hidden and therefore not in the day-to-day
consciousness of the average citizen. We take
water’s services for granted, making use of its
enormous qualities and performance attributes to
produce and transport energy, regulate tempera-
tures, enable chemical reactions including the pro-
duction of concrete, transport waste and trash,
produce food, and many other useful services.
The traditional urban fabric systems that con-
trol, regulate, and enable water flows and meta-
bolic processes are deeply interwoven and depend
on a permanent and steady water supply; and the
balance of not too much and not too little water is
the focus of those technical infrastructures.
187
188
In contrast to these traditional urban fabric sys-
tems, water in the natural environment is never
static but in a state of constant flux. In reaction to
changing weather and precipitation, the water flow
has a dynamic interaction with the terrain and
greenery and is the environment’s resilient lan-
guage with potential to create living systems and
enhance evolution. The blue and green elements in
nature are the drivers for a living landscape and a
sustainable natural environment.
The almost unpredictable, ever-changing char-
acteristics and processes of water in the land-
scapes have always challenged the human desire
for beauty, safety, comfort, and independence. Yet
innovative responses in architecture are only just
emerging. In today’s urban fabrics, buildings of
any function are mostly conceived as shelters.
They separate an inner space from the outer envi-
ronment. For the first time in history, due to our
very high standards of insulation, air control, inte-
grated intelligent control systems, light regula-
tion, etc., we can live in buildings in the urban
fabric for weeks and months almost without any
contact with the natural environment. Cities are
like perfect machines with supporting infrastruc-
tures that seem to make the natural environment a
by-product. Until now, dependency on nature has
been treated as a relic of the past. Today, and even
more so in the future, we can clearly see how
interrelated humans are with the nature that
surrounds them.
Water Challenges to Be Met by the Built
Environment
With the increasing intensity of hurricanes, super-
storms, cloudbursts, and the rise in sea level coun-
tered by heat waves and droughts, the water-
related environmental challenges are increasing
for the built environment.
In light of those environmental challenges, sus-
tainable water concepts and systems that work
interactively with the water regime are gaining in
public awareness. Sustainable designers have
begun to map the historic watersheds and land-
scape mix that supported locations for millennials.
It seems that today we are at a turning point and
Water and Sustainable Design
more than ready for integrated water solutions in
the sustainable built environment.
If we compare infrastructures in the natural
environment with those in urban settings, a signif-
icant difference appears in most cities today: Nat-
ural structures work with flexible space
assignments and resilient principles. One of the
characteristics of nature’s water management is
the dynamic reaction and balance to a range of
events, from a subtle change in water availability
to an unexpected deluge or drought. Ultimately, it
is all about allowing processes to develop over time
and having enough multifunctional space, such as
retention areas, bioswales, constructed wetlands,
and others to operate as a dynamic buffer zone.
Water Contributions to the Built
Environment
One of the main characteristics of water systems is
the ability to recover from climatic extremes,
enabling biodiversity and ecosystem services. In
the last few decades, nature’s responses to stress
have become highly relevant and a focus for inno-
vative architects, landscape architects, and engi-
neers. Engaging blue-green infrastructures to
recover from environmental stress while simulta-
neously providing better air, balanced acoustics,
increased biodiversity, and finally livability is the
subject of many pilot projects around the world.
These projects foster awareness and encourage
architects and other disciplines to overcome the
traditional silos in the profession.
Today, architecture for sustainable built envi-
ronments demands a true paradigm shift for water
design and is making huge critically needed steps
forward. The design approaches and technologies
for sustainable water management are being
extensively explored and tested with success, to
be further illustrated.
Water Technologies and Functionality
for a Sustainable Future
Wherever rainwater and stormwater touch the
building or the ground, sustainable water
Water and Sustainable Design
management must begin, since all surfaces are a
collecting facility, as well as a potential source of
pollution. Therefore, the management of these
areas, their design, and maintenance are of upmost
importance.
The materials selected for rooftops and sur-
faces influence the quantity and quality of water.
The vegetation of green roofs, for example, can
filter out pollution like heavy metals or particu-
lates that are harmful to water supplies. Water
retention and some level of evaporation and infil-
tration in the design of roof and ground surfaces
can avoid the peaks of runoff flow and calm the
erosive process.
In addition, captured rain and stormwater are
the best resources to recharge the groundwater
aquifer and refill lakes and rivers and, therefore,
should be filtered and released in the best quality.
Rainwater should be collected, harvested, and
reused [3] for irrigation at a minimum or used to
subsidize the drinking water as in Singapore’s
ABC Water Program (Figs. 1 and 2).
In addition to the management of storms and
rainwater, cities also need to be designed for cli-
mate resiliency to anticipate sea level rise. The
CloudBurst program [4] of Copenhagen recom-
mends design strategies to drain stormwater out to
the sea, to store stormwater, and to make buildings
resilient in the face of rising water.
Since fresh water of drinkable quality is
becoming a limited resource in many more
regions of the world, we must carefully use and
recycle water matched to each purpose. There is
no reason to use processed, potable drinking water
Water and Sustainable
Design, Fig. 1 Rainwater
should be collected,
harvested, and reused.
Diagram of Stormwater
ABC Water Guidelines.
(Credit: Herbert Dreiseitl)
189
to transport our excrements and trash. Every drop
of potable water should be used at least three
times – for drinking, for gray water uses such as
irrigation, and for black water uses such as toilets.
Sustainable designers seek the complementary
actions of avoiding the sources of water pollution
and reclaiming the water, transport, energy, and
nutrient qualities of each drop of water – the
metabolic processes inherent in nature.
Eighty percent of the water in the built envi-
ronment is used for our food production with
enormous energy consumption and contamination
that leave a very negative footprint. Most of that
negative footprint is not visible in the urban envi-
ronment, resulting in almost no awareness by the
final consumers. Sustainable solutions, those with
a nutrient-holistic and water-sensitive approach,
demand a different form of agriculture in both
rural and urban areas. There are important exam-
ples of this approach including the “Urban
Farmers” in Basel and the Netherlands, the
“Aquaponic Gardens” in New York City and Sin-
gapore, and the “Biodynamic Farm movement”
including the Hawthorne Valley in New York
State.
Water also has a critical social and quality of
life function. Water catchment systems can be
interactive and communicate the power and
beauty of nature to citizens. To work sustainably
with water, we need to create multifunctional and
shared systems and spaces. Smart, flexible shared
places such as plazas, parks, and fields can absorb
and contain water after a big storm but allow
recreation and social activities the next day.
190
Water and Sustainable Design, Fig. 2 Both quality and quantity controls are key to rainwater collection, harvesting,
and reuse. BGI Toolkit. (Credit: Giovanni Cossu (LCL Ramboll))
Scharnhauser Park in Stuttgart and Bishan-Ang
Mo Kio Park in Singapore demonstrate this in a
very convincing way.
In 2006, the Public Utilities Board and
National Water Agency of Singapore began a
program entitled ABC Waters – Active, Beautiful,
and Clean – that aims to realize the full potential
of an integrated blue-green infrastructure (BGI)
approach. By treating rainwater as a prime
resource to fill reservoirs and water bodies, the
ABC Waters’ program is a strategic initiative that
works with the entire urban catchment of the
island. Instead of channeling rainwater away
from the city, areas within the urban development
are used for rainwater collection. This also helps
to contribute to the country’s water security. The
program was implemented with the expectation
that it will lead to multiple projects by private
developers. Estimated 150 projects are on their
way to be realized in the next 20 years.
One of the pilot projects, and by far the largest,
was the transformation of 3.2 km of the Kallang
River and 62 hectares of Bishan-Ang Mo Kio
Park (Fig. 3).
Water and Sustainable Design
This is a classic BGI project [5] with a strong
social component of over 3 million visitors per
year. The design was carried out under the leader-
ship of landscape architects in an interdisciplinary
planning process, which included on-site test
studies and hydraulic modeling with flow simula-
tions. This BGI was designed to accommodate the
dynamic process of a natural river system, which
includes fluctuating water levels and widths to
make sure unexpected problems are accounted
for. A special focus on security led to the creation
of a special safety system in case of sudden water
rises in the open river valley. Elements from the
concrete canal – previously on the site – were
recycled and reused as substrate in the riverbed
and on a specially formed platform for artwork.
Today, the park comprises a vibrant urban river
with natural elements, although it is still very
much formed and shaped by the people that use
it. Better hydrological capacities, upgrading
parameters of limnology, efficient erosion control,
and other advances were possible through appro-
priate bioengineering techniques and reshaping of
the river profile (Figs. 4, 5, and 6).
Water and Sustainable Design 191

Water and Sustainable Design, Fig. 3 The 62 hectares of Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park, Singapore, has been transfor-
mative for the environment and quality of life. (Photo Credit: Herbert Dreiseitl)

Water and Sustainable Design, Fig. 4 Fostering closer connection with water (Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park Photo
Credits: Herbert Dreiseitl)

Plants and bedding materials were used to sta- diverse stream habitats for native plants and ani-
bilize the banks to withstand the erosive energy of mals. Not only is there a significant increase in
high water flows while at the same time creating biodiversity, there is also a completely new
192
Water and Sustainable Design, Fig. 5 Quality of life gains are matched by better hydrological capacities, erosion
control, and other advances in water management and use. (Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park Photo Credits: Herbert Dreiseitl)
atmosphere that has resulted in connecting the
people in the neighborhood together. Socioeco-
nomic factors play into this development, and a
detailed study was done on the effects of the BGI
on real estate values and other parameters.
The Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park has won numer-
ous awards and is seen as a new vision and role
model for BGI which addresses the dual needs of
water supply and flood management while creat-
ing spaces for people and nature in the city.
Innovative Waterscapes and Blue-Green
Infrastructures
The emergence of new professional practices that
integrate the diverse disciplines needed for com-
prehensive water design is contributing to the
literature on innovative waterscapes. The follow-
ing excerpt from Strengthening Blue-Green Infra-
structure in our Cities [6] captures the philosophy
and design potential of innovative waterscapes
Water and Sustainable Design
proposed by Herbert Dreiseitl and Bettina
Wanschura (Ramboll Liveable Cities Lab),
Matthias Wörlen and Manfred Moldaschl
(Zeppelin University) Nirmal Tulsidas Kishnani
and Giovanni Cossu (NUS National University of
Singapore) and James Wescoat and Karen Noiva
(MIT).
Blue-Green Infrastructures as Tools for the
Management of Urban Development and the
Effects of Climate Change
The conventional approach to urban water infra-
structure has been to use quantitative models to
predict future water demand and then to construct
additional infrastructure to meet this demand.
This approach prioritizes technology and large
physical interventions which attempt to manipu-
late natural processes to suit the needs of human-
kind. However, the focus on “gray”
infrastructure – so-called because of the massive
amounts of concrete and metal typically
involved – is progressively showing deficiencies
Water and Sustainable Design
Water and Sustainable Design, Fig. 6 Symbotic relationship between Urban Infrastructure and Natural Systems.
(Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park Photo Credits: Herbert Dreiseitl)
and limitations in meeting the additional stresses
to urban water supply and management induced
by rapid urbanization, impervious land cover, and
climate change.
In some cases, the reliance on gray infrastruc-
ture can actually contribute to these stresses. For
instance, the conventional approach to urban
stormwater runoff has been to collect precipitation
in a connected sewer system and to transport it out
of the city as quickly as possible [7]. As cities
have grown, impervious land cover has increased
which generates a larger volume of stormwater
runoff in a shorter period of time, overwhelming
existing sewers and increasing flooding. Gray
infrastructure will also fail to mobilize the many
potential socioeconomic benefits of water in
enhancing the aesthetics of the urban fabric and
the quality of life.
In response to these changing times, decision-
makers are starting to look beyond the gray and
experimenting with less conventional approaches
to infrastructure. Blue-green infrastructure (BGI)
193
offers a feasible, economical, and valuable option
for urban regions facing challenges of climate
change. It complements and in some cases miti-
gates the need for gray infrastructure. BGI repre-
sents a paradigm shift that recognizes the
importance of and value in including the role of
urban hydrology within urban water management.
The “blue” recognizes the importance of the phys-
icality of water itself, while the “green” connects
urban hydrological functions with vegetation sys-
tems in urban landscape design. The resulting
BGI has overall socioeconomic benefits that are
greater than the sum of the individual components
(Fig. 7).
In this context, the Liveable Cities Lab (LCL)
initiated a research project “Enhancing Blue-
Green and Social Performance in High Density
Urban Environments” [8]. The goal of this
research was to move toward a more comprehen-
sive understanding of underlying concepts con-
tributing to the effective implementation of BGI.
This entry summarizes the key results of the
194
Water and Sustainable Design, Fig. 7 The critical shift from gray to blue-green infrastructures in Bishan-Ang Mo Kio
Park, Singapore, in 2008 and 2013. (Photo Credit: Atelier Dreiseitl)
project and focuses on challenges, obstacles, and
successes of selected BGI case studies.
The Definition of BGI
The topic of green infrastructure is now a well-
established concept in urban environmental plan-
ning, policy, research, and design, and awareness
and understanding of its potential benefits for
ecology and society have increased. The term
green infrastructure often refers to projects that
include vegetated design elements such as parks,
green roofs, greenbelts, alleys, vertical and hori-
zontal gardens, and planters. Such green infra-
structures are recognized and intensively
discussed with respect to the ecosystem services
they provide – services that are especially valu-
able in densely populated urban areas [9].
However, “green” infrastructure is a bit of a
misnomer, as infrastructures of this type are often
closely linked with and even defined by “blue”
processes. Blue infrastructure technically refers to
infrastructure related to the hydrological func-
tions, including rainwater and urban stormwater
systems as well as surface water and groundwater
aquifers. In urban design blue infrastructure is
traditionally discussed as a matter of resilient pro-
vision for water supply and water security. Such
Water and Sustainable Design
water infrastructure may be natural, adapted, or
man-made and provides functions of slowing
down, decentralization and spreading, soaking
into the underground, and evaporating and releas-
ing water into the natural environment. This must
critically include flow control, detention, reten-
tion, filtration, infiltration, and different forms of
water treatment like reuse and recycling (Fig. 8).
In general, blue infrastructure addresses aspects of
water quantity as well as quality control. The BGI
paradigm marries these two types of infrastruc-
tures and values together in a union that is greater
than the sum of its parts.
Benefits of BGI
BGI integrates hydrological and biological water
treatment flows into systems where green features
are seamlessly overlapping with blue features.
Together blue and green infrastructures strengthen
urban ecosystems by evoking natural processes in
man-made environments and combining the
demands of sustainable water and stormwater
management with the demands of urban planning
and urban life. As a result, BGI systems have
positive impacts on the urban metabolism of nat-
ural resources (added green values) and on the
experience and behavior of people using these
Water and Sustainable Design
Water and Sustainable Design, Fig. 8 BGI must crit-
ically include flow control, detention, retention, filtration,
infiltration, and different forms of water treatment.
infrastructures (added social values). A selection
of the benefits associated with the implementation
of BGI in dense urban areas is presented below.
Water-Related Benefits
BGI effectively controls the quantity of
stormwater but also improves water quality.
Quality-related benefits of BGI include the fol-
lowing: (i) plant roots in combination with soil
absorb nutrients and purify infiltrating water and
also improve the general water quality in urban
catchment areas, thereby reducing energy
demands and costs associated with water treat-
ment; (ii) BGI contributes to the avoidance of
overheating and oxygen shortage caused by high
temperatures of concrete materials.
195
Neighbourhood Scale Solutions. (Graphic Credit:
Giovanni Cossu (LCL Ramboll))
Quantity-related benefits of BGI include
(i) BGI enhances on-site retention of stormwater,
which protects valuable wetland areas, reduces
the need for designated downstream areas for
flood buffer zones, and reduces the risk and
impact of flooding; (ii) the natural unsealed sur-
face allows water to seep into the ground,
recharging underlying aquifers and balancing the
groundwater level.
Climate Change Adaptation and Biodiversity
Besides benefits directly related to water and
plants, BGI has a huge potential to modulate the
urban climate by reducing urban heat island
effects, balancing diurnal temperature fluctuation,
and supporting natural air ventilation.
196
BGI also reduces the bioclimatic impacts of
land cover changes such as desiccation of urban
soils and associated wind-borne air pollution and
dust hazards. By managing and modulating
hydroclimatic variability and weather extremes,
BGI enhances the adaptability and resilience of
urban infrastructures.
BGI also increases urban biodiversity as it
improves rich biotopes and landscape connectiv-
ity, protects aquatic ecosystems, and creates
biodiversity-rich zones to sustain flora and fauna.
BGI Enhances a City’s Beauty and Aesthetics
BGI helps to reconnect people with the natural
environment through the active integration of
water and greenery in which the boundaries
between the two are blurred and made accessible.
Blue elements of urban design tend to have the
strongest positive associations, and when com-
bined with green elements, this positive effect is
magnified. The perception of the relative beauty
of the blue elements seems to be related to their
scale and size, as well as how the edge conditions
for public access are implemented.
Societal Benefits of BGI
BGI creates upgraded space for recreation, exer-
cise, and social activities and therefore helps to
improve human physical and mental health. These
amenities reduce individual and public health
costs. BGI supports social interaction and social
integration as it increases the tendency to use open
spaces for activities in groups and the commit-
ment to spend time with families, neighbors, and
communities.
By improving social and aesthetic attractive-
ness of surrounding land and buildings, BGI
increases property values and real estate values.
The creation of blue-green infrastructure signals a
city’s overall attractiveness and livability and
increases the reputation of a city’s governmental
institutions to take care of their residents’ living
conditions.
Finally, BGI supports biophilia – people’s
affinity with nature – as it reconnects people
with natural forms, elements, and processes that
have major benefits for human happiness and the
willingness to protect nature.
Water and Sustainable Design
Main Challenges for Successful
Implementation of BGI in Dense Urban Areas
The main constraints on implementing sustain-
able urban stormwater and environmental man-
agement in a changing climate are not
technological. Rather, they involve shifts in
vision, policy, design, and the urban planning
culture. The transition of urban water manage-
ment from standard gray to blue-green implies a
change in the social and political setting of a city.
BGI relies on the capabilities in a city to negotiate
forms and outcomes with all civic stakeholders, as
well as to be aware of unintended consequences in
the wider context (spatial, social, temporal).
As BGI is still a rather unknown approach in
many cities, practitioners, politicians, and citizens
have to be convinced that BGI is able to guarantee
at least the same level of security as older
established solutions and that it can provide new
types of security for climate resilience. Water
planners otherwise tend to fall back upon the
gray infrastructure approaches followed under
historical climatic conditions or install redundant
blue and green infrastructure elements at low
levels with higher costs to avoid risk. This has
limited the wide implementation of BGI elements
and techniques to achieve multifunctional urban
landscapes on a holistic catchment scale. BGI is a
valuable and viable opportunity for creating
multifunctional landscapes with an ecological
approach to sustainable urban stormwater practice
(Fig. 9).
A paradigm shift is needed to ensure that urban
water management moves beyond the conven-
tional engineering mind-set to a more holistic
approach that includes knowledge about societal
values and ecosystem services. Such a paradigm
shift has begun to be appreciated, but many
decision-makers still remain unaware of the
value of BGI or how to operationalize it.
BGI Case Studies
In order to provide a more balanced picture of BGI
challenges relevant around the world and in a
variety of contexts, the Liveable Cities Lab used
several selection criteria to generate in-depth case
studies, including climate, governance systems,
and variations in the history of BGI development
Water and Sustainable Design 197

Water and Sustainable Design, Fig. 9 BGI creates multifunctional landscapes with an ecological approach to
sustainable urban stormwater practice. (Building-Scale Solutions Graphic Credit: Giovanni Cossu (LCL Ramboll))

types, as well as the designed functionality within
the BGI. The cases chosen for the study represent
several continents (America, Europe, and Asia)
and a range of climate types including the tropical
rainforest climate (Singapore), the tropical wet
and dry climate (Mumbai), and the humid conti-
nental climate (Germany, Denmark, etc.). For
each case study, positive and negative lessons
were identified and an attempt made to generalize
these lessons as good practices important for cur-
rent and future BGI planning and implementation
in cities.
Case studies on the project level included the
following: Emerald Necklace, Boston (USA);
Hannover-Kronsberg (Germany); Bishan-Ang
Mo Kio Park (Singapore); Khoo Teck Puat Hos-
pital and Yishun Pond (Singapore); and Ulu
Pandan Park Connector (UPPC) (Singapore).
Case studies on city level included Hamburg
(Germany); Portland, Oregon (USA); Copenha-
gen (Denmark); New York City (USA); Jakarta
(Indonesia); and Mumbai (India).
A selection of these case studies is presented
below.
198
BGI in Hannover-Kronsberg, Germany
Hannover-Kronsberg (Germany) is a residential
area with 3000 dwellings built from 1992 to
2000 as an exhibit for the World Exposition
2000 titled “Mensch-Natur-Technik” (Human-
Nature-Technology). Following Agenda 21, the
Habitat II Model, and the standards for sustain-
ability included in the local Agenda 21 of the
Deutsche Städtetag (German Association of Cit-
ies), Kronsberg, was set out as an innovation
project that would deploy ecological solutions to
enhance urban life and sustainable living. The
expo-concept clearly focused on energy efficiency
optimization, soil management, rainwater man-
agement, waste concepts, and environmental
communication.
Originally a topic of medium importance, rain-
water management became one of the central
issues as hydrological and technical studies
showed that a residential district with standard
drainage system in this area would have major
impacts on the regional water flows. In order to
make construction and development environmen-
tally sound despite this difficult situation, a semi-
natural drainage concept was developed to
minimize the effects of development on the
Water and Sustainable Design, Fig. 10 Hannover-Kronsberg, Germany, uses ecological BGI solutions to enhance
urban and sustainable living. (Photo Credit: Herbert Dreiseitl)
Water and Sustainable Design
natural water balance and to safeguard infiltration
and groundwater refill (Fig. 10).
BGI in Portland, Oregon (USA)
Portland is known as one of the most forward-
thinking cities in the USA in terms of promoting
and advocating sustainability [10]. To start,
Portland purchased and permanently protected
more than 33 km2 of ecologically valuable natural
areas from future development and has continued
to show a strong commitment to environmentally
conscious land use, including an approach to land
conservation and enhancing green areas (Parks
Vision 2020). Portland has also emerged as a
pioneer in promoting compact city design through
municipal policy.
In 1996, a Stormwater Policy Advisory Com-
mittee (SPAC), stakeholders from landscape
architecture, architecture, engineering, institu-
tional organizations, and the stormwater treatment
industry were assembled to generate recommen-
dations and guidelines for urban stormwater engi-
neering and design.
In 2010, Tanner Springs Park was created
through intense community participation to
address the challenges of a compromised
Water and Sustainable Design
neighborhood built on a former wetland and creek
bed. Tanner Springs Park transformed the Pearl
District through BGI, using stormwater runoff to
feed a natural spring and a natural cleansing sys-
tem. Today, ospreys dive into the water, art per-
formances unfold on the floating deck, children
splash and explore, and others take quiet contem-
plation in this natural refuge in the heart of the city
means that this park is the realization of the
dreams and hopes of local people (Fig. 11).
Since that time, Portland has been recognized
as a leader in “green” stormwater management
with a number of award-winning BGI projects
including the “Portland Ecoroof Program” the
“Green Streets” project and a number of pervious
pavement projects. Portland’s multi-stakeholder
governance structure presents an interesting insti-
tutional context in which BGI projects have been
successful.
BGI at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital and Yishun Pond
(Singapore)
Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (KTPH) is one of the
most recent of seven public hospitals in Singa-
pore. It is set out to widen the perspective on
healthcare in Singapore to include healing spaces
in which the design of the physical environment
actively contributes to wellness. This translated
into the integration of biophilic elements. The
KTPH design brief spoke explicitly of a patient-
Water and Sustainable Design, Fig. 11 Tanner Springs Park transformed the Pearl District in Portland, Oregon,
through BGI. (Photo Credit: Herbert Dreiseitl)
199
centric approach, predicated on access to daylight,
ventilation, views, and the presence of gardens
and nature. Patient and visitor areas are placed
around a landscaped central garden. This garden
opens up to an adjacent Yishun stormwater pond
from which it taps vistas and breezes. Visitors
from nearby housing estates now use the hospi-
tal’s public spaces for enjoyment alongside
patients and other official visitors. In 2005,
KTPH team expanded its blue-green footprint by
adopting the adjacent Yishun Pond a gray infra-
structure for water storage. The Hospital now has
a lush BGI central garden flowing into a water-
front promenade with an energizing walking trail
that wraps the lake (Fig. 12). The former gray
infrastructure retention pond now gives a pictur-
esque view for pedestrians, as its concrete edge
has been softened with planting, and artificial
floating wetlands have been added attracting
new species.
BGI in Hamburg (Germany)
Hamburg is situated on the river Elbe and hosts
one of the largest harbors in Europe. Situated only
6 m above sea level and increasingly hit by heavy
rainfall, severe flooding and associated damages
increasingly threaten central Hamburg. The high
density of buildings and imperviousness surfaces
increase the risk of flooding and severely chal-
lenge the existing rainwater system. In 2009,
200
Water and Sustainable Design, Fig. 12 The KTPH
hospital in Singapore has a lush BGI central garden
flowing into a waterfront walking trail. Khoo Teck Puat
Hamburg introduced an initiative to develop a
rainwater adaptation plan – RISA – in which all
relevant agencies (water, park and urban green,
traffic, environment) were required to cooperate
and develop comprehensive and holistic guide-
lines for a satisfactory infrastructure intervention.
BGI is expected to have a prominent position in
the new design, especially since individual,
smaller-scale BGI projects (e.g., Kleine Horst in
Hamburg Ohlendorf) have proven to be very
successful.
BGI in Copenhagen (Denmark)
Copenhagen, the capital and most populous city in
Denmark, is known internationally as an out-
standing example for high livability and future-
oriented urban design. Surveys have shown a high
degree of public awareness and political support
for sustainability- and livability-related issues.
Climate adaptation in response to global warming
is one of the major topics worthy of special
Water and Sustainable Design
Hospital (KTPH) and Yishun Pond, Singapore. (Photo
Credit: Giovanni Cossu (LCL Ramboll))
attention in Copenhagen since it is a coastal
town that is at increased risk from flooding due
to the rising sea level combined with increased
frequency of extreme precipitation events.
Moving to address the increased flooding risks,
the Copenhagen Climate Adaptation Plan of
October 2011 promoted the incorporation of BGI,
especially retention areas, within the urban land-
scape. Led by Ramboll Studio Dreiseitl, the strat-
egy addresses key issues of flood management and
water quality while seeking to create the greatest
possible synergy with the urban environment
(Fig. 13). A “CloudBurst” tool box of urban inter-
ventions, such as CloudBurst boulevards, Cloud-
Burst parks, and CloudBurst plazas, provides the
basis for a dynamic and multifunctional system.
This new generation of blue-green infrastructures
addresses essential city services such as mobility,
recreation, health, and biodiversity, creating a stra-
tegic and feasible approach to ensure long-term
resilience and economic buoyancy.
Water and Sustainable Design
Water and Sustainable Design, Fig. 13 A new gener-
ation of blue-green infrastructures for Copenhagen
addresses essential city services such as mobility,
Copenhagen is rich in social resources
(knowledge, institutional capability, financial cap-
ital) that are required in the step-by-step
restructuring of the densely populated and built-
up inner-city areas – those that have experienced
the most frequent and intense flooding. Copenha-
gen provides an interesting case for examining
aspects of political and institutional framing and
negotiations for BGI – implementation.
Modeling of BGI-Induced Change on Urban
Society
In order to assess the societal (including ecologi-
cal and economic) impacts of BGI implementa-
tion, the authors modeled the BGI-induced
change of an urban society’s capability for livabil-
ity, sustainability, and resilience. In particular we
employed a socioeconomic capital-based
accounting model, based on the “Polychrome
Sustainability” approach of Manfred Moldaschl.
The implementation of BGI in dense urban areas
201
recreation, health, and biodiversity. VANDPLUS Project
info Viborg – sùnës Dispositions plan. (Photo Credit:
Ramboll)
was analyzed as a change in an urban society’s
pool of resources for a decent life, according to
criteria of livability, sustainability, and resilience.
Therefore, all relevant resources are defined as
different forms of societal capital: the natural,
built, human, social, symbolic, and financial cap-
ital. As a consequence, financial capital can be
treated equally in the context of all other capitals
relevant for quality of life and long-term social
development.
In our study, the term “capital” is used for all
relevant societal resources. While the term capital
is usually understood as financial capital, i.e., a
final monetizable outcome of economic transac-
tions, the modern understanding of the term has
broadened this meaning, applying it more gener-
ally to other types of resources used in society. In a
nutshell we follow a triple bottom line methodol-
ogy to take economical, ecological (defined as
natural capital), and social sustainability as three
pillars that represent distinct dimensions for
202
evaluation. However, we suggest applying a more
detailed and elaborated version of the social pillar
to include human capital, social capital, and sym-
bolic capital.
Human, social, and symbolic capitals are types
of immaterial capital, a type of capital that is
considered to differ crucially from financial capi-
tal and natural capital both in their forms of man-
ifestation and in their forms of (re-) production.
Immaterial capital may or may not be monetized.
The different categories of immaterial capital are
inseparably linked to human competences and/or
social relations. Immaterial capitals often follow a
more generic logic such as trustful behavior is
built on trust and enhances trust.
BGI Benefits for Health and Well-Being:
Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park
The effects of BGI implementation on human
health, public well-being, financial assets, long-
term economic resources, and other human values
have been identified through the case study and
comparative analysis of the Bishan-Ang Mo Kio
Water and Sustainable Design, Fig. 14 (BAMK) Park in Singapore led to a dramatic increase in accessible open
space for neighboring communities; Tai Chi in Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park, Singapore. (Photo Credit: Herbert Dreiseitl)
Water and Sustainable Design
(BAMK) Park in Singapore. Solving serious
flooding and water quality challenges with this
park led to a dramatic increase in accessible
open space for neighboring communities, with
benefits for social life and improved awareness
of these communities in ecology and the environ-
ment (Fig. 14).
The highlight of this project is the revitaliza-
tion of the river. The unique plan to break the
concrete channel and create a naturalized water-
way was initiated for the first time in Singapore.
Designed on a floodplain concept, people can
enjoy recreational activities along the riverbanks
during dry weather and during heavy rain; the
park land adjacent to the river doubles up as a
conveyance channel, increasing carrying capacity
by 40%. This enables multiple land uses within
the park, creating more spaces for the community
as well as ecologically valuable and diverse hab-
itats (Figs. 15 and 16). To date, the park has seen
the park’s biodiversity increase by 30% with
66 species of wildflower, 59 species of birds,
and 22 species of dragonfly identified – with
some being identified as rare in a city
environment.
Water and Sustainable Design 203

Water and Sustainable Design, Fig. 15 The old concrete canal in Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park

Water and Sustainable

Design, Fig. 16 A unique
BGI plan to replace the
concrete channel and create
a naturalized waterway in
Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park,
Singapore. (Photo Credits:
Herbert Dreiseitl)

As a result of the redevelopment of BAMK
into a naturalized park, the number of park visits
has doubled from 3 to 6 million persons/year
(Fig. 17). It was found that after the BGI
upgrade to BAMK, nearly 50% of all park
users were engaging in active physical activi-
ties, such as jogging, bicycling, skating, or
intense walking. It has been estimated that the
positive impact on physical health for the com-
munity is substantial, estimated at SGD 16–43
million (which is 12–31 million USD at 2013
exchange rates). Moreover, the researchers also
identified mental health benefits attributable to
BAMK’s ability to attract social life and to
encourage social integration.
The combination of natural beauty and the dual
physical assets of a park and a river appeals to
people. As they get close to the water and appre-
ciate nature’s rhythms and wonder, their experi-
ence of water and their sense of responsibility to
their environment change, leading to collective
goals to be better stewards of the environment.
204
Water and Sustainable Design, Fig. 17 The number of park visits has doubled from 3 to 6 million persons/year in
Bishan-Ang Mo Kio, Park, Singapore. (Photo Credit: Herbert Dreiseitl)
Conclusion: Water’s Position in
Sustainable Urbanism
History will record that the political and design
leaders of the past narrowly reduced the role of
water to the most basic technical and engineering
services, as liabilities and not assets. Yet, water
has always been a critical driver in shaping cities,
defining location, and creating character and
atmosphere [11].
After generations of industries have used rivers
as dumping grounds, cities worldwide are now
turning their faces to the water and looking for
ways to rejuvenate our natural resources. Green-
blue infrastructures are becoming more and more
important as a dynamic resource to balance and
stabilize life processes and as a backbone for
livability. Water has a strong positive biophilic
effect on people and defines the symbolic capitals
of cities like Amsterdam, Sydney, New York,
Venice, and Pittsburgh just to mention a few.
There are a number of critical guidelines for bring-
ing all of the regions’ water resources into a vision
for the future:
Water and Sustainable Design
Ten Guidelines for Working with Water
in Sustainable Urban Design
1. Think fluid, resilient, and regenerative;
water is the best teacher to have the right atti-
tude in design, and technical and aesthetic
solutions have to be in line with the nature of
this most dynamic and lively substance.
2. Follow and search for multifunctional solu-
tions; water is always interacting with its sur-
roundings and has a strong impact on air,
temperature, energy, metabolic systems, as
well as flora and fauna.
3. Use water as a balancing regulator to reduce
temperature extremes and reduce dust and
sound pollution; combine blue-green infra-
structure to filter; and avoid environmental
stressors and shocks such as climate change
and sea level rise.
4. Combine energy with water-related systems;
too much energy is used for pumping and
processing water; and decentralization and
gravity-based solutions should be prioritized
to reduce significant energy consumption.
Water and Sustainable Design
5. Work with regenerative systems and food pro-
duction; more than 70% of the world’s water is
used for food production and processing, and
we have to implement systems that are regen-
erative and local nature-based solutions.
6. Reduce water consumption to a minimum
and reuse water in cascading system; balance
systems between local and regional
decentralized systems and larger, centralized
systems.
7. Avoid and upcycle waste in the metabolic
process of water; water is most stressed by
waste, so avoid using water as a transport
medium for waste, finding better solutions for
recycling and upcycling waste.
8. Ensure access to water for all; equity and
social justice need to be respected in water-
related planning process; and involve stake-
holders and the public as a means to care for
social equity.
9. Bring beauty in all water design, as water is
intimately connected to beauty; respect the
human fascination with water and the biophilia
effect, which we so much need today.
Water is key to our survival in cities and rural
areas. It is critical to measure, count, and quantify
the impacts of water design, capturing the value
and character of water’s flexible and ever-
changing qualities. The future depends on the
design of our water and landscape systems as a
central tenet of a sustainable built environment.
205
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 individual action such as improving housing
Green Infrastructures to Face insulation, installing air-conditioning, etc.) [2].
Climate Change in an Ecosystem services “The benefits people obtain
Urbanizing World from ecosystems” [3]. “These include provi-
sioning services such as food, water, timber,
Stephan Pauleit1, Ole Fryd2, Antje Backhaus3 and and fiber; regulating services that affect cli-
Marina Bergen Jensen2 mate, floods, disease, waste, and water quality;
1
Center of Life and Food Sciences cultural services that provide recreational, aes-
Weihenstephan, Technical University of Munich, thetic, and spiritual benefits; and supporting
Freising, Germany services such as soil formation, photosynthe-
2
Landscape Architecture and Planning, sis, and nutrient cycling” ([3], Preface: V). In
Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource urban areas, ecosystem services are clearly
Management, University of Copenhagen, related to land use and land cover. Therefore,
Frederiksberg C, Denmark spatial planning and regulations that influence
3
gruppe F, Berlin, Germany the spatial pattern and intensity of land use, and
in particular the provision and quality of green
spaces, can have huge implications for the
Article Outline ecology of cities (e.g., [4, 5]).
Evapotranspiration The sum of evaporation of
Glossary water from surfaces and the transpiration of
Definition of the Subject water by plants and animals. According to the
Introduction US Geological Survey [6], transpiration from
The Role of Green Infrastructure for Adaptation plants accounts for approximately 10% of air
of Cities to Climate Change moisture. A large oak has been estimated to
The Potential of Green Infrastructure to Mitigate transpire up to 151,000 liters of water per year
Climate Change [7]. This would account for more than 400 l/day.
Vulnerability of the Green Infrastructure to More modest figures are given by other sources
Climate Change Impacts for trees in urban streets and squares, e.g., around
Conclusions and Future Directions 50 l/day for 30–40-year-old narrow-leaved lime
Bibliography trees, but only around 13 l/day for black locust
trees, in Munich, Germany [8]. In situ measure-
Glossary ments of 108 urban trees in Los Angeles showed
evapotranspiration rates ranging from close to
Adaptation (with respect to climate zero to 200 l/day with high variability among
change) “The process of adjustment to actual tree species and locations [9], as well as irrigation
or expected climate and its effects. In human patterns, air moisture, and exposure to sunlight
systems, adaptation seeks to moderate or avoid [10]. Furthermore, the health and growth may
harm or exploit beneficial opportunities. In vary for each individual urban tree.
some natural systems, human intervention Green Infrastructure The term “green infra-
may facilitate adjustment to expected climate structure” was first introduced in the USA in
and its effects” ([1], p. 5). A distinction has the 1990s – defined as an “interconnected net-
been made between planned adaptation (e.g., work of protected land and water that supports
urban planning), which is the focus of this native species, maintains natural ecological pro-
chapter, and autonomous adaptation (e.g., by cesses, sustains air and water resources, and con-

© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020 207

V. Loftness (ed.), Sustainable Built Environments,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-0684-1_212
Originally published in
R. A. Meyers (ed.), Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology, © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC,
part of Springer Nature 2020, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2493-6_212-3
208 Green Infrastructures to Face Climate Change in an Urbanizing World
tributes to the health and quality of life for
America’s communities and people” [11].
“Urban green infrastructure” is the network of
green areas in cities. The term makes reference to
other types of urban infrastructures (e.g., the road
system). This interpretation of green infrastruc-
ture relates to a fine-scale urban application
where hybrid infrastructures of green spaces
and built systems are planned and designed to
support multiple ecosystem services. It has been
argued that planning of an urban green infra-
structure should promote multifunctionality and
connectivity of urban green space. It can inte-
grate both public and private green space and
seek to develop synergies with technical and
social infrastructures. It should be based on a
long-term vision and a communicative and
socially inclusive approach to its planning and
management [12, 13].
Mitigation (with respect to climate change)
Reducing greenhouse gas emissions and enhanc-
ing sinks.
Resilience “The capacity of social, economic, and
environmental systems to cope with a hazard-
ous event or trend or disturbance, responding or
reorganizing in ways that maintain their essen-
tial function, identity, and structure, while also
maintaining the capacity for adaptation, learn-
ing, and transformation” ([1], p. 5., see also [14,
15]). Resilient systems can be characterized by
qualities such as diversity, modularity, feed-
back, and redundancy [16]. Despite numerous
definitions of resilience [17], it is relevant to
highlight Davoudi’s [18] distinction between
engineering resilience focusing on the pace of
a system to “bounce back” to the preceding
condition after a disturbance, often with an
emphasis on technological measures to protect
against a disturbances of the status quo; ecolog-
ical resilience emphasizing the ability of the
intertwined social, ecological, and technologi-
cal system [19] to adapt and adjust to changing
internal and external processes, while
maintaining the existing regime; and evolution-
ary resilience highlighting the ability of a sys-
tem to “bounce forward” along sustainability
transition pathways away from a less desired
current regime to a more desired future regime
which requires deep systemic change [20].
Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems Sequence
of management practices utilizing urban green
areas for storage, infiltration, evaporation, and
conveyance of stormwater runoff.
Urban Heat Island Effect Significantly higher
temperatures experienced in cities compared to
the rural surroundings as a result of poor solar
reflection in the built environment, less evapo-
transpiration, and anthropogenic heat from
combustion engines, conditioning of build-
ings, and other use of energy.
Vulnerability (with respect to climate change) It
is “the propensity or predisposition to be
adversely affected. Vulnerability encompasses a
variety of concepts and elements including sen-
sitivity or susceptibility to harm and lack of
capacity to cope and adapt” ( [1], p. 5). Vulner-
ability is determined by a broad set of factors
including physical properties of the system in
focus, e.g., construction of buildings, prepared-
ness measures, environmental management [21],
wealth, social status, and gender, as well as the
adaptive capacity of individuals, communities,
and institutions [22].
Definition of the Subject
By 2050, more than two thirds of the world’s pop-
ulation will live in cities [23]. Already today, cities
of the developed world are a major source of green-
house gas emissions. Therefore, cities need to make
serious efforts to mitigate climate change. Urban
planning can play a major role in this respect by
designing compact cities with a low carbon foot-
print. At the same time, climate change is having a
severe impact on cities with the intensification of the
heat island effect and the increase of surface runoff
from more frequent and intense rainstorms and by
coastal and river flooding. Urban planning will play
an important role for development and implementa-
tion of integrated strategies for climate change mit-
igation and adaptation. Most critically, “green
infrastructures” can assist in adapting cities to cli-
mate change by reducing the urban heat island effect
and by managing stormwater runoff. Urban green-
ing such as planting of shade trees and roof greening
can also reduce the energy demand for house
heating and cooling. The design of the urban
Green Infrastructures to Face Climate Change in an Urbanizing World
landscape will have a direct influence on mitigating
climate change and its impact on people’s liveli-
hoods and assets.
Introduction
Urbanization and climate change are closely related.
At present, more than half of the world’s population
lives in cities. Over the next 30 years, the world’s
urban population is projected to increase by approx-
imately 2.5 billion people [23]. This will increase the
urban population by 60% and lead to massive land
use changes in and around current urban settlements.
Close to 90% of the future urban expansion is
expected to take place in Asia and Africa
[23]. While new urbanization is an issue in devel-
oping countries, 70–90% of the population of the
developed world already lives in urban settlements.
Therefore, the importance of green infrastructures
for climate change mitigation and adaptation is an
equally important issue in the developed as well as
the developing world.
It has been estimated that 78% of carbon emis-
sions from burning fossil fuels and cement
manufacturing [24] and 85% of the anthropogenic
emissions of carbon dioxide, chlorine-fluorine-
carbons, and tropospheric ozone stem from urban
areas [25]. In another study, the contribution of
urban areas to global greenhouse gas emissions
has been estimated between 37% and 49% for the
year 2000 [26]. While these and similar figures
have been debated [27], there can be little doubt
that urban areas, in particular in the developed
world and in the transition countries, need to play
a major role in climate change mitigation. Accord-
ingly, the abatement of greenhouse gas emissions is
rising in the political agenda of many cities, in
particular in the developed world [28–30].
Greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced in
many different ways by all sectors and at all levels
of human society. Urban form plays a critical role,
and the “compact city” model has gained wide
acceptance as a way to achieve more resource effi-
cient cities. Walkability, mixed-use, and urban den-
sity are strongly related to energy consumption, with
denser cities consuming less energy per capita. This
applies especially for car-based travel [31]. This
relationship has been used as a powerful argument
209
against allowing further urban sprawl, i.e., the exten-
sion of urban areas through low-density develop-
ments. European cities have on average expanded
by 78% in area since the mid-1950s, while their
population increased by only 33% [32]. Large
urban regions have developed, far into the previous
countryside, and have resulted in patterns of daily
commuting [33]. Sprawl has even been observed in
city regions with decreasing populations where peo-
ple move out from declining inner cities to live in
suburban and even rural locations [34].
While city governments are giving increasing
attention to reducing greenhouse gas emissions for
climate mitigation, adaptation to climate change has
been of less concern until recently. A study of
627 urban climate change initiatives in 100 cities
found that only 12% of the initiatives were
addressing climate change adaptation [35]. Another
study of 401 large cities with a population exceeding
one million people found that only 15% of the cities
had climate change adaptation initiatives [36]. A
similar trend is seen in a review of local climate
plans in 885 cities across the European Union where
approximately 25% of the cities had adaptation
plans while 42% had mitigation plans and 33% of
the cities had no stand-alone local climate plan [30].
Following the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report
[1, 37] and Crichton [38] (Fig. 1), the climate
change-related risks of urban areas are a function
of three factors: the (i) hazards, (ii) exposure of the
urban system to these hazards, and (iii) the urban
system’s inherent vulnerability.
(i) Hazards: The average global mean surface
temperature is likely to rise between 0.3  C
and 4.8  C, and the sea level is likely to rise
between 0.26 m and 0.82 m by 2081–2100
relative to 1986–2005 – depending on the
“Representative Concentration Pathway sce-
nario” (IPCC Fifth Assessment Report [39]).
Annual precipitation levels will increase in
high latitudes and decrease in most subtrop-
ical land regions. Temperature extremes,
heat waves, and heavy rain events are
expected to increase [1]. Overall, three
effects of climate change are of particular
concern for urban areas:
• Sea-level rise and increase of storm
surges caused by storms
210 Green Infrastructures to Face Climate Change in an Urbanizing World
Green Infrastructures to Face Climate Change in an
Urbanizing World, Fig. 1 Illustration of risk as a func-
tion of hazard, exposure, and vulnerability ([37], see also
• Temperature rise which intensifies the
urban heat island
• Changing amounts and patterns of precip-
itation which increases the risk of
drought, on the one hand, and pluvial
and sewer flooding and landslides from
rainstorms, on the other hand
Temperatures will increase in particular in
the North and the South of Europe, but in
more moderate ways in Central and North
West Europe (Fig. 2). In the North, temper-
atures and precipitation will particularly rise
in winter time, while the South will be
affected by hotter and drier summers. Not
all of these changes will be negative for
living in the city. For instance, heating
demands and human winter mortality are
expected to decrease in northerly areas.
Also, the summer will become more benefi-
cial for outdoor activities in the north. Yet,
even for countries such as Sweden, it has
been estimated that these beneficial effects
are outweighed by increased mortality due to
heat waves and increased energy demands
for cooling during summertime [40]. In par-
ticular, it needs to be highlighted that it is less
[1]). (Adapted from Crichton (2001) by Handley [169]
with permission from author)
the general change of temperature and pre-
cipitation patterns that are of concern, but the
increasing frequency and intensity of
extreme events such as spells of hot weather
and drought interspersed with more frequent
thunderstorms which bring large quantities
of rainfall in a short time and a higher likeli-
hood of more frequent and heavier winter
storms in the northern, northwestern, and
central parts of Europe [41].
(ii) Exposure: Urban areas are often located in
zones particularly exposed to climate change
hazards such as storm surges, river floods, and
landslides. About 13% of the world’s urban
population live in the low-elevation coastal
zone (<10 m above sea level) [42]. Almost
two thirds of urban settlements with a popula-
tion greater than five million are located in this
zone, including the densely populated deltas of
Ganges-Brahmaputra (Kolkata, Dhaka), the
Nile (Cairo), and the Yangtze River
(Shanghai). These areas are at particular risk
from flooding when high tides combine with
storm surge and/or elevated river flows. Yet,
not all residents within cities are equally at risk.
In the developing world, the informal
Green Infrastructures to Face Climate Change in an Urbanizing World
Green Infrastructures to Face Climate Change in an
Urbanizing World, Fig. 2 Projected changes of annual
mean temperature and annual precipitation in Europe for
2071–2100, compared to 1971–2000, based on the average
of a multi-model ensemble forced with the RCP8.5 high
settlements of the urban poor are particularly
exposed to flooding and other climate change
hazards, as these settlements are often located
at low altitude, in valleys, along steep hills, or
on other marginal spaces in the city.
(iii) Vulnerability: Urban vulnerability to climate
change is multifaceted and related to the
physical, social, economic, and environmen-
tal characteristics of urban infrastructures.
Various concepts of vulnerability to climate
change, and disasters have been proposed by
the research community [22, 37, 42, 43]. The
emphasis is either placed on physical vulner-
ability, mainly as a result of factors such as
location and physical structure of the city
(“outcome vulnerability”), or on social vul-
nerability, i.e., the condition of people that
enables a hazard to become a disaster (“con-
text vulnerability”). Adoption of either one
of the concepts has consequences for the
measures to be taken to reduce urban
vulnerability.
211
emission scenario. All changes marked with a color (i.e.,
not white) are statistically significant. (Source: https://
www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/figures/projected-chan
ge-in-annual-mean, accessed 22-03-2020, with permission
from European Environment Agency)
An obvious reason for the vulnerability of urban
areas to climate change is the concentration of
people, infrastructures, and economy. The urbani-
zation process per se also increases this vulnerabil-
ity. Urbanization fundamentally alters the earth’s
surface by replacing vegetated or otherwise open
land with built areas. Today’s urban areas may be
characterized as exposed ecological systems with a
high throughput of energy and materials. Ecosys-
tem processes are strongly impacted, including the
modification of local and regional climates, air
quality, hydrology, soils, and flora and fauna (e.g.,
[44]). Annual average air temperatures in big cities
are already 1–3  C higher than in the surrounding
countryside. Thus, climatic conditions in urban
areas may correspond to anticipated climate change
already today. However, today’s climate in urban
areas will be further modified by climate change,
with greater increases in temperature and
stormwater runoff [37, 46].
In addition to the physical vulnerability, social
vulnerability to climate change is manifold.
212 Green Infrastructures to Face Climate Change in an Urbanizing World
Distinctions can be made between the dimensions
of social vulnerability at the levels of individuals,
households, and the community (e.g., economic
condition, education level, demographic struc-
ture, and health); attitudinal vulnerability (e.g.,
social capital in the form of family networks to
support each other; knowledge and behavior, e.g.,
whether elderly people are prepared to take rele-
vant precautions during heat waves); and institu-
tional vulnerability (concerning local governance
structures, institutions, and actors) [22].
Planning: The critical role of land-use plan-
ning and management in climate change mitiga-
tion and adaptation has been recognized by the
Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change [1].
Urban planning and land management can mit-
igate the severity of hazards and reduce the levels
of exposure and vulnerability [47]. Land-use plan-
ning can reduce transport demands, and building
regulations can reduce the need for house heating
or cooling [29]. Directing urban development away
from floodplains can greatly reduce the risks of
being affected by increasingly frequent and severe
floods. As will be argued in the following sections,
planning can increase the capacity of urban areas to
cope with climate change by strategic planning of a
green infrastructure. As Lindley et al. observed,
“different scales of planning from macro scale
land-use planning to micro scale urban design are
both important to this process, responding to the
different scales over which risk and vulnerability
are expressed” ([47], p. 544).
Integration of solutions to climate change risks
in urban planning are, however, only beginning to
emerge [30, 49]. Urban areas are densely built,
densely populated, have high land costs, and must
support multiple functions. This calls for innova-
tive solutions to the design of urban areas that are
inclusive and synergetic. It is a challenge that can,
at least partly, be addressed by transferring land-
scape design principles into the design of the city.
There is ample evidence of the beneficial role
of urban green space in providing ecosystem ser-
vices (e.g., [12, 50]). Green space can mitigate the
urban heat island effect and reduce stormwater
runoff (e.g., [51, 52]). Urban trees and shrubs
also sequester carbon, and if the amount of living
biomass in a city is permanently enlarged, the
overall carbon balance of urban areas will be
improved (e.g., [53]) (however, this contribution
is likely to be only of marginal importance in
comparison to reducing urban greenhouse gas
emissions). The question that remains to be
answered is to what extent cities can adapt to the
large changes in the environment driven by cli-
mate change through planning and design of an
urban green infrastructure?
The Role of Green Infrastructure for
Adaptation of Cities to Climate Change
By preparing the city to face the impacts of a
changing climate, the economic and social costs
can be reduced, while synergies can be realized
alongside the development of more attractive and
liveable cities.
Adaptation to Rising Temperatures: The Heat
Island Effect
The local climate in urban areas differs from the
surrounding countryside [54]. Of particular rele-
vance in the context of climate change is the
increase of air temperatures in urban areas by
1–3  C on average. On warm summer days, the
difference can be up to 5–12  C [55]. This is
commonly referred to as the urban heat island
effect. The intensity of the heat island effect is
dependent on the size, density, and built-up condi-
tion of the city: the larger the city, the stronger the
heat island effect. This is relevant as many urban
areas in the world are strongly growing, and the
resulting increase of air temperatures in inner cities
may be stronger than that caused by global
warming alone. However, climate change is
expected to further intensify the heat island effect.
One modelling study predicted intensification of
the heat island effect for London by 0.5  C by the
2050s [56], while a case study for Athens indicates
that the UHI effect is exacerbated during heat
waves, which are projected to increase in fre-
quency and intensity due to climate change [57].
In warmer cities, it will be more difficult to
work and sleep properly without cooling and ven-
tilation systems. This will in turn increase energy
demands and waste heat production in the
Green Infrastructures to Face Climate Change in an Urbanizing World
summer. Air-conditioning costs money to pur-
chase and operates, and cooling systems are not
affordable for all. In addition, peak energy
demands for cooling may exceed the capacity of
local utilities. In the USA, peak urban electric
demands were estimated to rise by 2–4% for
each 1  C rise in daily maximum temperature.
The additional use of air-conditioning is respon-
sible for 5–10% of urban peak electric demand in
the USA, at a direct cost of several billion dollars
annually [58].
Increased temperatures in urban areas can have
negative consequences for human health and well-
being. Young children, elderly people, as well as
individuals suffering from cardiovascular diseases
are at risk from high-temperature events. The
extreme summer of 2003 in Europe led to more
than 70,000 deaths [59]. Most casualties occurred
in urban areas, where most people live, and the heat
island effect is intensified. In addition to the direct
impacts of raised temperatures, the heat island
effect also deteriorates air quality. For instance,
the heat island effect has been estimated to increase
ozone concentrations by 10–15% in Los Angeles,
California [60]. While hot summers with extreme
heat waves will become more frequent and intense
in the future [28], climate change impacts will vary
by climate and urban design.
The heat island effect is caused by a number of
factors including the reflection, storage and con-
vection of solar energy, and emission of heat from
anthropogenic process (see Fig. 3 and references
[52, 55, 61]). The main driver, however, is the
replacement of vegetated, evaporating surfaces
by built and paved surfaces. Vegetation reduces
urban heat by using the solar energy for evaporat-
ing water. In contrast, buildings and pavement are
made of materials with a higher capacity to accu-
mulate and store heat with no evaporative transfer.
Measurements show that surface temperatures do
not decrease continuously along urban to rural
transects but vary strongly within the urban area
depending on the physical characteristics of the
different land uses along this gradient (Fig. 4).
Temperature peaks can be observed in densely
built-up areas of the city (with extensive soil
sealing), while temperatures are considerably
lower in predominantly green areas. Therefore,
213
there is not one heat island for the entire city but
an archipelago of heat and cool islands which
corresponds to patterns of urban form and surface.
Urban climates and climate change should not
only be assessed on basis of patterns of air and
surface temperatures. Thermal comfort in urban
areas, i.e., the way thermal conditions are experi-
enced by people in open spaces or in buildings, is
dependent on the complex interactions of meteo-
rological variables (radiant temperature, air tem-
perature, wind velocity, and air humidity), human
physiological and psychological adaptation
(clothing, behavior, and cultural attitudes), per-
sonal experiences, as well as the materiality of
urban spaces (e.g., color, vegetation cover) [62–
65]. A range of thermal comfort indices have been
developed to calculate perceived temperature
including the Universal Comfort Index (UCI),
Physiologically Equivalent Temperature (PET),
and Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) [66, 67]. Of the
meteorological variables influencing comfort,
direct solar irradiation received on the body is
often of the most important influence during day-
time in outdoor spaces, in particular when wind
speed is low. Air and surface temperatures can be
lower in green spaces than in the surrounding
built-up areas, depending on the location, size,
and design of the green space, as well as the
management (e.g., whether lawns are irrigated).
A meta-analysis revealed that daytime air temper-
atures are on average 0.94  C lower in parks than
in adjacent built areas [68], a difference increasing
with park size.
Larger parks can also moderate air tempera-
tures in adjacent built-up areas. A study of green
spaces in Berlin (Germany) established that very
large parks, such as the Tiergarten (212 ha), can
lower air temperatures on clear summer days with
low wind speeds (<2 m/s) up to 1300 m leeward
and up to 200 m windward of the park [69]. While
these figures may be impressive, the effect is often
much less, especially for smaller green spaces [70,
71]. In addition to vegetation density and tree
canopy, the cooling effect also depends on the
topography of the park and surrounding built
structures [72]. Corridors in the main wind direc-
tion may lead cool air from the park into adjacent
built areas, whereas closed built structures around
214 Green Infrastructures to Face Climate Change in an Urbanizing World

Green Infrastructures to Face Climate Change in an
Urbanizing World, Fig. 3 Energy transfers contributing
to the urban heat island effect: (a) the situation in the open
land; (b) the situation in densely built-up areas
[51]. (Reprinted from Landscape and Urban Planning,
57/2, V. Whitford, A. R. Ennos, J. F. Handley “City form
and natural process” – indicators for the ecological perfor-
mance of urban areas and their application to Merseyside,
UK, pages 91–103, Copyright (2001), with permission
from Elsevier)

Green Infrastructures to Face Climate Change in an Urbanizing World, Fig. 4 Variations of surface temperatures
in urban transect. (Modified from Voogt [171] with permission from the author)

the park block the movement of cool air. Mitiga- spaces that permeate the built fabric [73]. More-
tion of the urban heat island cannot rely on single over, the greening of the urban matrix is crucial to
large green spaces alone but should be providing for comfortable climatic conditions
complemented by a dense network of green where people live and work [74].
Green Infrastructures to Face Climate Change in an Urbanizing World
Due to the heterogeneity of built structures and
open spaces, thermal comfort in urban centers
varies considerably, especially during more
extreme weather conditions. On hot summer
days, the sensation of heat stress is high in sunlit,
hot spaces such as highly paved squares compared
to more comfortable, shaded street canyons. Even
in very densely built areas, shade trees can be
planted in streets to control climates at ground
levels, while roof and wall greening reduce the
heating up of built surfaces [75–77]. Trees are
particularly effective in reducing thermal stress
in the city during the daytime as they combine
transpirational cooling with a shading effect
[78]. Air temperatures above open grass surfaces
are cooler than underneath trees at night, however,
due to unhindered thermal reradiation to the night
sky. Therefore, urban open spaces need to skill-
fully combine tree cover, arranged in a way that
airflow is not blocked, with open lawns to opti-
mize human thermal comfort both during the day-
time and at night [79, 80].
While there is evidence to establish the rela-
tionships between urban form, green space and
urban climates at various scales – from streets to
citywide – research on the likely consequences of
climate change on urban climates and the poten-
tial of green infrastructure to mitigate these effects
are still scarce. A study undertaken on the urban-
ization of Greater Manchester, UK, used a simple
energy balance model to explore the impacts of
climate change on urban temperature patterns and
relate them to changes in urban morphology types
(UMT) [81] (Fig. 5). These UMT greatly differ in
terms of built and open space characteristics, with
green spaces ranging from less than 20% in inner
urban areas to 50–60% in low-density residential
areas.
In this study, surface temperatures greatly dif-
fered between the urban morphology types on hot
summer days strongly related to the percent of
green space [81] (Fig. 6). With present-day green
space percentages, the densely built inner city
areas showed maximum surface temperatures of
32.1  C on a hot summer day, with equally high
temperatures in densely built residential areas,
industrial and commercial districts. In the low-
density housing areas with 50–60% green, the
215
surface temperatures are considerably lower at
21.7  C, whereas woodlands offered the coolest
places at 18.4  C. Increasing the coverage of
vegetated areas can buffer the effects of climate
change markedly. An increase from the current
20% of the surface area in the densely built town
centers to 30% would almost compensate for the
rising temperatures expected from global
warming by 2080, even under a high greenhouse
gas emission scenario. In contrast, by reducing the
cover of vegetated areas from 20% to 10%, the
temperature in dense urban areas would nearly
double the projected increase of surface tempera-
tures from 4.3  C to 8.2  C by the 2080s (Fig. 7).
Detailed information is required for develop-
ing specific green infrastructure strategies for the
different urban morphology types (UMT). To this
end, three distinct UMTs in two Bavarian cities
were studied in a recent research project [76]:
closed perimeter blocks, freestanding blocks of
flats, and medieval town centers. The efficiency
of three kinds of green infrastructure to improve
thermal comfort was assessed separately in a sce-
nario modelling approach (using state-of-the-art
microclimatic simulation software ENVI-met
V4.0, [83]): planting trees in streets and other
open spaces, roof greening, and façade greening.
Adding trees proved to be the most effective strat-
egy in the perimeter block area (Table 1, Fig. 8).
An increase in tree cover from the existing 9% of
surface area to 22% would not only significantly
improve current thermal conditions in open
spaces but also offset the impacts of climate
change until 2050. Further increasing tree cover
by planting in all open spaces would only lead to a
small incremental improvement of thermal com-
fort because the “realistic” 22% tree cover was
strategically located where they would be most
effective in cooling the open spaces and façades
(introducing shade in the sunniest intersections
and in front of south- and west-oriented façades).
Greening of façades also had some effect and
should be considered as an option where open
space is missing. Roof greening had no effect on
thermal comfort at the street level but was shown to
be an important measure to reduce stormwater
runoff [84] and reduce cooling loads especially in
low- to mid-rise areas. Hence, a combination of all
216 Green Infrastructures to Face Climate Change in an Urbanizing World
Green Infrastructures to Face Climate Change in an
Urbanizing World, Fig. 5 Map of Greater Manchester
divided into 29 urban morphology types [82]. (Reprinted
from Landscape and Urban Planning, 87/3, Susannah
E. Gill, John F. Handley, A. Roland Ennos, Stephan
three types of green infrastructure is recommended
(Fig. 9). On basis of these results, detailed guide-
line for retrofitting of three urban morphology
types have been written. These green infrastructure
guidelines are critical for climate change mitigation
and adaptation, as well as for enhancing biodiver-
sity and improving open space quality for
residents [85].
This research demonstrates that green infra-
structures address multiple objectives in
densely built-up areas. It may be challenging,
though, to introduce more green space where
Pauleit, Nicolas Theuray and Sarah J. Lindley,
Characterising the urban environment of UK cities and
towns: A template for landscape planning, pages
210–222, Copyright (2008), with permission from
Elsevier)
land value is high. Especially in cities where
urban densification rather than urban sprawl is
sought, it can be particularly difficult to develop
a green infrastructure. However, even there
opportunities exist. In the city center of Man-
chester, for instance, about 37% of the city is
covered by buildings and 40% by paving for
roads, car parks, etc. [82]. The amount of
space dedicated to car-based transport and
underground utilities is the challenge. Adapta-
tion to climate change will require more radical
measures to be taken for the reorganization of
Green Infrastructures to Face Climate Change in an Urbanizing World
Green Infrastructures to Face Climate Change in an
Urbanizing World, Fig. 6 Maximum surface tempera-
tures in Greater Manchester on a hot summer day in
1961–1990 and the 2080s low and high emission scenarios
[54]. (Reprinted from Built Environment, 33/1, S. Gill,
Green Infrastructures to Face Climate Change in an
Urbanizing World, Fig. 7 Maximum surface tempera-
ture for a hot summer day in inner city areas of Manchester,
with current form and when 10% green cover is added or
removed [54]. (Reprinted from Built Environment, 33/1,
217
J. Handley, R. Ennos, S. Pauleit, 2007, Adapting cities
for climate change: the role of the green infrastructure,
pages 115–133. Copyright (2007), with permission from
Alexandrine Press)
S. Gill, J. Handley, R. Ennos, S. Pauleit, 2007, Adapting
cities for climate change: the role of the green infrastruc-
ture, pages 115–133. Copyright (2007), with permission
from Alexandrine Press)
218 Green Infrastructures to Face Climate Change in an Urbanizing World

Green Infrastructures to Face Climate Change in an area in the inner city of Munich, Germany. Percentage
Urbanizing World, Table 1 Effectiveness of three types change is relative to the average thermal comfort values
of green infrastructure to improve thermal comfort under- for the study area (for details see [76])
current and future climate conditions in a perimeter block
Current climate Future climate
Scenarios (Change in %) (Change in %)
Baseline 9% tree covera 42.8  C PETb 45.2  C PETb
Tree realistic 22% tree covera 10.3 4.0
Tree maximum 34% tree covera 13.0 7.1
Roof realistic 9% green roofsa 0.0 +6.3
Roof maximum 47% green roofsa 0.5 +6.3
Façade realistic 4% façade covera 5.1 +0.9
Façade maximum 11% façade covera 9.8 4.1
a
Tree and green roof cover: proportionate cover of total study surface area; façade cover: proportionate cover of total
façade surface area
b
Physiologically Equivalent Temperature, a human comfort index (for details see: [86])

Green Infrastructures to Face Climate Change in an
Urbanizing World, Fig. 8 Perimeter block case area in
Munich, (a) aerial photo © Microsoft Cooperation and (b)
current greening situation. (Reprinted from Urban Forestry
& Urban Greening, 20, T. Zölch, J. Maderspacher,
C. Wamsler, C. and S. Pauleit. Using green infrastructure
for urban climate proofing: An evaluation of heat mitiga-
tion measures at the microscale, pages 305–316. Copyright
(2016) with permission from Elsevier GmbH)

transport in city centers to create green space for
climate mitigation and adaptation. Changes in
mobility systems and the need for renewal of
underground utilities may open the window of
opportunity for green infrastructures, if strate-
gies are clearly defined and supportive of urban
transformation. In this endeavor, it will be most
important to involve the variety of stakeholders
in appropriate ways, not least the land owners,
as adaptation cannot be restricted to public
spaces but needs to be comprehensive of the
entire urban landscape.
Green Infrastructures to Face Climate Change in an Urbanizing World
Green Infrastructures to Face Climate Change in an
Urbanizing World, Fig. 9 Location of the measures for
climate mitigation and climate adaptation in a densely built
perimeter block area. Planting of trees is suggested for
additional shading in strategic locations of open, sun-
exposed road crossings and along south- and west-oriented
façades. Façade greening can provide additional cooling in
open spaces and reduce heat loads inside buildings. Roof
greening on flat, shed-like buildings in the backyards can
Stormwater Management: From Sewer Based
to Landscape-Based Systems
The ongoing sealing of surfaces in urban areas for
buildings, roads, and other infrastructure also leads
to a change in the water cycle [45] (Fig. 10).
Instead of nature’s high evapotranspiration rates
and support for water infiltration for groundwater
recharge, “soil sealing” with pavement leads to
large amounts of surface runoff. In natural environ-
ments, roughly 10% of the precipitation will runoff
on the surface, and 50% will infiltrate. In dense
urban settings, the figures are reversed, with 50%
surface runoff and 10% infiltration, dependent on
the degree of surface sealing, the topography, pre-
vailing soil types, and rainfall patterns [4]. “Soil
219
reduce stormwater runoff during rainstorms. The measures
shown were further detailed in a guidance for municipali-
ties. (Reprinted from Lang, W., Pauleit, S., Brasche, J.,
Hausladen, G., Maderspacher, J., Schelle, R., Zölch,
T. (2018) Guidelines for climate-oriented communities in
Bavaria. Ministry of Environment and Consumer Protec-
tion, reprinted with permission of the Ministry, www.zsk.
tum.de)
sealing” leads to higher and more rapid peak dis-
charge of stormwater in urban areas, which then
needs to be handled by the storm-sewer systems.
Due to fast urban development and the ageing
of the systems, today many existing sewer sys-
tems have insufficient capacity. The increase in
stormwater runoff from impervious surfaces has
been dramatic in urban areas throughout the west-
ern world. Low-density development has greatly
enlarged the area of impervious surfaces for build-
ings and roads. Densification of existing built
areas has also increased the amount of runoff
from impervious surfaces, by building over dere-
lict or other non-built areas, infilling develop-
ment, or subdividing larger properties into
220 Green Infrastructures to Face Climate Change in an Urbanizing World
Green Infrastructures to Face Climate Change in an
Urbanizing World, Fig. 10 The water cycle in natural
and sealed areas. (Adapted after: Sieker, F. (Ed.) (1998):
smaller parcels. Paving of front gardens to create
parking spaces can also lead to significant
increases of impervious surfaces. Research on
residential areas in Liverpool revealed that an
additional 5% of the surface area was converted
from vegetated to pave between 1975 and 2000.
As a result, the runoff from a 10 mm rainstorm
event was modelled to increase on average by 4%
[88]. Similarly, a 13% increase in impervious
surfaces was detected in a suburban area of
Leeds, England, between 1971 and 2004, leading
to an increase of stormwater runoff by 12%
[89]. In Beijing, the decline of green space
between 2000 and 2010 led to a commensurate
increase in the cities stormwater runoff [90].
While the changes may appear to be manage-
able, they often lead to significant problems for
the existing storm-sewer system with measurable
risk of sewer overflows. This can either be
uncontrolled overflows, resulting in the flooding
of urban areas, or controlled discharges into
nearby streams and other receiving water bodies.
A study in Denmark compared regional precipita-
tion data from 1979 to 1997 with 1997–2005 and
identified a 10% increase in rain intensity for a
Naturnahe Regenwasserbewirtschaftung, Reihe Stadtöko-
logie, Vol. 1, Analytica Verlagsgesellschaft, Berlin with
permission from the author)
10-year design storm [91]. Model simulations
project that extreme rain events will further
increase by 20% or more during the next
100 years [92]. To comply with more intensive
rainstorms, the drainage capacity needs to be
increased by approximately 30% over a 100-year
time perspective [93]. When uncertainties related
to urban drainage modelling and urban densifica-
tion are factored in, the expansion of drainage
capacity needs to be 72% higher than present
levels! [93]. This is only to maintain the same
flood risk as today, in which flooding is accepted
every 10th year in the combined storm-sewer
system.
Large challenges lie ahead in adapting cities to
more extreme rain events. Conventional solutions
are costly and possibly unsustainable long term
(e.g., [94, 95]). The green infrastructure solution
is to imitate the natural water cycle with designed
delay, infiltration, and/or evaporation of
stormwater as close to where it falls as possible.
Single measures for such on-site stormwater man-
agement are green roofs, permeable pavement,
swales, ponds and infiltration trenches. These
measures are also referred to as landscape-based
Green Infrastructures to Face Climate Change in an Urbanizing World
stormwater management, sustainable drainage
systems or sustainable urban drainage systems
(SUDS), best management practices for
stormwater (BMPs), low impact development
(LID), water-sensitive urban design (WSUD), or
the sponge city concept [96, 97].
Sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS)
can be used as a full stand-alone solution
(typically employed in new urban developments)
or retrofitted in to the existing city to provide more
drainage capacity in the area to be complementary
to the existing sewer system. SUDS further pro-
vide the opportunity for comprehensive solutions
to support recreational and spatial utilization of
the water as well as to increase biological diversity
in the green infrastructure that contributes to
increased groundwater recharge. These solutions
have economic, environmental, and recreational
advantages.
Sustainable urban drainage systems have been
implemented in various places around the world and
can include a wide range of different measures.
On-site stormwater management has growing
acceptance in Oceania [98], Northern Europe [99],
Asia [100], and North America [101, 102], although
it is still not widely or commonly applied.
A range of studies show the positive impact
that sustainable stormwater management
approaches can have on cities. In Malmö Sweden
[103], a combination of green roofs and multiple
retention pond system was retrofitted into the
Augustenborg neighborhood. Studies indicated
that the 31% extensive green roof cover could
reduce the peak flow by 64% for a rain event
statistically happening twice a year and 27% for
a rain event reoccurring once in 5 years. In addi-
tion, the runoff volume was reduced by 52% and
18%, respectively, for the same periods [105]. In
another study, Bengtson [104] established that
extensive green sedum roofs with a 3 cm thick
substrate layer can retain 10 mm of rain before
discharging water.
The implementation of sustainable urban
drainage systems is expected to improve the qual-
ity of life in neighborhoods and cities as well as
offer a range of technical and ecological advan-
tages [106]. For example, they decrease of com-
bined sewer overflows, improve the performance
221
of the wastewater treatment plants since the
wastewater is less diluted, and lead to a reduction
of energy demand for wastewater treatment. The
stormwater can be harvested for supply purposes,
including landscaping and toilet flushing which
also reduces the strain on potable or freshwater
sources.
Moreover, the infiltration of stormwater also
contributes to the recharge and maintenance of
groundwater sources in urban areas [107]. In cit-
ies, the groundwater level is commonly lowered
as a result of the extraction of groundwater for
supply purposes, the drainage of natural wetlands,
and the loss of stormwater infiltration due to few
permeable surfaces. A general decrease in the
groundwater in an area can result in a lower
water table in surrounding wetlands and nega-
tively affect the flora and fauna. It should be
noted that in high-latitude and midlatitude wet
regions of the world, the annual mean precipita-
tion is predicted to increase as a result of climate
change, which will in general increase groundwa-
ter levels in those locations [39].
Beyond groundwater recharge, the infiltration
of stormwater in soil layers that are hydraulically
linked to local streams can support the stream’s
base flow. The lower peak flow into receiving
water bodies reduces the risk of flooding, erosion.
and uncontrolled pollution. Finally, SUDS sup-
port the use of rainwater as an asset benefitting
city life [99, 108, 109]. People are attracted to
water whether it is children playing in a puddle
or adults who are happy to pay more for a house
with a view of water. Water increases the attrac-
tion of the environment and can contribute to a
greener landscape and richer plant and animal life.
The implementation of sustainable urban
drainage systems also bears some risks. There is
the potential of groundwater pollution from pol-
luted soils or runoff from heavily trafficked areas.
Without appropriate design, there can be
unwanted flooding of low-lying areas or base-
ments [107, 110]. Planners and engineers must
be aware of these risks and design proper avoid-
ance strategies with monitoring.
A good urban drainage solution must respond
to different conditions. It must appropriately man-
age the risk of flooding, in some cases by
222 Green Infrastructures to Face Climate Change in an Urbanizing World
redirecting water to areas where the damages and
negative impacts are smallest. Stormwater man-
agement planning needs to be based on environ-
mental management for entire watersheds. Up to
now, most projects have been implemented only
at a site or neighborhood level with little connec-
tion to the surrounding landscape. Little knowl-
edge has been developed regarding large-scale
landscape-based stormwater management sys-
tems and their potential positive and negative
impacts on other aspects of urban land use as
well as their integration with other urban devel-
opment goals. Some of the notable exceptions
include the longitudinal study of Little Stringy-
bark Creek in Melbourne (Australia) [106], the
Active, Beautiful and Clean Waters initiative in
Singapore [111], the sponge city concept in China
[112, 113], the initial comparative study of
landscape-based stormwater management in the
Mbezi River catchment in Dar es Salaam
(Tanzania), and the Jemo River catchment in
Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) [114].
An interdisciplinary case study with the goal to
develop a suitable strategy for large-scale SUDS
retrofit in the eastern parts of Copenhagen
(Denmark) [115] recommended connecting
small-scale projects at the site level with larger-
scale planning of connected systems for the entire
watershed. Today’s system of point elements
should be connected by linear elements and
zones into a new green and blue water infrastruc-
ture network. Such a system design of connected
disconnects would extend the capacity of single
sites across spatial and temporal scales. Single site
solutions would treat the stormwater indepen-
dently on a daily basis, while green streets and
green corridors would function as emergency
overflow systems in extreme storm events.
Green Infrastructures to Face Climate Change in an Urbanizing World, Fig. 11 Sketch of an interconnected
system of SUDS elements. (Illustration: O. Fryd)
Figure 11 was developed as part of the study in
Copenhagen to illustrate an interconnected sys-
tem of SUDS elements at the site level, district
level, and city level. Urban green infrastructures
integrated into the planning and design of large-
scale stormwater management systems; support
the retention, infiltration, and evapotranspiration
of the water cycle; and support biodiversity and
human quality of life in gardens, parks, and green
corridors.
This interconnected system of SUDS elements
at the site, district, and city level requires close
collaboration between the different stakeholders.
Green space management, paving, and storm-
sewer management must merge to ensure success-
ful SUDS implementation. Water does not follow
administrative borders.
Flood Management
Sea-level rise will challenge many coastal urban
areas. In addition, increased runoff will raise river
water levels and increase flood risks from rivers as
well. More impervious urban areas and more
intensive rain events will exacerbate the situation.
The conventional solution is to manage rivers by
means of channelization, raising the dikes and
installing dams. A landscape-based approach to
coastal and river flood management is an emerg-
ing concept being explored in countries like China
[116], Germany [117], India [118], the Nether-
lands and Belgium [119], Singapore [120], and
the USA [121, 122].
It is estimated that the coastal wetlands in the
state of New Jersey (USA) reduced direct flood
damage costs by $429 Million USD during Hur-
ricane Sandy [123]. This corresponds to 3% of the
state’s total losses. At the local level, in Ocean
County, New Jersey, salt marshes are found to
Green Infrastructures to Face Climate Change in an Urbanizing World
reduce annual flood damage costs by 18% on aver-
age, for properties at elevations from 0.5 meter to
+1.5 meter relative to mean sea level, and up to 70%
in some locations [123]. On Staten Island
(New York, USA) 87% of the approximately 7000
buildings damaged by Hurricane Sandy were
located at sites that had been deemed unsuitable
for urban land use in 1960 [124]. The damaged
buildings were predominantly located on the low-
lying East Coast of Staten Island by South Beach,
Midland Beach, and Oakland Beach which is highly
exposed to storm surge, high winds, and heavy
rains. Had a landscape-based approach to urban
planning and land-use zoning been adopted in the
development of Staten Island, the impacts of Hurri-
cane Sandy would have been much less severe. The
frequency of very intense tropical cyclones is pro-
jected to increase in the future [125] which high-
lights the need for coastal planning that mitigates the
impacts of climate change through sustainable land-
use development and wetland conservation.
Many nature-based urban river restoration pro-
jects have been implemented to reduce flooding,
for example, Houtan Park in Shanghai (China)
[116], Cheonggyecheon Linear Park in Seoul
(South Korea) [126], and the river Isar in Munich
(Germany) [127]. Climate change may not have
been a strong political driver for these projects
[128], but the outcomes are certainly highly rele-
vant for adaptation of cities to climate change
through green infrastructures. The restoration of
the river Isar within the built area of Munich can
be taken as an example. In the 1990s, a major
flood almost caused a catastrophe in Munich as
rivers reached their limits. This event led to new
regulations, whereby safety thresholds for
flooding were increased to 500-year highs, a rad-
ical rethinking of the conventional, hard-
engineering approach to flood management. It
was realized that flood problems could not be
solved by further increasing the height of river
dams alone. In addition to property damage, this
flood would have caused major negative impacts
on green spaces along the river which are highly
valued for recreation. Instead, a strategy was
adopted, whereby the riverbed was broadened
wherever possible to provide more space for the
water. The river banks were recontoured and
223
planted to enhance access to the river for recrea-
tional purposes and to promote habitats for wild-
life (Fig. 12).
Landscape flood management systems reflect
some of the same principles as SUDS by using
hydrology as the generator of sustainable urban
form to specifically address flood risks, seasonal
flow patterns, and tidal water dynamics – as defining
factors for integrated design. The focus seems to be
on the edges between cities and their water bodies,
i.e., a transition from hard edges to softer and more
dynamic edges. The solutions are characterized by a
change from channelization and embankment to the
design of (at least partly) temporarily wet and dry
transition zones. From an ecological perspective,
such zones are expected to perform well as marshes,
wetlands, mangroves, and river banks and provide
some of the most diverse natural ecosystems. How-
ever, they must be designed to also comply with
urban needs such as public health and accessibility.
Almost inevitably, compromises need to be made
between ecological, social, and aesthetic goals for
river restoration in such a strategy. For instance,
heavy recreational use can be in conflict with the
goal to restore habitat for certain species of fish
[129]. Therefore, a multifunctional strategy is a
prerequisite to successfully developing this green
infrastructure.
The Potential of Green Infrastructure to
Mitigate Climate Change
The reduction of greenhouse gas emissions is
critical to the mitigation of climate change. Cities
offer significant potential to reduce GHG, for
example, by reducing energy consumption,
exchanging renewable energy sources for non-
renewable, and densifying cities, so the need for
transportation is reduced. Many cities throughout
the world are currently launching initiatives to
reduce CO2 emissions and to promote a more
climate-friendly development [30, 35, 36]. Green
infrastructure can mitigate greenhouse gas emis-
sions, either by directly capturing and storing CO2
or by reducing energy consumption of nearby
buildings.
224 Green Infrastructures to Face Climate Change in an Urbanizing World
Green Infrastructures to Face Climate Change in an Urbanizing World, Fig. 12 River Isar in Munich during a
flood after restoration. (Photo: S. Pauleit)
CO2 Sequestration and Storage
Estimates of carbon storage in aboveground urban
vegetation and urban trees have been generated for
many cities, including New York, Philadelphia,
Jersey City (USA), Lisbon (Portugal), Leicester
(UK), and Shenyang (China) [130–133]. Carbon
sequestration varies widely between 3.2 kg/m2 and
56.9 kg/m2 for these cities. The overall carbon
storage of urban trees in the USA has been esti-
mated at 643.2 million tons and annual sequestra-
tion at 25.6 million tons [134]. Since the percent of
coverage from trees and large shrubs ranges from
9 to 67% in these urban areas (with an average of
35%) [135], the amount of carbon stored and
sequestered will also largely differ. Within urban
areas, carbon storage capacity in aboveground veg-
etation varies significantly, depending on the over-
all amount of vegetation cover and most
particularly tree cover. A study of four residential
neighborhoods in Liverpool showed a variation in
carbon storage from less than 1 ton per hectare to
17 tons per hectare, with corresponding annual
carbon sequestration rates from close to 0 to
130 kg CO2 per hectare [51].
It should be stressed that the literature is sparse
and these estimates are hardly comparable due to the
different methods used. Moreover, it should be
noted that a large proportion of organic carbon is
stored in soils making this a critical component in
design. The Leicester study, for example, identified
that soils store 82% of the organic carbon and veg-
etation 18% [136] (for further estimates see [137]).
Trees and other types of vegetation take up
CO2 when they grow. A large, old tree can store
3 tons of carbon in the stem, branches, and roots
[53]. This corresponds roughly to the amount of
CO2 emitted from driving 25,000 km in a
medium-sized car (based on new car average
emissions of 120.4 g CO2 per km) [138]. Yet the
transportation impact on urban CO2 is vast. For
the city of Bolzano (Italy), it was estimated that
the annual CO2 sequestration of urban trees would
offset only 0.08% of emissions by the transport
sector [139], The city of Chicago estimated the
140,000 tons of CO2 sequestered yearly in their
urban trees, corresponded with the CO2 emissions
of all car-based traffic in 1 week or 2% of the
annual total [53]. For 35 Chinese cities, the offset
Green Infrastructures to Face Climate Change in an Urbanizing World
of urban carbon emissions by vegetation was esti-
mated at 0.33% of the carbon emissions from
fossil fuel combustion [140]. Further, the
improvement is only permanent if the trees are
not cut down or dead and are replaced by new
plantings. In addition, the dead biomass should be
used to replace fossil fuel since simple decay will
release most of the stored CO2 back into the
atmosphere. In the balance of CO2 sequestration
in biomass, the emissions of CO2 from the decay
processes as well as from green space manage-
ment should be subtracted [141].
Large tree size, longevity, and high growth rates
are factors that have a positive influence on trees
capacity to sequester and store carbon [141]. How-
ever, trees can only fulfill these functions when
they are healthy and growing. Street trees in par-
ticular suffer from many stresses [143]. A review of
the available literature revealed a wide range of
annual mortality rates for trees along streets, in
yards, and in landscaped parks from 0 to 30% for
uneven-aged stands of trees [144]. For Liverpool
(UK) it was estimated that 39% of all newly planted
street trees died within 5 years after establishment
[145]. A modelling study highlighted that street
trees need to grow for at least 5 to 10 years before
trees start to have a positive carbon balance
because of the amount of carbon spent on their
raising and management [146].
These studies show that increasing the amount
of green in a city will only marginally meet the
mitigation challenge through carbon sequestra-
tion, while they provide other significant environ-
mental benefits. Still it is reasonable to include
urban trees as part of the citywide CO2 strategy
serving as part of a city branding strategy.
New York City launched the “Million Trees Pro-
gramme” to increase the number of trees in the
city by 20% as a means of urban shading,
stormwater management, and carbon sequestra-
tion. At present, the urban trees in New York
take up 42,000 tons of carbon every year and
store a total of 1.35 million tons of carbon [142].
Reduction of Energy Demand for Heating and
Cooling
Global warming will certainly increase the
demand for air-conditioning in office buildings
225
as well as in private houses, with both annual
and peak energy consequences. Green infrastruc-
tures from green roofs to green walls to tree can-
opies offer critically needed shade and can serve
as passive cooling systems, which can reduce
energy demands.
Shading walls in summertime reduce the ther-
mal load on buildings and hence the need for air-
conditioning in warm climates. In regions with
heating and cooling loads, deciduous trees for
shading on south and west facades are better
than evergreen trees, to block summer sun while
accessing winter sun.
For heating climates, planting evergreen trees
to block prevailing cold winds during wintertime
can shelter buildings and reduce energy loss
[53]. For houses in the USA, it is estimated that
energy use in single family homes can be 20–25%
lower when protected by an optimum planting of
trees [147].
US calculations reveal that 10% more tree
cover can reduce energy consumption rates for
cooling by 24% in Sacramento and 12% in Phoe-
nix [149]. In the more northern city of Chicago,
which has 8 months of heating, an 11% increase in
tree cover in an urban block would potentially
reduce combined annual energy demands for
house heating and cooling by up to 3.8%
[150]. Here, the wind-shielding effect was most
important to reduce energy needs in the heating
season [151].
Overall, a review of scientific publications
from the North America established that there is
solid evidence both from modelling and measure-
ments for the energy savings by urban trees, espe-
cially from cooling where the magnitude of the
savings range from 2.3% to 90%, while also offer-
ing 1% to 20% heating energy savings [152].
Roof and wall greening of buildings have the
potential to decrease energy consumption for
cooling by improving insulation and reducing
thermal loads. In hot climates, reduced heat load
during summertime is of significant importance.
As an example, the cooling load for a two-story
nursery school building in Athens (Greece) was
reduced by 6–49% during the summer for the
whole building and by 12–87% for the top floor
[153]. A study of an eight-story building in
226 Green Infrastructures to Face Climate Change in an Urbanizing World
Madrid (Spain) identified that a green roof
reduced the building energy demand by 1% annu-
ally and 6% during the summer [154]. In a peak
hot weather situation, the cooling load was
reduced by 25% for the floor below the green
roof. Green roofs have the greatest effect on
energy consumption for buildings with a large
roof area compared to the height of the wall,
such as single family houses, warehouses, and
big box stores [155].
Reducing energy loads by tree planting, roof,
and wall greening has the additional benefit of
greening the city. One potential conflict for mod-
ern “green architecture” (e.g., [156, 157]) is that
trees, wall, and roof greening may be an obstacle
for collecting solar energy by photovoltaics. This
is an important area for cooperation between
architects and landscape architects to create syn-
ergies in the integrated design of the green infra-
structure and green architecture. It is important to
mention that reducing energy consumption of
buildings by green infrastructure is small when
compared to the influence of building characteris-
tics (including insulation), demographics, and
human behavior [158].
Vulnerability of the Green Infrastructure
to Climate Change Impacts
While green infrastructures have great potential
for climate change mitigation and adaptation in
urban areas, it is vulnerable to the impacts of
climate change. Plantings, habitats, and species
are challenged by higher temperatures and chang-
ing precipitation patterns, and the thermal benefits
of shading and evapotranspiration rely on lush
vegetation. Furthermore, there may be increased
competition from non-native species, disease, and
pests may spread, and sea-level rise can threaten
rare coastal habitats [159]. In addition, biological
patterns may become displaced, e.g., “Earlier
springs, longer frost-free seasons, and reduced
snowfall could further affect the dates of egg-
laying, as well as the emergence, first flowering
and health of leafing or flowering plants. Small
birds and naturalized species could thrive in the
warmer winters associated with the combined
effect of regional climate change and enhanced
urban heat island ([159], p. 78).”
According to the climate scenarios used in the
Manchester study [81], the periods without water
availability for plants in the upper 30 cm of the
soil layer will increase from currently less than
1 month during summertime to up to 4–5 month
by 2080 in the high emission scenario for that city.
As a consequence, grassland would dry out and
lose its capacity to evapotranspire water.
Temperature differences with and without the
provision of evapotranspiration from grassland
for 29 urban morphology types in Manchester
are shown in Fig. 13. On a hot summer day sur-
face, temperatures would be up to 70% higher on
dried-out vegetation than on lush vegetation.
Areas with large expanses of lawn such as public
parks and playing fields but also schools would
suffer in particular. This points to the increasing
need for proper water management to ensure the
survival and growth of vegetation. Mechanisms
for water storage during times when there is abun-
dant rainfall need to be planned for irrigation. The
extent of lawns should be reduced in favor of trees
and shrubs which can access the water in deeper
layers of soil.
However, trees require sufficient soil and
space for their roots. Taking street trees as an
example, water stress already occurs as a result
of limited soil volume, confined space for roots
in planting pits, soil compaction, and generally
limited stormwater infiltration in built-up urban
areas [160]. With the addition of longer dry
periods and rising temperatures, increasing
water stress more street trees will be dying if
proper management regimes are not initiated.
Studies in Copenhagen (Denmark) indicate that
larger planting pits in combination with
improved soil substrates and irrigation can sig-
nificantly improve growth conditions for street
trees. While irrigation water can be provided
from the public water supply system, a better
option is to combine irrigation needs with
stormwater management to preserve scarce
freshwater resources. For example, discharging
stormwater runoff from pavements into local soil
constructs around street trees are currently being
tested in the City of Stockholm (Sweden) [161].
Green Infrastructures to Face Climate Change in an Urbanizing World
Green Infrastructures to Face Climate Change in an
Urbanizing World, Fig. 13 Surface temperatures on a
hot summer day in a 2080s high scenario with lush
With changing precipitation patterns, higher
temperatures, and later spring frost, the appropri-
ate selection of species is an equally important
approach to reduce the vulnerability of green
infrastructure to the impacts of climate change.
To address the challenge, and to initiate discus-
sions, a Climate-Species-Matrix was developed
for urban trees in Central Europe [162]. In Europe,
several field trials provide in situ tests of tree
species [163, 164]. In addition, field experiments
are undertaken to compare tree growth and related
ecosystem services under conditions of drought
[166, 167]. Findings from these studies provide
evidence that trees originating from hotter and
drier environments are better adapted to droughts,
in comparison to tree species from habitats with
good water supply. Drought adapted trees are
better able to reduce water consumption during
times of drought, yet the trade-off is less transpi-
ration, less growth, and less transpirational
cooling. Still, drought adapted species needs to
be recommended for streets and paved squares as
a prerequisite for the long-term provision of eco-
system services.
227
vegetation and dried-out vegetation (Gill [168], with per-
mission from author)
Conclusions and Future Directions
Climate change will have significant conse-
quences for the urban climate and urban hydrol-
ogy. The urban heat island effect and cooling
energy demands will increase if no action is
taken. Increasing the provision of urban green
infrastructures can mitigate the temperature rise
resulting from global warming to a modest extent
sequestering some of the carbon leading to global
warming.
More intensive rain storms resulting from cli-
mate change will challenge the capacity of
existing urban drainage systems and increase the
risk of flooding. Increasing the provision of urban
green infrastructures, including stormwater deten-
tion, infiltration, evapotranspiration, and convey-
ance measures, can compensate for changing
precipitation patterns.
Promoting urban green infrastructure as a net-
work of green spaces in the city can mitigate
climate change and adapt cities to the impact of
climate change. A green infrastructure, which is
multi-scale, multifunctional, interconnected, and
228 Green Infrastructures to Face Climate Change in an Urbanizing World
reflecting watershed hydrology, can be seen as a
major generator of sustainable urban form. Yet,
the green infrastructure needs to be robust to cope
with climate change through careful planning of
planting sites and species selection.
Green infrastructure planning to face climate
change is an emerging concept which can assist in
sustaining cities in an increasingly urbanizing
global context. It calls for continuous loops of
collaboration, knowledge exchange, innovations,
and learning by doing. Adoption of an interdisci-
plinary and transdisciplinary approach is needed
for the development of multifunctional green
infrastructures. A wide range of disciplines must
be engaged, including landscape architects and
urban planners, traffic engineers, hydrologists,
biologists, sociologists, and economists, working
interactively across science and practice in Urban
Learning Labs [167]. Critically, urban green infra-
structures call for a participatory, socially inclu-
sive approach to planning and implementation,
since it will extend across public and private
land and affect all citizens in different ways. Inte-
grated design delivery of urban green infrastruc-
tures challenges today’s prevalent public sector
administration based on the distribution of work
and responsibility. The necessary multi-scale
approach must also involve interinstitutional col-
laboration and close cooperation between local,
regional, and national authorities. Manchester,
Copenhagen, and Munich have shown that there
is increasing potential for such inter- and transdis-
ciplinary approaches to delivering vital urban
green infrastructures for climate mitigation and
adaptation.
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Greening Brownfields in
Urban Redevelopment
Juliane Mathey1 and Dieter Rink2
1
Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and
Regional Development (IOER), Dresden,
Germany
2
Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research
(UFZ), Leipzig, Germany
Article Outline
Glossary
Definition of the Subject
Introduction
Dimensions of Shrinkage and Vacant Land in East
Germany
The Joint Programs of the German Federal and
State Governments: “Urban Redevelopment
Programs”
The Demands Made of the New Open Spaces
Strategies and Tools for Open Space
Development
Conclusion: New Open Space Qualities Through
Urban Redevelopment?
Bibliography
Glossary
Brownfield an unused urban site of derelict or
underused land, which requires intervention to
bring it back to beneficial use and which may
have real or perceived contamination problems
[1, p. 3], [2].
Perforated city a city whose physical fabric con-
tains a scattering of vacant sites and which is
undergoing progressive redistribution.
Renaturation urban redevelopment projects that
are basically concerned with the temporary or
permanent rezoning of building land into green
and open spaces as used by the German Federal
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
V. Loftness (ed.), Sustainable Built Environments,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-0684-1_211
Originally published in
R. A. Meyers (ed.), Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology, © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC,
part of Springer Nature 2020, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2493-6_211-5
Ministry for Building, Transport and Housing
and the Federal Office for Building and Spatial
Planning [3].
Shrinking city an urban area that has faced a
population loss in large parts of its fabric for
more than 2 years and is undergoing economic
transformations with some symptoms of a
structural crisis.
Urban Redevelopment Program joint program
of the German federal and state governments
conceived as a consolidation program for the
local housing market, but also pursuing ambi-
tious urban development objectives. In the year
2017, it was formed by merging the program
“Urban Redevelopment East,” which had the
aim to demolish a certain number of flats in
order to regulate the housing market, with the
program “Urban Redevelopment West” [4].
Definition of the Subject
Urban shrinkage has become the new normality
for a growing number of European cities and
urban regions. It is a result of different but
strongly interconnected processes: uneven eco-
nomic development, demographic change, shifts
in land use and urban form, as well as housing
preferences and lifestyles. Shrinking urban
regions develop their own patterns of develop-
ment and form distinctive dynamics that differ
from those of their growing counterparts. Shrink-
age, however, produces brownfield sites or open
spaces of various sizes practically everywhere in
the urban fabric. Many local authorities engage in
scattered downsizing within existing settlements.
But this type of urban redevelopment reaches its
limits when “holes” steadily multiply and the
physical urban fabric disintegrates. Redevelop-
ment and downsizing raise the question of how
the design of open and green space can provide a
new quality of urban development. The major
issue for the future is how public funding can
235
236
best be deployed in handling vast areas of previ-
ously developed land within increasingly perfo-
rated cities. This entry looks systematically at the
solutions already available and what contribution
they can make to improving both the ecological
quality and the quality of life in cities.
Introduction
The current discussions about shrinking cities
stress the long-term impact and irreversibility of
shrinkage, necessitating the abandonment of long-
established planning principles. Of equal concern
is the fragmentation and perforation of urban
areas, caused not least by parallel shrinkage and
growth. However, the discussions of shrinking
cities have focused primarily on housing and to
some extent on infrastructural problems. Aban-
doned industrial land and new brownfield sites
in residential areas, in contrast, tend to be given
only cursory attention – they are literally a “mar-
ginal problem.”
Shrinking cities are not a new phenomenon,
but in the past, they have been regarded only as
isolated or regionally limited exceptions [5]. Dur-
ing the last decades, shrinking cities have become
a distinct urban process in particular in Europe
[6]. While a considerable share of “urban Europe”
has been growing during the last decades and
continues to do so, other urban regions have
been suffering from de-industrialization, popula-
tion loss, and decay for decades. Nearly one third
of all of Europe’s cities with more than 200,000
inhabitants have at least undergone one decade of
population decline [7] in the last 45 years.
Whereas some of these cities have been losing
population ever since the 1960s, the majority of
cases started declining only in the 1980s and
1990s. While population losses and economic
decline can also be found in numerous Western
and Southern European cities, they are especially
pronounced in Central Eastern and Eastern
Europe [8]. In the 2010s, the consequences of
the financial and economic crisis have changed
the patterns of regional development. While
Southern European countries which were heavily
affected by the economic crisis (such as Greece
Greening Brownfields in Urban Redevelopment
and Spain) experienced shrinkage through emi-
gration and declining birth rates, some Western
European countries benefited from immigration
(such as Germany, the Netherlands, and the UK).
Eastern European countries continued to shrink
due to emigration and low birth rates. During the
refugee crisis of 2015/2016, many immigrants
from North Africa and the Arab world came to
Europe, again mainly to some Western and North-
ern European countries.
In Eastern Europe, declining urban population
numbers are rather the normal case than the
exception [7]. Declining population is a result of
different but strongly interconnected processes,
including uneven economic development, demo-
graphic change, as well as shifts [9] in land and
resource use, urban form, housing preferences,
and lifestyles. Shrinkage represents a key regional
development challenge in Europe as the drivers
increasingly impact urban and regional develop-
ment. Recent statistics show that processes of
shrinkage will even gain more importance over
the next decades: according to UN estimates, the
population of Western, Northern, and – most of
all – Southern Europe will decrease. Current UN
calculations predict a decline in Europe’s popula-
tion from 729 million in the year 2000 to 628 mil-
lion people in the year 2050.
Shrinkage has not only become normality for a
number of European cities but a serious challenge
for urban planning. In many cases, shrinkage is
caused by the sudden vacating of buildings and
sites, as well as systematic retreat from extensive
redevelopment and infill. The question of the use
of the (new) open spaces takes on critical dimen-
sions: how can or should previously developed
land be integrated into the urban fabric? What
contribution can it make to local residential ame-
nity? What interim and long-term uses can be
envisaged?
This entry looks at the dimensions of shrinkage
and vacancies in East Germany, where this pro-
cess is particularly pronounced due to the interac-
tion of out-migration, demographic change, and
suburbanization. In the early 2000, the East Ger-
man government established the “Urban Redevel-
opment East” program to create solutions to the
shrinkage and vacancies. The entry investigates
Greening Brownfields in Urban Redevelopment
how open spaces in shrinking cities are treated,
what solutions have been adopted, and what
approaches are desirable from an ecological,
social, and economic point of view. Examples
are presented from various cities in East Germany
with applicability for other European cities or
worldwide.
Dimensions of Shrinkage and Vacant
Land in East Germany
In East Germany, 90% of all towns and cities with
over 20,000 inhabitants have suffered a popula-
tion decline [10, 11, p. 62]. Shrinkage in such
dimensions and at such speed is a new phenome-
non in Europe [12]. It began in GDR times.
Between 1949 and 1989, the German Democratic
Republic lost almost two million inhabitants.
Owing to government-planned concentration pro-
cesses, gaps developed in the fabric of many
towns and cities, left often in a derelict state. At
present, four main processes are causing shrink-
age in East Germany: (1) the de-industrialization
that set in with regime change, (2) the suburban-
ization or dis-urbanization of the 1990s, and
(3) demographic decline and (4) migrations.
1. De-industrialization set in immediately after the
change in regime, affecting practically all sec-
tors of the industry and with dire consequences
for the economic basis of East German towns
and cities. Seventy percent of all job losses were
due to the collapse of the industry [13, p. 4].
Thus, many industrial and commercial sites fell
vacant, especially in the late nineteenth-century
expansions of city areas. In those days an esti-
mated 3–4% or more of land in urban areas, and
up to 5% in industrial cities, lied vacant (own
estimates based on the data of Leipzig), and it
was expected to remain unused into the future.
Completely new dimensions in brownfield land
in cities were emerging – a process that was
assumed to continue with the advance of urban
redevelopment.
2. From the early 1990s to the mid-decade, a
rapid expansion of the housing supply topped
the list of local government priorities. In view
237
of the housing shortage in East Germany and
positive population forecasts, both the rehabil-
itation of old city centers and the construction
of new housing were pushed. Housing was
built everywhere with the aid of tax relief,
write-offs, and government subsidies. Between
1991 and 1999 alone, 773,368 new dwellings
were built [14], almost exclusively newly
constructed on greenfield sites. This led to
parallel shrinkage and growth, increased land
expansion, and, ultimately, a government-
subsidized housing surplus that now – again
with government aid – has to be reduced.
3. Demographic decline in East Germany has
been caused by out-migration and natural pop-
ulation development. Between 1989 and 2005,
some 1.4 million people moved from East Ger-
many to West Germany; if about 500,000 for-
eigners had not arrived, the migration loss
would have been even greater [15]. In addition,
there has been a natural decline in the popula-
tion of 600,000 due to the significant fall in the
birthrate from 1990 [15, p. 12]. Over this
period, the total population of East Germany
fell by 11.7%. Further decline can be expected
owing to these demographic changes. If the
trend in East Germany persists, the population
will have halved by 2050. More and more
towns and cities, not only in East Germany
but also in the western states, are expected to
experience stagnation or shrinkage [16].
4. In the 2010s, there have been significant
changes in migration development patterns in
East Germany. In the wake of the financial
crisis of 2008 and the refugee crisis in 2015/
2016, immigration from crisis regions has
increased, while at the same time domestic
migration has also increased. Only certain
regions and in particular some large cities
(e.g., Dresden and Leipzig) have experienced
growth. Other large and medium-sized cities
are stagnating, and most small towns and rural
areas continue to shrink [17, p. 2 ff.]. In East
Germany, long-term shrinkage, especially in
rural areas, but also in small towns and some
medium-sized and large cities, has remained
the determining factor since 2010 and has
solidified into structural shrinkage [17, p. 8].
238
Owing to demographic changes and out-
migration, as well as developments in the property
and housing markets, over one million dwellings
had fallen vacant by the end of the 1990s. But these
vacancies were only one element in the shrinkage
problem, which must be understood as a many-
faceted upheaval involving economic, social, and
cultural factors [11, p. 58 ff.]. Many dimensions of
this upheaval are beginning to emerge in outline.
East Germany has embarked on a specific path in
the development of settlement patterns with little to
compare in West Germany. Some authors have
described it as a “dis-urbanization process” (intra-
regional de-concentration of the population in an
overall context of demographic decline)
[18]. Since shrinkage in many regions can be
expected to continue in the long term, “reasonable
strategies for a retreat from extensive develop-
ment” are critically needed [19].
The Joint Programs of the German
Federal and State Governments: “Urban
Redevelopment Programs”
In response to increased housing vacancy, the
federal and state governments set up an expert
commission in the late 1990s on “Housing Struc-
tural Change in the New States,” which led to the
launch of the “Urban Redevelopment East” pro-
gram in 2002 [20]. Endowed with €2.7 billion,
about 350,000 of the one million surplus dwell-
ings were to be demolished by 2010. Over
350 larger local authorities are now integrated in
the program covering about 650 development
areas, approximately three quarters of all East
German towns and cities with populations of
over 10,000 [10]. Most communities receiving
support have a vacancy rate of about 10–15%,
some even 20%. By 2018, 334,000 dwellings
had been demolished, which is well behind the
target of demolishing a total of 500,000 dwellings
by 2016. Forecasts predict that 624,000 residen-
tial units will have to be demolished by 2030 to
prevent a further increase in vacancies [21]. Mean-
while, the demolition program is no longer limited
to cautious downsizing: in many cities, entire
neighborhoods are being razed [10, p. 11].
Greening Brownfields in Urban Redevelopment
Redevelopment has so far focused on large hous-
ing estates on the urban fringe. Some 40% of
demolition areas are characterized by pre-
fabricated high-rise housing from GDR times,
but 25% of the demolition areas have older hous-
ing stock dating from before 1948. In the year
2017, the program “Urban Redevelopment East”
was merged with the program “Urban Redevelop-
ment West” to form the “Urban Redevelopment
Program.” Both programs are clearly conceived as
a consolidation program for the local housing
market, but they also pursue ambitious urban
development objectives [4]. Support is mainly
provided for the demolition of housing, but the
remaining stock, infrastructure, and the residential
environments are to be upgraded, which includes
the provision of new, attractive green structures.
The aim is an integrated solution for housing and
urban development. With an eye to ensuring the
sustainability of the city as a whole, planned
demolitions are to be embedded in urban infra-
structures, and the neighborhoods involved are to
be upgraded at the same time [22]. To ensure that
downsizing, redevelopment, and upgrading works
are coordinated and that demolition is adapted to
the given urban fabric, funding is made contingent
on integrated urban development plans “to coor-
dinate the individual measures of urban redevel-
opment and combine them into a sustainable,
meaningful whole” [23]. The Urban Redevelop-
ment Program thus sets high standards – also for
the creation and design of open spaces. However,
both funding policy and local authorities have
since substantially lowered standards as they
rush toward rapid consolidation of the housing
market. Funding for the after use or conversion
of cleared demolition sites to viable places is
scarcely available [22, p. 758], with only one
third of the upgrading measures undertaken,
mostly planting. Downsizing on the “onion ring
principle” from the periphery inward is preferred
by most local authorities, but faces considerable
difficulties in implementation. Almost impossible
to embed in an urban development concept, there
is instead a perforation of the urban fabric. As a
result, many isolated open spaces and vacant sites
of varying sizes are created in the urban fabric,
and many local authorities regard coping with the
Greening Brownfields in Urban Redevelopment
previously developed land in central and signifi-
cant locations as a serious problem [24].
In summary, the strategy of controlled shrink-
age adopted by many cities has already reached its
limit, since it takes no account of these new needs
but continues to be pursued for lack of feasible
alternatives. Coping with existing and new
brownfield land cleared in the course of urban
“redevelopment” is proving to be a growing prob-
lem for which the program does not provide ade-
quate funding.
The Demands Made of the New Open
Spaces
The permanent rezoning of vacant residential and
industrial land, as well as associated infrastructure
land in such dimensions, is a new urban develop-
ment challenge. Initially, traditional demands are
made of the new open spaces; they are to serve
recreational purposes, for instance, in the form of
small parks, green spaces, playgrounds, and rec-
reational corridors improving residential amenity.
Ecological demands can then be formulated, for
example, to create habitat networks or green cor-
ridors contributing to nature conservation in the
city. Most recently, the ecosystem services that
can be provided by urban open spaces are gaining
more and more attention from urban planners and
residents – storm water management, urban heat
island management, carbon sinks, habitat corri-
dors, food, and more. Vegetation-covered urban
brownfields can certainly play an important role in
this context as elements of urban green infrastruc-
ture [25]. Against the background of climate
change, landscaping brownfields, for example,
offer critical climate regulating services by pro-
viding shade and evapotranspiration for reducing
summer temperatures [26].
Updated goals are being advanced, notably,
that the new open spaces should help stabilize
residential areas and counteract vacancies, thus
maintaining urban and socio-spatial structures,
and contribute to the positive presentation of the
shrinkage process and its consequences. What is
accordingly envisioned is not isolated, planted
plots but a “new urban landscape” in which the
239
new open space elements are interlinked [27,
p. 645, ff.]. The hope is that this will not only
improve residential amenity but encourage
demand and investment, thus upgrading entire
neighborhoods. Open space systems are to pro-
vide a solid framework for the maintenance of
urban fabric [28, p. 737, ff.], help integrate periph-
eral settlements into the surrounding landscape,
and improve and create recreational and locational
amenities in inner cities [10, p. 23, 29]. One par-
ticular set of goals is to establish green corridors
that serve both recreational and nature conserva-
tion purposes.
Apart from municipal demands for improved
residential amenity and better quality of life for
local residents, the call for active participation by
the public plays a steadily growing role. Top-
down urban development is longer judged suffi-
cient: the committed involvement of residents and
private actors is also needed. This development
also means that more is expected from the open
spaces cleared during redevelopment.
In the course of urban redevelopment, neigh-
borhoods, cities, and entire regions set their hopes
in the new open spaces as “identity-forming ele-
ments” for “when buildings are demolished and
entire neighborhoods downsized, the only
remaining key factor in urban development is
open space” [30]. What is more, the uses to
which open spaces are put change with population
decline, aging, diversification, and individualiza-
tion. The focus shifts increasingly to specific user
groups: the elderly, youth, singles, families,
women and men, long-term residents, and immi-
grants [30, p. 7]. The question is whether the new,
differentiated demands can really be met by tradi-
tional amenities. They are replaced by uses not
typical of the city, with open spaces being under-
stood as creative spaces. They include experience,
art, food, and nature areas such as wild gardens,
farmland, event venues, etc. The new open spaces
are particularly suitable for social intercourse,
offering opportunities for a highly varied urban
stage to be enjoyed by the population. Security in
such areas will play a role, since problems can be
caused by informal use, including abandoned rub-
bish, dog runs, drug trafficking, or campsites for
the homeless.
240
Strategies and Tools for Open Space
Development
The traditional repurposing of previously devel-
oped sites range from clearance without further
investments; clearance with simple planting or
afforestation without precisely defined use
requirements; to the layout of permanent green
areas such as parks, greenbelts, sport grounds,
playgrounds, and other amenities. The renatur-
ation of such areas – temporary or permanent
rezoning of building land into green and open
spaces – is increasingly envisaged for the urban
fringe. For a number of years, East German cities
have been experimenting with interim uses in the
form of temporary greening for recreation, events,
and nature conservation. They have also
experimented with unconventional solutions for
permanent green spaces, such as the layout of
compensatory areas, downzoning to farmland
and urban forest, and urban wilderness. Support
is given for the renaturation of land no longer used
for building purposes by the Federal Nature Con-
servation Act [31]. Section 1 (3) (2) of the Federal
Nature Conservation Act prescribes that “Sealed
surfaces which are no longer required shall be
renatured or, where de-sealing is not possible or
excessively expensive, they shall be left to natural
development.” In addition, the “National Strategy
on Biological Diversity” adopted by the federal
government on November 7, 2007, explicitly calls
for more diverse greenery in cities [32, p. 42
f.]. Seven examples of current and new uses of
urban brownfield sites and their urban develop-
ment, aesthetic, and ecological value are further
discussed.
Simple Clearance of Buildings Without Land-
Use Rezoning
Many downsizing projects for shrinking cities
funded by the “Urban Redevelopment East” pro-
gram have led to the demolishing of single or a
few buildings within existing settlements
(prefabricated housing estates, Gründerzeit neigh-
borhoods), where the technical infrastructure is
left in place and sealed and streets retained.
These projects have proven to be problematic,
since they leave behind dreary and derelict open
Greening Brownfields in Urban Redevelopment
spaces for whose maintenance no one accepts
responsibility in otherwise occupied districts.
Vacant land is usually planted with lawn and
sometimes with a few shrubs or trees. As a rule,
these areas are still zoned for the preparatory land-
use plan as residential. In some redeveloped areas,
especially prefabricated housing estates, vast
land-use gaps have now opened up in the once
closed structure of the city. Attempts to create
extensive green corridors are often in vain; clear-
ance sites tend to be scattered throughout the
community. The ecological value of these sites is
low and their recreation value limited (Figs. 1 and
2). In recent years, however, plans have already
been made for the redevelopment of many such
areas in growing cities.
Complete Clearance of Buildings
The consequences of the abandonment of large
industrial areas, especially from the early to mid-
1990s, need to be addressed separately to have
satisfactory outcomes. In many cases, the highly
subsidized demolition of buildings and infrastruc-
tures has left sites that continued to be registered in
preparatory land-use plans as industrial land seek-
ing revitalization. Where land could not be success-
fully marketed or only partially put to new use,
unplanned reintegration of the area into the sur-
rounding countryside was often the result, espe-
cially on the urban fringe. An undisturbed
succession of vegetation thus took over large
areas. Although interesting from an ecological
point of view, this development met with a very
mixed reception among nature conservationists
owing to the preponderance of ubiquitous species.
Aesthetic aspects also gave cause for criticism, and
acceptance among the local urban population was
often lacking [33]. Such derelict areas provoked
anxiety, recalling the decline of entire industries
and the associated loss of jobs [34, p. 79] (Fig. 3).
Development of Permanent Green Spaces
A number of brownfield sites have been perma-
nently rezoned and converted into green spaces.
Larger brownfield or clearance sites are linked up
to form green corridors in the hope of improving
social and ecological qualities and, particularly on
the urban outskirts, establishing a transition to the
Greening Brownfields in Urban Redevelopment 241

Greening Brownfields in
Urban Redevelopment,
Fig. 1 Demolition of a
prefabricated housing estate
in Dresden-Prohlis
(Germany). (Photo:
R. Bendner)

[35]. One successful example of this strategy is

the Leipzig-Grünau green corridor (planning and
implementation 1993–1996), where the aban-
doned route of a planned road bordering on rural
areas offered favorable conditions for creating a
greenbelt. After demolition of the prefabricated
housing, new recreational amenities and green
spaces with native trees and shrubs were created
in the area, which had been short on greenery and
open spaces. Local residents and institutions were
involved in planning and design [36]. Such green
spaces are generally of great value for recreational
uses and, if well designed, can contribute to the
ecological upgrading of the neighborhood or of
the entire urban territory. Sustained conservation
and maintenance can prove problematic, and more
and more reliance is put on participation by local
residents (Figs. 4 and 5).

Interim Use of Vacant Lots as Temporary

Greening Brownfields in Urban Redevelopment,
Fig. 2 Simply green former housing area with lawn, few
shrubs, and trees in Dresden-Prohlis (Germany). (Photo:
R. Bendner)
landscape. It is anticipated that improving the
quality of life and enhancing the image of the
locality will also help prevent future urban sprawl
Green Space
Ownership structures can make it difficult for munic-
ipal programs to reactivate smaller gap sites scattered
throughout the city. Private property owners are
wary of the legal repercussions of “official,” even
temporary, use of their plots and fear for the value of
their land for building. In order to induce landowners
to address their vacant land problems, an “authori-
zation agreement” has been developed [37, 38] to
242 Greening Brownfields in Urban Redevelopment

Greening Brownfields in
Urban Redevelopment,
Fig. 3 Abandoned land
with undisturbed
succession on a former
industrial zone along the
River Elbe in Heidenau
(Germany). (Photo:
M. Arendt)

Greening Brownfields in
Urban Redevelopment,
Fig. 4 New designed green
spaces in Leipzig-Grünau.
(Photo: Municipality of
Leipzig)

provide for the meaningful, temporary public use of
private brownfield sites without affecting existing
building rights. A contract is concluded between
the municipality and the property owner under
which the owner makes unused sites available for
concrete public uses (simple green areas, play-
grounds, neighborhood gardens). In compensation,
the municipality offers to pay for design and layout
and limited maintenance and provides relief from
property tax. Owners have accordingly been more
willing to make land temporarily available for a wide
range of uses, providing more opportunities for
individually designed life spaces [37, 38]. Leipzig
has pioneered the temporary use of open spaces
under authorization agreements. In the 1990s, the
municipality has pursued a central objective: “more
greenery, less density.” The “Guidelines for Urban
Renewal” [39] called for more and better green areas
and open spaces. Under authorization agreements,
Leipzig has so far managed to develop some
140,000 m2 of new green areas and open spaces
[37, p. 46] covering a wide range of interim uses.
Most of such temporarily used areas are used for
recreational purposes. Depending on how these
Greening Brownfields in Urban Redevelopment 243

Greening Brownfields in
Urban Redevelopment,
Fig. 5 Public allotments in
the Lehne-Voigt-Park in
Leipzig, a former railway
area. (Photo: J. Mathey)

Greening Brownfields in
Urban Redevelopment,
Fig. 6 Temporary use of
former brownfield as green
spaces in the east of
Leipzig. (Photo: J. Mathey)

areas are designed and used, they can also be of
incidental and targeted value in attaining urban eco-
logical goals and offer opportunities for nature con-
servation in the city (Fig. 6). In the course of the
strong population growth in the City of Leipzig, it is
to be expected that many such temporary green
spaces will be covered with buildings in the foresee-
able future.
Use as Compensatory Areas for Nature
Protection
The use of inner-city brownfield sites for ecolog-
ical compensation purposes gives local authorities
a valuable opportunity to assert the interests of
nature conservation in urban spaces. They provide
debt-strapped municipalities with a possibility to
use the duty imposed by Section 1a (3) of the
Federal Building Code to mitigate the impact of
development on nature by investing in urban eco-
logical measures such as de-sealing and landscap-
ing while improving quality of life for residents
[40, 41, p. 12]. However, difficult ownership
structures, and often high preliminary financing
costs, mean that few suitable sites are available.
Ecological upgrading mostly involves de-sealing
and planting works. However, the extent to which
244
nature conservation areas can be used by the urban
population is problematic. In order to steer impact
mitigation compensatory measures in the inner
cities, a number of municipalities have formed
land pools that include previously developed
land. In Leipzig, for example, the city council
decided that 50% of compensatory measures
under the environmental impact mitigation rules
have to be implemented in inner-city areas
[42, p. 67]. There is now an inter-municipal com-
pensatory land pool which includes most of the
land that comes into question to be improved. In
other cities, where it is difficult to find areas for
permanent planting, the use of brownfields cre-
ated through urban redevelopment demolitions
may be invaluable for realizing nature compensa-
tory measures.
Permanent Rezoning to Farmland or Forest
While urban and peri-urban agriculture has a long
tradition [43], there is significant opportunity to
increase local farming in shrinking cities. Regard-
less of the type and intensity of farming, agricul-
tural areas also provide city dwellers with a wide
range of recreational and other amenities
[44]. Examples of agricultural uses are the short
rotation plantations in Halle-Neustadt and the
Green Bow in Leipzig-Paunsdorf (Fig. 7),
designed for nature conservation and recreation.
Greening Brownfields in
Urban Redevelopment,
Fig. 7 Farmland combined
with nature conservation on
a former military area in
Leipzig-Paunsdorf. (Photo:
Municipality of Leipzig)
Greening Brownfields in Urban Redevelopment
The types of farming feasible on previously devel-
oped urban land will depend on the size of the
areas, their location in the urban fabric, and farm-
ing prerequisites (e.g., soil quality, water avail-
ability), but not least on what actors can be
found to manage them.
A frequently envisaged category of brownfield
reuse in renaturation projects is forest or woodland.
Forest does not necessarily require the reallocation
of holdings and ensures secure, long-term manage-
ment, generally by the forest authorities [3]. In
contrast to use as conventional green spaces, man-
aging land under the terms of the Forests Act
involves much lower investment and maintenance
costs, as well as less stringent traffic safety obliga-
tions, than for the more usual urban open spaces.
There is also reduced liability, and easier redeploy-
ment for new uses since public access is
maintained. In keeping with the principle of down-
sizing from the periphery inward, conversion into
forest is envisaged primarily on the urban outskirts,
with the aim of establishing interconnectivity with
the surrounding countryside [45, 46]. In Schwedt
“Am Waldrand,” for example, the afforestation of
clearance sites is planned. In Weißwasser-Süd,
forest-like mixed plantations have been
established, which after 4 years of development
care are to be transferred to the forestry authorities.
The “Waldstadt” in Halle-Silberhöhe is being laid
Greening Brownfields in Urban Redevelopment
out on the periphery of the large housing estate,
bordering on an extensive young-stand, near-
natural deciduous forest [3]. Woodland is used in
the inner city to cover gap sites, maintaining the
illusion of density and compactness (e.g., “Dunkler
Wald” in Leipzig). Such forested areas attain spa-
tial significance only after a relatively long period,
and only then do they correspond to the accus-
tomed image of an intact urban fabric, which can
delay public acceptance (Fig. 8). For example,
three new urban forests were created on inner-city
wastelands in Leipzig in the 2010s [47] that are
today much appreciated by the population and
some of them are very popular [48].
The Experiment “Wilderness in the City”
In many cases the development of brownfield sites
proceeds unsystematically. Depending on how
long a vacant plot remains undisturbed or in
which way it is used, different stages of vegetation
development with the associated animal species
will predominate. This often results in ecologically
Greening Brownfields in Urban Redevelopment,
Fig. 8 “Dark Forest” on a former brownfield in Leipzig.
(Photo: I. Hartmann)
245
valuable habitat mosaics [49–51], which can be
precious recreation areas and offer opportunities
to experience nature [52]. The value and manage-
ment of wilderness in the city is much debated in
the urban redevelopment community. However
wilderness in the city is to be understood not so
much as a “free succession” of vegetation, with
land being completely left to its own devices, but
as a “regulated succession,” a mix of planned,
partly cultivated, and “wild” areas [53]. The over-
growth of vacant sites is accepted only if it remains
in the prescribed limits and fits into the pattern of
new open spaces [54]. “Orderly succession” con-
stitutes a many-faceted habitat mosaic that also
exhibits a certain order. This new aesthetic is
more acceptable than impenetrable wilderness.
Moreover, in comparison with conventional green
spaces, considerable savings can be made on lay-
out and maintenance. In contrast to the substantial
attention that this subject attracts among the public
and experts, it has so far played hardly any role in
urban brownfield redevelopment, and there are
very few examples of projects. On a former mili-
tary site in Dresden-Nickern, a sort of “ruderal
park” has been developed, retaining existing spon-
taneous vegetation, which includes wilderness and
natural succession. This ruderal park is accepted
and well used by the residents; however, often the
development value and amenity of such areas are
criticized, and public acceptance is low [34, p. 73 f.,
55] (Fig. 9).
Conclusion: New Open Space Qualities
Through Urban Redevelopment?
Urban redevelopment has opened up a new field
of experimentation and opportunity in the design
and use of inner-city brownfield sites into produc-
tive open spaces. The new opportunities face a
complex of obstacles, primarily financial but also
legal in nature. They cannot be overcome by tra-
ditional strategies. Overall, a change of awareness
is required, a shift from continuous urban growth
toward a novel combination of growth and shrink-
age. An understanding of the changing demands
for the use of open spaces is critically needed, and
an approach to addressing the subdivided or
246
Greening Brownfields in
Urban Redevelopment,
Fig. 9 “Orderly
Succession” on a former
military area in Dresden-
Nickern. (Photo:
R. Bendner)
fragmented fabric that is suitable for new open
spaces [56]. In addition new forms of cooperation,
public-private, city-state, are also needed.
The advantages offered by the renaturation of
brownfields are many: improved open space ame-
nities, ecological upgrading, nature and species
conservation, climate change mitigation, recrea-
tion, and more are counterbalanced by a number
of disadvantages. One is the fragmentation of the
physical urban fabric, and, not seldom, the limited
use of the new open spaces. Urban redevelopment
produces many new open and green spaces, an
increase in design quality and amenity. The
importance of open space planning in shrinking
cities is becoming one of the “most important
tools of urban development” [27, p. 648].
Since planning practice largely defaults to typ-
ical open space planning [56, 57], the permanent
conversion of redundant building land into urban
green spaces of conventional design and function
(e.g., parks, playgrounds and recreation facilities,
and allotment gardens) is likely to remain the most
frequent. However, as budgets shrink for mainte-
nance, new types of open spaces are likely to be
established alongside the accustomed ones, espe-
cially in areas that allow stronger forms of succes-
sion. A growing number of cities undertaking
urban redevelopment can be expected to embark
on the adventure of succession [58, p. 12]. In the
Greening Brownfields in Urban Redevelopment
course of urban redevelopment, there is still much
to learn from the isolated pieces of the mosaic that
has until now been provisional and transitory in
nature. It is not yet clear what is to become of the
experiments with vegetation succession, wilder-
ness, and extensive maintenance [59]. In the short
and medium term, shrinking cities will have to
live with open spaces that attain their aesthetic
qualities only gradually [34, p. 74].
The reintegration of brownfields into the urban
fabric by developing green and open spaces is
becoming more and more important. Urban plan-
ning for investments in individual and contiguous
green spaces can support recreation, ecosystem ser-
vices, climate mitigation, biodiversity, food, and
more. There is a chance to reconstruct the urban
fabric and give cities new faces, but new overall
strategies are necessary. Cities must overcome the
challenges including (1) availability of brownfields
(sites not in the ownership of the community),
(2) financing of measurements and maintenance,
(3) cooperation of different city departments,
(4) meeting the needs of residents (public relation,
participation), (5) considering legal and strategic
requirements, and (6) supporting a needed level of
profit. Finding solutions demands for interdisciplin-
ary (research) approaches, where ecological, social,
economic, and planning aspects are taken into con-
sideration to develop overall strategies (and
Greening Brownfields in Urban Redevelopment
concepts) that lead to a “new urban landscape” with
valuable, usable, and accepted green and open
spaces in a sustainable urban structure.
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Biodiversity in Cities,
Reconnecting Humans with
Nature
Robbert P. H. Snep1 and Philippe Clergeau2
1
Alterra, Wageningen University and Research
Center, Wageningen, The Netherlands
2
Department of Ecology and Biodiversity
Management, National Museum of Natural
History, Paris, France
Article Outline
Glossary
Definition of the Subject
Introduction
City Environments as Wildlife Habitat
Urban Wildlife Species and Communities
Opportunities to Connect City Actors with Urban
Nature
Future Directions: Integrating Wildlife
Conservation in Sustainable City Planning and
Design
Bibliography
Glossary
Biodiversity The variability among living
organisms from all sources, including, “inter
alia,” terrestrial, marine, and other aquatic eco-
systems, and the ecological complexes of
which they are part: This includes diversity
within species, between species, and of ecosys-
tems (United Nations – Convention on Biolog-
ical Diversity).
Connectivity Landscape connectivity is the
degree to which the landscape facilitates or
impedes movement of plants and animals
among habitat patches (cf. [70]).
Corridors and stepping stones Corridors are
linear strips of habitat through the landscape
of which the length, width, and design are
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012
V. Loftness (ed.), Sustainable Built Environments,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-0684-1_296
Originally published in
R. A. Meyers (ed.), Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology, © Springer Science+Business Media
LLC, 2012, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0851-3_296
depending on the species. Instead of continu-
ous corridors, for some easy-migrating species
(e.g., some bird species) also so-called
stepping stones could support their dispersal
through the city. A stepping stone connection
consists of a subsequent series of small patches
of habitat positioned between larger habitat
structures [24, 25].
Dispersal Process of individuals leaving the
place where they are resident (home) and
looking for a new place to live. This behavior
can occur both within and between habitat
patches [33].
Fragmentation Describes the emergence of dis-
continuities (fragmentation) in an organism’s
preferred environment (habitat), causing
populations to get isolated from each other,
and increased disturbance of remaining habitat.
Habitat fragmentation can be caused by geolog-
ical processes that slowly alter the layout of the
physical environment, or by human activity
such as land conversion (e.g., natural area that
gets “developed” into city area), which can alter
the environment much faster and causes extinc-
tions of many species (Wikipedia).
Habitat An ecological or environmental area
that is inhabited by a particular species of ani-
mal, plant, or other type of organism. For wild-
life in cities, this includes the total area used for
foraging (e.g., gardens, parks), reproduction,
and nesting (this may include buildings, e.g.,
for bats and some bird species), resting, hiber-
nating, and migrating.
Habitat network An interconnected configura-
tion of habitat patches and corridors.
Habitat patch A relatively homogeneous area
that differs from its surroundings. Patches are
the basic unit of the landscape that change and
fluctuate, a process called patch dynamics.
Patches have a definite shape and spatial con-
figuration, and can be described composition-
ally by internal variables such as number of
trees, number of tree species, height of trees, or
other similar measurements [25].
251
252
Homogenization Biotic homogenization is the
process by which the similarity of a biological
variable increases across time and space. In the
perspective of this chapter, the term “homoge-
nization” is used to describe the increasing
similarity of urban wildlife communities
(especially “‘bird species”) in cities across the
globe [44].
Landscape ecology The study of how the spatial
structure of landscape elements (¼ different
parts of the landscape) affects organism abun-
dance at the landscape level, as well as the
behavior and functioning of the landscape as
a whole. This includes studying the influence
of pattern, or the internal order of a landscape,
on process, or the continuous operation of
functions of organisms [71].
Metapopulation A metapopulation consists of a
group of spatially separated populations of the
same species which interact at some level.
A metapopulation is generally considered to
consist of several distinct populations together
with areas of suitable habitat which are cur-
rently unoccupied (Wikipedia).
Urban wildlife This includes all non-
domesticated animals, plants, and other organ-
isms that live in city environments.
Definition of the Subject
Worldwide, the diversity of plant and animal life
is diminishing at high speed. At the same moment,
more and more humans become city dwellers,
with both the proportion and absolute number of
people living in cities increasing rapidly. An
important link between global biodiversity loss
and fast urbanization is the enormous ecological
foot print by urban dwellers, the huge demand for
natural resources as required by the urban life
style. Besides, a generally less well-known impact
of the global urbanization of human society is the
extinction of wildlife experience. People in cities
lack frequent and intense human-nature interac-
tions, as compared to our rural history. This leads
to a decreased understanding of and support for
plant and animal life. This not only negatively
impacts biodiversity conservation efforts; it also
Biodiversity in Cities, Reconnecting Humans with Nature
restricts the long-term abilities of humans to ben-
efit from nature. By promoting urban biodiversity,
nature will be enhanced in the direct living and
working environment of citizens, enabling
humans to reconnect with nature.
This chapter addresses the opportunities to
enhance urban biodiversity and its experience by
citizens. First we illustrate how the city environ-
ment is perceived from a wildlife point of view,
which is necessary to recognize opportunities to
enhance urban biodiversity. Next, we discuss
these opportunities one by one, illustrating with
examples how to implement them in practice. We
conclude with an exploration of future possibili-
ties to integrate urban biodiversity conservation
opportunities in the broader concept of sustain-
able city planning, design, and management.
Introduction
Why Attention for Urban biodiversity?
The latest global Living Planet Index [79] shows a
decline of biodiversity about 30% between 1970
and 2007. This is based on trends in 7,953
populations of 2,544 mammal, bird, reptile,
amphibian and fish species. We may therefore
conclude that global biodiversity loss is currently
happening on an immense scale and rate. This loss
of biodiversity not only impacts ecosystem func-
tioning, but also human well-being. The fact is
that the world’s ecosystems provide a wide range
of services (so-called ecosystem services) that are
of vital importance for the quality of human life.
Degeneration of these services has huge direct or
indirect negative consequences for human life: for
example, (local) extinction of bees decreases pol-
lination service and consequently food production
linked to seed [2].
The urban growth of human society can be
considered as one of the main causes of global
biodiversity loss. According to the United Nations
[72], the level of world urbanization crossed the
50% mark in 2009. In addition, between 2009 and
2050, the world population is expected to increase
by 2.3 billion, passing from 6.8 billion to 9.1
billion [73]. At the same time, the population
living in urban areas is projected to gain 2.9
Biodiversity in Cities, Reconnecting Humans with Nature
billion, passing from 3.4 billion in 2009 to 6.3
billion 2050. Thus, the urban areas of the world
are expected to absorb all the population growth
expected over the next four decades while at the
same time drawing in some of the rural
population [72].
The impact of human lifestyle on the natural
ecosystem, illustrated by a concept as the ecolog-
ical footprint, is extremely high for humans living
in cities [53]. As example, the city of Vancouver,
Canada, requires 180 times more land to generate
and process materials than the city actually
occupies [52]. Already in the 1970s it was
documented that modern cities consume 10–100
times more energy (per unit area) than natural
systems [50]. All in all, the urban life style is an
important cause of the worldwide decline of eco-
system functioning and biodiversity. It is therefore
counterintuitive to think of urban areas as focal
areas for biodiversity conservation, however there
are several arguments to do so [45]:
1. Source approach to diminish environmental
impact: As the majority of people is concen-
trated in urban areas, exploiting conservation
efforts in cities (1) will reach many people and
(2) any reduction in the huge city’s environ-
mental impact will be a positive step toward
sustainability.
2. To reconnect humans with nature: Most people
who live in urban areas are largely discon-
nected from nature. This means that a world-
wide “extinction of (wildlife) experience” is
currently taking place. To counteract, the
places where people live and work should be
designed so as to provide opportunities for
meaningful interactions with the natural
world. Doing so has the potential not only to
engender support for protecting native species,
but also to enhance human well-being
[48]. Urban wildlife experience has psycholog-
ical benefits for citizens [26] and may contrib-
ute to so-called socio-ecological systems, as
such being an important strategy to enhance
the resilience of local citizens (see [23]).
3. To recognize cities as (potential) biodiversity
hotspots: People, plants, and animals share the
same preference for areas naturally rich of
253
resources. Urbanization is occurring in numer-
ous (former) biodiversity hotspots worldwide,
and has been identified as a primary cause of
declines in many threatened and endangered
species [49]. Although urbanization processes
often have diminished a large part of the orig-
inal biodiversity richness, the remnant “green
space” (according to its management) usually
still contains a certain (potential) value for
biodiversity conservation. For example, the
UK city of Sheffield inhabits a high number
of bird species (n ¼ 77), with only three non-
native species [27].
A Different Scope: Approaching the City from
a Wildlife Point of View
In natural situations, the appearance and change of
landscapes and their attached biodiversity are
products of abiotic and biotic processes. Human
activities, such as agriculture, modify these rela-
tionships. In the urban landscape, the hierarchy of
processes is absolutely different: Here, the biodi-
versity settlement is first depending on human
appreciation and management, abiotic and biotic
factors play a less important role. So, to better
understand how plants and animals may survive
in these man-made landscapes, a good under-
standing of the different actors in the urban envi-
ronment and the “realities” they perceive is
crucial.
Obviously, cities accommodate a range of
human actors. Apart from humans as individuals
inhabiting in the city (the “residents”), city
dwellers employ various activities that makes
that they can also be grouped as e.g., students,
sportsmen, entrepreneurs, employees, patients,
(allotment) gardeners, elderly people, or urban
professionals (the latter term referring to those
people who professionally deal with city plan-
ning, design, and management), etc. Depending
on their age, societal status, and individual pref-
erences, citizens may fit in only one or in a whole
set of urban actor groups. Moreover, each of these
urban actor groups, including residents, has its
own favorite part of the city. They also have
each their own demands concerning what the
city should deliver: Residents like nice and safe
residential neighborhoods; sportsmen and –
254
women like good and sufficient sport accommo-
dations; etc. This makes that city planning and
design can be a complex process, as there usually
are many urban stakeholders to be involved.
Some of the “actors” in cities are nonhuman,
being plants and animals. Most species are con-
sidered as real “wildlife” because they survive in
the city on their own; others are domesticated and
(partly) depend on care by humans (pets and cul-
tivated garden plants). For all of them, cities pro-
vide them with different needs, in essence similar
as for humans, being “habitats” where they can
live, eat, reproduce, move, and communicate with
others. However, wildlife generally has specific
habitat requirements that are generally different
than those of humans. For example, most birds
prefer trees and shrub as nesting place above
buildings (although there are exceptions as swifts
and house sparrows).
To understand what the city is like as wildlife
habitat, humans should project themselves in the
plants and animals that inhabit city environments.
This is because wildlife often evaluate the reality
of the city in a different way than people would
do. Three different realities of the city can be
perceived by human and nonhuman urban actors:
• Biophysical reality: The reality of what is phys-
ically there: buildings, roads, vegetation, bare
soil, open water. Geographers use to describe
the physical reality (“land cover”), these days
more and more supported by satellite and aerial
photo images. Urban actors (both human and
wildlife) perceive the biophysical reality as (one
of) the realities they have to deal with.
• Functional reality: The reality of how the city
is actually used by different urban actors. In
their use of the city, human actors thereby take
the biophysical reality (what’s there?), the
functional reality (how the city is being used
by themselves and others), and the planning
and design reality (what is it meant to be?) in
consideration. Wildlife only look to the bio-
physical and functional reality, the latter
including the human and wildlife use. Obvi-
ously, wildlife does not take the planning and
design reality into account, as they are unaware
of city plans.
Biodiversity in Cities, Reconnecting Humans with Nature
• Planning and design reality: This reality has to
do what a specific part of the city officially is
designated as, or what it meant to be for. The
planning reality is predominantly shaped by
urban professionals in planning and design
(architects, landscape architects, urban plan-
ners, regional and landscape planners etc.),
and subsequently assigned in municipal,
regional, federal or national plans and docu-
ments, and as such taken in consideration by
human actors.
Figure 1 presents an example that illustrates the
differences between the realities, and why it is
important to be aware of the differences among
the realities and the way they are perceived by
humans and wildlife in the city.
City Environments as Wildlife Habitat
Cities as Landscape
Although most people would only associate rural
and natural environments with the term “land-
scape”, city environments can also be considered
as real landscapes (e.g., [10]). This is because due
to their size (usually > 100 km2) they act on a
landscape level, and because of their distinctive
land use pattern they sharply contrast from their
rural or natural surroundings. From a wildlife
point of view the features of the urban landscape
determine its habitat suitability and availability.
As the urban landscape largely consist of
buildings and paved area, its stony and built-up
character make that they resemble rocky and cliff
landscapes. Sky scrapers thereby act as mountain
cliffs, whereas the streets between high-rise build-
ings (e.g., in Manhattan, New York) act as can-
yons. For species as the Peregrine falcon (Falco
peregrinus), these high-rise city environments
have become a secondary habitat, next to their
natural cliff habitat.
Cities also appear to be different in terms of
climate, as compared with the often more vege-
tated surrounding landscapes such as forests,
swamps, mountains, or agricultural land. Because
of their stone surface (and lack of the evaporation
Biodiversity in Cities, Reconnecting Humans with Nature
Biodiversity in Cities, Reconnecting Humans with
Nature, Fig. 1 The Garden snail Cornu/Helix aspersum
is a cosmopolitan species, originating from the south of
Europe (Mediterranean). Buildings and surrounding green
(biophysical reality) are considered by the snail as part of
its urban habitat (functional reality), meanwhile humans
designate these housing areas as living areas for
possibilities that vegetation has), cities warm up
faster, effectively retain the heat, and throw it out
during the night. In addition, exhaustion gases
(traffic and industry) and the heating of buildings
add up to an increased temperature, especially
during nights. The main reason for the nighttime
warming, however, is that buildings prevent sur-
face heat from radiating into the relatively cold
night sky. As a result, city night temperatures
surpass the average regional temperature with
several degrees. During days there is also a, yet
smaller, difference in temperature. This “being
warmer than the rural surroundings” phenomenon
is called the UHI (urban heat island) effect (e.g.,
[69]). The UHI effect causes health problems for
humans during the summer (as it contributes to
extreme heat, which causes high mortality rates),
but also affects wildlife in different ways. For
example, in temperate climates (sub)tropical
plant and animal species are more likely to survive
in city environments than in the natural or rural
surroundings of the city. In Northwest Europe,
255
themselves (planning and design reality). The coexistence
of humans and these snails in residential areas leads to
positive and negative interactions: the garden snail is
seen as a pest for garden flowers, but also inspires people
through its appearance and behavior, and acts as food for
e.g., birds (which are preferred urban wildlife by resi-
dents). (Photo: Robbert Snep)
plant species as Common Fig (Ficus carica) and
Olive (Olea europaea) from the much warmer
Mediterranean region can survive in sheltered
spots within cities, but would die in the rural
surroundings of these cities during winters. The
same process is observed on small Mediterranean
ferns in France [17] showing that cities therefore
present an interesting preview on how global
warming may support the invasion of thermo-
philic species into currently colder regions.
There are more features that distinguish urban
landscapes from natural and rural environments.
One of them is air quality. Because of traffic and
industrial gasses, the quality of city air is often
worse than in the rural surroundings. The air pol-
lution directly limits the habitat suitability of cities
for e.g., most lichen species but also impacts the
survival rates of urban plants and animals in
general [6].
Cities are places with an excess of noise. Car
traffic is a main cause of city noise, thereby mak-
ing it difficult for some animal species to
256
communicate. For example, for territorial birds it
is hard to make themselves heard through the
traffic noise and as such to defend their territories
[54]. Recent studies have shown that bird species
may adapt to the noisy city environment. Urban
Coal tits (Parus major) sing at a higher pitch than
their rural congeners, to compensate for the city
background noise [61]. From other birds it is
known that urban individuals start to sing earlier
in the morning than usual for these species, to
avoid the noise of the city’s rush hour.
Cities are constructed in a variety of places,
neglecting whether the physical conditions of the
original soil may support the construction of
buildings. Some cities are developed in (coastal)
wetland regions or in peat soil areas, locations that
are not well-equipped for construction buildings.
To compensate for this, urban developers make
their development sites “construction ready” by
removing the original upper soil layer and adding
construction-supportive sand layers. In most cities
this urban development process has been happen-
ing for ages, making that urban soils are highly
heterogeneous, with many different soil composi-
tions within a small area. In addition, pedogenesis
(the formation of soils) is disturbed by the actual
urban land use. As large parts of the city consists
of buildings and roads, these parts are sealed and
thus isolated from normal interaction with rain
Biodiversity in Cities,
Reconnecting Humans
with Nature, Fig. 2 The
Natterjack toad (Bufo
calamita) is a pioneer
species of early
successional habitats,
including urban fringes.
Left, tadpoles (black) of this
toad species in a small
temporary water body at a
development location.
Right: the male toad calling
during mate season. (Photo:
Robbert Snep)
Biodiversity in Cities, Reconnecting Humans with Nature
and surface water, plant life, sun heat, etc. Also,
because of the weight of buildings and heavy car
traffic, the soils are compressed, decreasing their
permeability for water and soil organisms. On top
of this, a portion of the pollution and eutrophica-
tion coming from industry and traffic will find its
way to the urban soil. As an example, urban soils
often appeared to contain much higher levels of
heavy metals such as lead than its rural surround-
ings [19]. All in all, urban soils are quite different
than rural and natural soils, more contaminated
and eutrophicated, as soil profiles less developed
(because of a disturbed pedogenesis), spatially
more heterogeneous and – with all this – thereby
in general impacting the habitat quality of cities
for plant and animal life in a negative way. An
exception would be that, because “to be” urban
development sites are usually covered with sand,
these young sandy soils provide a – often tempo-
rary – habitat for plant and animal species from
early successional vegetation [65]. These pioneer
habitats enrich the species composition of the
city’s biodiversity (Fig. 2).
The cycle of water (from clouds, precipitation,
surface or groundwater back to clouds via evapo-
ration) is essential for life on earth. On a landscape
level, there are huge variations in the amount of
water in each part of the cycle, as the cycle of
water is taking place on a continental or even
Biodiversity in Cities, Reconnecting Humans with Nature
global level. In the vegetated parts of the world,
being the areas where most human activities occur,
human land use has disturbed the water cycle pro-
cess. In agricultural areas, the surface and ground
water flows are highly manipulated to optimize
crop yield. In urban areas, this manipulation of
water has taken a much more far-reaching level.
Surface water is largely canalized, with stony and
steep embankments. Sewer systems catch most of
the water that precipitates on buildings and streets.
In cities with naturally high groundwater levels
(like former wetlands), groundwater is sometimes
drained or leveled in another way. The evaporation
process in city areas is, due to the lack of vegeta-
tion, rather poor. In addition, urban water is con-
taminated by (former) industrial and household
waste and by traffic, especially in cities where
sewer systems do not function optimally. All in
all, water is strongly manipulated in city environ-
ments. As water is a vital element for plant and
animal life, the deviant quantity and quality of
urban water restricts the habitat quality and avail-
ability for wildlife in cities.
Cities as Mosaic of Biotopes
Although city landscapes are quite different than
rural and natural landscapes, they are all but
homogeneous. City landscapes are in fact com-
posed of a wide variety of urban land use types,
ranging from residential areas, business districts,
shopping malls, and (rail)road structures to urban
parks, sport field complexes, allotment gardens,
and cemeteries. Within each of these land use
types, the actual land cover or soil occupation
may also vary quite largely. The spatial heteroge-
neity is what makes the city that there is not such
thing as “the urban biotope” (Fig. 3). Cities are
mosaics of biotopes.
For long, ecologists have undervalued city
environments in terms of species richness and
composition. Most ecologists thought (and many
of them still think) that cities would not accom-
modate a diversity of plant and animal life worth
to study. A pioneer in the scientific field of urban
ecology, Prof. Herbert Sükopp, provided the
counterintuitive insight that cities are rich of spe-
cies and numerous interesting ecological patterns
and processes can be found here. In the 1960s, in
257
the middle of the Cold War between the West and
the Soviet Union, he was positioned at a univer-
sity in West Berlin (Germany). By that time, West
Berlin was governed by the West, but the sur-
rounding area controlled by the Soviet Union.
Normally, academic ecologists would leave the
city and do their field work in rural and natural
areas. This was not possible in the case of West
Berlin. Herbert Sükopp therefore decided to con-
duct his ecological field research within the urban
area of West Berlin, a unique approach. By map-
ping the plant communities and biotopes of resi-
dential areas, shunting yards, and derelict
industrial areas in the city in a systematic way,
he discovered that urban environments have a
much higher flora and plant community richness
than expected. From further studies conducted in
German cities, it was later also demonstrated that
especially the transition zone from city to rural
surroundings is species rich, and that the flora
richness of cities can even be higher than the
actual surrounding rural land [37]. This latter is
due to two facts: (1) the heterogeneity and biotope
richness of urban areas and (2) the low flora rich-
ness of the intensively managed agricultural
regions in which many (German) cities are
located. Modern operational management
methods of farms focus on optimal yield for agri-
cultural products, and include reshaping of the
landscape (stripping off hedgerows, ponds etc.)
for this purpose. Many of the species of traditional
agricultural landscapes have disappeared in the
modern agricultural “deserts” due to lack of hab-
itat; some of them find a new habitat in the small-
scaled structure of the city edge. As an example,
Sálek et al. [55] described a case in which the
Grey Partridge (Perdix perdix) has colonized der-
elict parcels in business districts and industrial
land located at the city edge.
Urban biotopes can be classified in different
ways. Based upon the three realities (biophysical,
functional and planning and design reality, see
section “A Different Scope: Approaching the
City from a Wildlife Point of View”), each classi-
fication having its pros and cons. With the bio-
physical or land cover approach, good insights in
the abiotic conditions are provided, enabling ecol-
ogists where potential habitat for wildlife could be
258
Infra-red satellite image: vegetation is red-colored.
Biodiversity in Cities, Reconnecting Humans with
Nature, Fig. 3 Illustration of spatial distribution and
portion of vegetation in different urban land use types:
found. For this purpose aerial or satellite images
supply with basic information on where vegeta-
tion and other habitat characteristics are located
(using e.g., infrared sensing techniques), but addi-
tional field work is required to detail the land
cover of urban areas. With the functional
approach, the actual use of the urban area by
wildlife and humans is mapped. Wildlife can be
monitored with a variety of techniques, of which
bird counting techniques (e.g., by mapping terri-
tories) are probably most well known (Fig. 4).
With these monitoring techniques, a good over-
view of the current habitat value of the urban area
for wildlife species can be acquired. With addi-
tional inventories on the human use (recreation,
traffic) of the urban area, possible causes for dif-
ferences between apparently similar plots can be
demonstrated. In Madrid (Spain) a study to the
foraging behavior of Blackbirds (Turdus merula)
in several urban parks showed that in parks fre-
quently visited by people, the Blackbird behavior
and density was different then in similar parks
Biodiversity in Cities, Reconnecting Humans with Nature
N
0 250 500 Meters
sporting fields (right top), residential areas (right bottom),
infrastructure (left) and industrial sites (center). IKONOS
satellite image. (Photo: Robbert Snep)
with a lower frequency of visitors [21]. Blackbirds
in the more crowded parks spent more time being
vigilant and moving away from people and less
time searching for food (decreasing food intake).
The number of pedestrians was positively corre-
lated with Blackbird distance to pathways and
negatively correlated with distance to protective
cover. The number of active birds decreased with
increase in the number of pedestrians during the
day. Blackbird density was negatively related to
the number of visitors per park. This study con-
firmed that human disturbance negatively affects
Blackbird feeding strategies in urban parks, ulti-
mately modifying spatial and temporal patterns of
habitat selection and abundance [21]. This study
also shows that land cover and land use destina-
tion alone (in this case “urban park”) can be insuf-
ficient to determine the habitat value of urban
biotopes for wildlife. The actual use of the biotope
by others (humans, dogs) appears to have a –
though rather invisible – impact. To implement
urban ecological knowledge into the design,
Biodiversity in Cities, Reconnecting Humans with Nature
Biodiversity in Cities,
Reconnecting Humans
with Nature, Fig. 4 Bird
monitoring in urban
environments is not only
conducted in backyards and
urban parks, but also at
industrial sites. At this
photo ecologist Martin
Melchers is observing
urban gulls nesting at the
roof of storage tanks in the
Port of Amsterdam (NL).
(Photo: Robbert Snep)
management, and use of the city (see “planning
and design reality”), one should be able to link an
urban biotope classification to the design and
management jargon and concepts of the city’s
public space, residential areas, business districts,
etc. As there is much variety in habitat quality and
quantity within each of the official urban land use
types (as assigned in zoning plans), the official
land use legend of the city is often not well-
equipped for mapping ecological knowledge, so
translation between these two different classifica-
tions can be difficult.
Fragmentation and Connectivity of (Urban)
Habitat
From the 1970s on, ecologists have linked the
spatially explicit availability and connectivity of
habitat at the landscape scale with the abundance
of species at the local scale. Ecological theories as
the island biogeography [42] and the meta-
population theory [39, 51] explain how local
plant and animal populations are depending of
surrounding populations for their long-term per-
sistence. The first publications about these theo-
ries mark the start of the scientific discipline of
“landscape ecology.”
The island biogeography originates from com-
parative studies on species richness of islands and
mainland, thereby illustrating that islands with a
larger size and a smaller distance to the mainland
259
are more species rich than small islands that are
located far from the mainland. The size of the island
thereby is a good predictor of the probability of local
population extinction. The smaller the island, the
generally less habitat; the smaller the island popula-
tion, the higher vulnerability for a disaster to impact
the whole island population, the higher the extinc-
tion rate of the island population. After local extinc-
tion, the island may be inhabited again via
colonizing individuals deriving from the mainland.
The distance to the mainland thereby acts as a good
predictor for the colonization probability: the
smaller the distance, the larger the chance that the
island will be re-colonized. The island biogeogra-
phy theory can also be applied in situations where
there is a very large “source population” (the main-
land) and smaller local populations, all located in a
larger area of non-habitat.
In the past, habitat used to be much more
abundant and interconnected than in current land-
scapes. In today’s human-dominated landscapes
habitat is not only reduced in size and quality, but
also fragmented by infrastructure and urban
development. Here, the island biogeography
with its mainland that acts as source area is not
applicable, as there often is no enormous main-
land habitat. The metapopulation theory is better
equipped for these fragmented landscapes.
The metapopulation theory departs from the
idea that in fragmented landscapes interconnected
260 Biodiversity in Cities, Reconnecting Humans with Nature

local populations may together make up a

so-called metapopulation. The long-term persis-
tence of such a metapopulation is achieved by the
network setup: (1) local population extinction
should be balanced with new colonization from
neighboring local populations and (2) the total
number of all individuals within the meta-
population should be sufficient. With an extra
large local population (a so-called
key-population), this total number can be lower
than in case all local populations within the meta-
population are small. As the interlinkage between
local populations is crucial for the mutual
exchange, the habitat pattern at landscape scale
determines whether local populations will
together function as a metapopulation (Fig. 5).
Several landscape parameters determine the prob-
ability that species may survive in the landscape:

• Habitat availability (the amount of habitat

available for the species)
• Habitat quality (determines the carrying capac-
ity per area of habitat)
• Habitat connectivity (extent to which habitat
patches are mutually connected)
• Individual habitat patch size (determines
whether there is a habitat patch in the land-
scape with sufficient space for a key
population)
• Landscape permeability (extent to which the
landscape pattern support the migration of spe-
cies through the landscape, especially the size
and character of the portion of nonhabitat is
important in this case)
• Barriers (landscape structures that prevent the
movement of species through the landscape
(e.g., highways for ground-dwelling animals))
Also, some species-specific parameters deter-
mine how well the species would be equipped to
survive in the landscape:
• Dispersal capacity (extent to which a species is
able to migrate through the landscape, e.g.,
overcome barriers.)
• Dispersal distance (distance that individuals of
a species are able to travel to colonize new
habitat)
Biodiversity in Cities, Reconnecting Humans with
Nature, Fig. 5 Illustration of how networks of local
populations (so-called metapopulations) of a ground-
dwelling species are distributed in and around a city
(pink). Road (orange) and water (blue) infrastructure act
as barriers and makes that there are different meta-
populations (that instead of one large network). As a result,
some metapopulations have sufficient size to overcome
environmental fluctuations, and are viable (green), others
are too small and are nonviable (red). (Photo: Robbert
Snep)
• Home-range size (the size of the area that an
animal individual uses during everyday’s
activities)
• Disturbance sensitivity (level at which a spe-
cies will be so much disturbed by traffic, rec-
reation, noise, light, etc. in its habitat that this
will impact its survival probability)
• Local population size (minimum amount of
individuals required to function as local
population)
• Key population size (minimum amount of individ-
uals required to function as key population (and
thus as an source for neighboring populations) [74])
• MVP size (minimum amount of individuals
within the metapopulation necessary for a
Biodiversity in Cities, Reconnecting Humans with Nature
minimum viable population [59]; for meta-
populations with a key population the mini-
mum is lower than without a key population,
[74]).
Each landscape is unique, each species is
unique; however there are some general rules
about how to deal with landscape planning and
design, as seen from the viewpoint of biodiversity
conservation:
1. Conserve (or re-develop) sufficient habitat area
for conservation target species. “Sufficient”
should meet habitat criteria for viable plant or
animal populations [67].
2. Use the SLOSS (Single Large patch Or Several
Small patches) principle while targeting (to be)
habitat patches for conservation [1, 60]. This is
as habitat networks should have sufficient size
for a (meta) population size and sufficient con-
nectivity (to support colonization of the
patches).
3. To meet criteria for habitat connectivity, make
sure that the habitat in the area is optimally
interconnected, so species can migrate from
one habitat patch to another [58]. In landscape
and conservation planning, so-called ecologi-
cal corridors are often assigned to support plant
and animal dispersal [24]. These corridors are
linear strips of habitat through the landscape of
which the length, width, and design are
depending on the species. Instead of continu-
ous corridors, for some easy-migrating species
(e.g., some bird species) also so-called
stepping stones could support their dispersal
through the city. A stepping stone connection
consists of a subsequent series of small patches
of habitat positioned between larger habitat
structures.
Urban environments are highly fragmented
landscapes, in which habitat availability and con-
nectivity is generally insufficient to support the
population viability norms of many species. So
the application of the previous concept is not so
easy. It appears today, after some urban studies on
species dispersal and landscape availability to
conserve populations, that complementary
261
consideration has to be suggested in these highly
fragmented urban landscapes. For example, the
SLOSS rule is generally not possible and it
seems interesting to promote also small green
spaces and diverse kinds of green structures in
dense city environments. The goal here is not to
construct new large patches of biodiversity when
it is not possible, but to permit, at least, both the
dispersal of a maximum of species with “stepping
stones” and to increase the interface between
nature and citizens. After all, increasing the street
plantation (street trees, road verges) in an ecolog-
ical way would promote for several species the
dispersal opportunities in towns: from park to
park, and between areas of private gardens and
business areas.
Another process that is generally forgotten is
the impact of the city on the capacity of species
dispersion at regional level. Under climatic
change, wildlife modifies their biogeographical
area of distribution, moving to the north
[32]. This adds a justification to the need of a
good capacity of continuity in landscape at all
the scales, including the urban areas. The town
becoming megalopolis with continuous building
land use acts as barriers to the species movement
and especially to the dispersion to new area (to the
north) for all the species that move with difficulty.
Given transparency to the town, e.g., permitting
the species movement is also a challenge of a
sustainable city.
Urban Wildlife Species and Communities
On Eating and Being Eaten
The food resource and/or its quality are an impor-
tant factor of the settlement of animal in town. The
availability of grass for first consumers, insects or
gastropods for first predators and small verte-
brates for second predators are fundamental both
to explain the presence of species in a habitat and
to explain the stability of the biodiversity through
the quality of the food chain. Obviously the urban
areas do not present all the availability of food for
each step of the food chain and some kinds of
animals are favored. For example, the omnivorous
and detritivorous animals, small (snails, flies. . .)
262
as well as large (gulls, corvids, rats. . .) ones, are
capable to use the rubbish dumps and all wastage
from human activities. These species can become
very numerous and create several problems of
cohabitation (e.g., [11]). Other species take
advantage of the feeding behavior of inhabitant
that is important in private as well as public
spaces. This typical urban source explains the
success of pigeons [30] but also of some exotic
species such as parakeets introduced in numerous
towns [68]. However, the use of refuse is com-
monly reported for other species living in urban-
ized areas, for example, tits [14], blackbirds [57],
gulls [7], or mammals such as raccoons [43] or
foxes [56].
In general, urban areas appear clearly poor in
food resources for specialist species. Wetlands are
scarce, so water birds and aquatic fauna are also
scares. The absence of old trees that permit settle-
ment (shelter, food) of numerous insects and birds
also explain the absence of several communities
of animals. However, the town presents more and
more vegetation and welcomes more animals
today than some decades before. Insectivorous
birds seems to decrease in numerous European
town in 1970s [28], but today these birds appear
to be more numerous with the reduction of car
pollution and pesticide use. In the same time, the
recent reduction of some garbage sources in
numerous countries has also limited the prolifera-
tion of some problematic animals (rats, gulls,. . .).
For some generalist birds breeding in towns, a
behavioral flexibility exists through diet plasticity,
for example the Herring Gull [7], while for other
generalists, such as the starling, it is less clear.
Starlings can modify their diet composition in
winter [20], but its diet variability in towns during
the breeding period seems to be limited [46]. How-
ever, successful generalists compensate for feed-
ing resource difficulties (poor quality of food,
accessibility) linked to urbanization, and their
behavioral flexibility allows to achieve similar
breeding performances in rural and urban areas.
One of the characteristics of urban green
spaces is the presence of a majority of exotic
plants and trees. The consequence could be
directly observed at the level of the community
composition (e.g., more “coniferous” birds in
Biodiversity in Cities, Reconnecting Humans with Nature
town than in rural areas – [15]) as well as at the
level of feeding behavior. For example, the bees
give a more rich honey in town linked to the great
diversity of exotic flowers. The quality of some
urban food (richer, more fat) involves also some
differences in individual morphology, and obe-
sities can be observed in urban animals [35].
Wild predators are present in towns: foxes or
stone martens are more common in suburbs but
also sometimes in downtown [28]. Birds of prey
such as falcons or sparrow hawks are today pre-
sent in numerous European cities and some have
adapted to the urban constraints changing their
food items. The kestrel that eats small mammals
in rural areas hunts particularly sparrows in towns.
But the most important predator in town remains
the domestic cat that eats numerous small birds
(robins, house sparrows, . . .), small mammals
(shrew, vole, . . .), and fragile lizards [22, 78].
Reproduction
In the same way than for food availability, the
possibility to find nesting places explains the set-
tlement or not of the species in the urban areas.
For example, the study of breeding birds in town
shows clearly the absence of birds of open habi-
tats, especially ground-nesting species such as
larks [15], that need high grass and quiet places.
Lancaster and Rees [38] found that cavity nesters
were at an advantage in cities. However holes
(in building or in trees) seem very dependent of
the history of the building or of the park. The
number of cavities in building appeared rapidly
decreasing with the new architecture and the pro-
tection of all walls. In addition, linked to the hard
urban disturbances, birds nest the higher possible
and the installation of nest boxes (that are gener-
ally not sufficiently high) do not resolve always
the problem of the lack of cavity. However, the
management of parts of public parks in a more
ecological way (especially increasing shrub plan-
tation) favors the availability of the nesting places
for numerous passerines. In the same time these
sites become progressively more acceptable for a
small fauna of soil, litter, grass, and shrub.
The reproduction success is highly variable
according to the species. Urbanization profoundly
affects the reproductive parameters of birds
Biodiversity in Cities, Reconnecting Humans with Nature
[9]. Mennechez and Clergeau [47] observed in
starling that (1) although the rate at which parents
feed their nestlings was higher in urban areas than
in rural ones, the amount of food delivered to
nestlings by parents in town was weak and
(2) the body mass of nestlings reared in the
urban sector was significantly lower. This sup-
ports the idea that urban nestlings received insuf-
ficient food loads or food of low quality (refuse
food). Urban environment imposes severe con-
straints in terms of nutritional “conditions.” So
some generalist birds such as starling can have
bad reproduction in town when generalist species
such as the kestrel can have good urban breeding
performance [36]. It seems difficult to generalize a
relationship between habitat generalist and spe-
cialist, without integrating the capacity of adapta-
tion of the different species.
Territorial Behavior
The behavior of wildlife in town is not well stud-
ied and today only some mammals have been
seriously analyzed. For example, it is well
known that cats change their social organization
and their territorial behavior in town. In natural
and in rural areas, wild cats or domestic cats each
have a stable home range with only some spatial
overlaps; the organization avoids all possibility of
temporal contact. In town, the social organization
is absolutely changed: Cats leave in group with
one or two dominant males. The impact of punc-
tual and abundant source of food (by human
feeders) explains this structure [40].
The fox has been well studied and comparison
between rural and urban are conducted in several
countries (e.g., [31]). All the studies give the same
results: The territory of urban foxes is smaller in
town and changes regularly of place. The higher
mobility of urban foxes is linked to the high mortal-
ity that involves change of individual and permanent
reorganization of territories, but also to the shelter
availability. In town the majority of fox holes do not
exist and animals sleep during the day just in flower
clumps, within pipeline, under bridge, etc.
Alien and Invasive Species
Numerous exotic animals and plants have settled
into new geographical regions after voluntary or
263
involuntary releases by humans. Although only
1% of alien plants have established populations
and spread [77], this percentage can reach
15–50% for vertebrates [34]. When these alien
populations increase in number, they often exert
negative pressures on the native ecosystem, espe-
cially in terms of predation or competition with
native species [75]. However, in numerous cases,
the mechanisms underlying their success and the
potential impacts of these aliens are not suffi-
ciently well documented. The urban areas are the
first source of introduced species [16] for plants
with horticulture and garden plantation, and for
animals with trade of pets. This process becomes
an important point of biodiversity management
also in town with the goal of urban corridors
permitting the dispersion from and to the town
(see after).
Consequently, a change in the work of land-
scape gardeners is awaited in order to limit the use
of exotic species known as invasive in new garden
and park management. This is especially impor-
tant for site adjacent to rural and natural zones.
For animals too, the trade need to be examined
but also the behavior of citizen that releases all
kind of exotic pets. One recurrent human behavior
that seems to facilitate the establishment of exotic
species in temperate regions and often in town is
the supplemental provisioning of food. The pro-
visioning behavior is observed for numerous
exotic mammals (e.g., Coypu Myocastor coypus,
Siberian chipmunk Tamias Sibericus, Grey squir-
rel Sciurus carolinensis), and birds (e.g., Mute
swan Cygnus olor, Rock dove Columba livia,
Rose-ringed Parakeet Psittacula krameri) and it
could be one of the keys to the success of these
species. Limiting the supplemental feeding of
alien species could be an element of management
for some invasive species and needs to be
evaluated [12].
Urban Survival Strategies
Blair [4] working on birds and butterflies defined
different kind of species according to their ability
to colonize and settle in the town. He recognizes
species that avoid the urban areas (the “avoiders”
that are never present in this habitat) from species
that exploit the town (the “exploiters”). These
264
exploiters are generally “adapters” that modify
their behavior to exploit better the town. Urban
environment seems to impose so many constraints
on birds (e.g., landscape fragmentation, isolation
of habitat patches, noise, pollution, type and avail-
ability of food resources, human activities, vege-
tation quality in habitat patches. . .) that only
species that have a (pre-) adapted way of life are
able to tolerate them. Croci et al. [15] suggested
that the urbanization filters bird species on the
basis of their traits. That biological filter effect of
urbanization seems to be a key determinant
explaining which passerines can be found in
town, urban adapters, and which cannot, urban
avoiders. Studying bird avifauna at local and
regional levels in France, Croci et al. [15] found
45 urban adapters that were mainly species that
preferred forest (15 species) or meadow (14 spe-
cies) habitats rather than open landscapes or
aquatic habitats. The habitat availability in cities
is a key determinant of the biological filter that
urban constraints play on bird species from natu-
ral areas. Global abundance of species is not the
main factor explaining their presence in cities.
Indeed, urban adapters and avoiders were not
associated with any of the modalities of the num-
ber of species pairs. Geographic distributions of
urban adapters were especially wide and involved
more diverse biogeographic areas than urban
avoiders generally from temperate climates.
Most species with high nests are associated
with tree availability and, therefore, forest habi-
tats, whereas nesting at low or medium heights is
often correlated to shrubby, aquatic, or open and
appeared as gregarious species. Being with con-
geners landscapes, omnivorous species were at an
advantage in town, whereas granivorous species
were at a disadvantage. Eating a variety of food
items permits an exploitation of new resources
linked to the town, such as garbage. Croci et al.
[15] observed also that at the contrary of urban
avoiders, urban adapters did not especially present
a plumage coloration dimorphism and that urban
avoiders were associated with more than two
clutches per year and less wingspan when com-
pared to urban adapters. Urban adapters seemed to
have larger life expectancy than urban avoiders
and were more sedentary that may enhance
Biodiversity in Cities, Reconnecting Humans with Nature
opportunities to learn from others birds experi-
ence, for example, for food location or predation
avoidance, and thus, be at advantages in new
environments such urbanized areas. Urban
adapters also molt once a year whereas urban
avoiders molt two times. All these traits lead us
to believe that during the breeding season, urban
avoiders have not much resources as urban
adapters to allocate for adaptation to urban areas.
Homogenization
Biotic homogenization is the process by which the
similarity of a biological variable increases across
time and space. According to the nature of the
variable, homogenization is qualified of taxo-
nomic when there is an increase of the similarity
of species between biotopes, functional when
there is an increase of the similarity of biological
traits (e.g., biological characteristics), and genet-
ics when there is an increase of the similarity of
the gene pool.
Each eco-region presents its own pool of spe-
cies; however, in town the species are often the
same [5]. McKinney [44] suggests that the urban-
ization modifies the community of species,
decreasing the specialist species (increasing the
generalists) and increasing alien species. Conse-
quently, the similarity between community
increases with urbanization and gives biotic
homogenization. In USA the part of alien exotic
species is high and can explain a large part of the
homogenization; in Europe, alien species are not
so numerous [13] and the homogenization is
linked to the increase of similar generalists. The
explanations could be obtained in the similarity of
the urban variables through the world (light,
buildings, laws, climate, etc.).
Opportunities to Connect City Actors
with Urban Nature
City Planning
The overall shape of cities has a large impact on
the extent to which wildlife can colonize city
environments, and to which humans can experi-
ence these plants and animals. On the one hand,
there are the circular-shaped cities, of which the
Biodiversity in Cities, Reconnecting Humans with Nature
urban fringe – the zone where city and rural nature
may interact – is minimal. Besides, the distance
from the rural habitats to the city center of such
cities is large, and as a result wildlife has to over-
come many barriers to colonize inner-city areas.
On the other hand there are starfish-shaped cities,
where in between built-up areas there are
so-called green wedges that may penetrate all the
way to the city center. These green wedges often
are remnants of former natural stream habitats or
other, linear-shaped natural structures that were
conserved during the urbanization process. In
these starfish-shaped cities, wildlife can much
easier migrate through the city environment.
Moreover, for citizens the proximity of green in
these green-wedge cities is much higher than in
circular-shaped cities.
At a next level, it is the design of the “green
within the urban area” that has great influence on
the abilities of citizens to interact with nature.
Within the domain of green space planning, the
city’s internal major green structures are planned.
The challenge is to find a balance between the
portions and configuration of built-up area and
those of urban green. From an estate development
point of view, one could aim for a maximum
portion of built-up area. Although this seems eco-
nomically favorable at first sight, from a quality-
of-life perspective a minimum amount of urban
green is demanded to make that people like to live
and work in such cities. Urban planners and land-
scape architects, therefore, plan for green struc-
tures as public gardens and parks in between new
residential and business areas to provide recrea-
tional opportunities and support the visual quali-
ties of the built-up areas.
From the wildlife point of view, the way in
which green structures are planned is crucial.
Not only the amount and size of green structures,
but also their mutual cohesion and their connec-
tivity with the rural hinterland determines the
habitat suitability of city environments. If urban
planners aim to optimize human-nature interac-
tions in the city, they should consider that contin-
uous green structures are best to support wildlife
movements, and thus enable plants and animals to
inhabit the areas where people live and work.
Thereby, wildlife will not discriminate between
265
public or private green (as long as the habitat
quality is fine), so connecting public parks with
private garden complexes would favor
wildlife [29].
Another aspect to take into account is that
different plant and animal species may use differ-
ent parts of the urban green as their habitat. Forest
species (like woodpeckers) perceive large open
green areas (e.g., grassland or swamps) as non-
habitat and rely on forest and trees structures for
their habitat and dispersal opportunities. Other
species may prefer swamp vegetation of river
banks (e.g., dragon flies), or the flower-rich veg-
etation of extensive grassland (e.g., butterflies).
To support a rich diversity of plant and animal
species in the city environment, interconnecting
similar types of biotope (forest with forest etc.) is
necessary.
To some extent, peri-urban areas may deter-
mine the richness of urban nature. Peri-urban
areas are the rural areas that are located adjacent
to the city. Snep et al. [64] illustrated for butter-
flies that such periurban areas could act as source
areas to strengthen nature in the inner-city. With
sufficient habitat (in quality and quantity), local
butterfly populations may thrive. A surplus of
these butterflies may disperse from the peri-
urban areas into the city using the urban green
structures as dispersal corridors. City planners
could take advantage of the natural value of the
peri-urban area by tuning the type and structure of
the urban green with the peri-urban nature. By
doing so, they may optimize the opportunities
for peri-urban wildlife to colonize the city.
Different Opportunities for Different Parts of
the City
The public green and water structure in cities can
be considered as the basis for the city’s ecological
functioning, due to its size and connectivity. Public
green areas with predominantly lawn and solitary
trees have little habitat value for the urban wildlife
and its experience by citizens. If the urban green is
however designed and managed in a more ecolog-
ical way, a whole array of plant and animal species
can be accommodated. Especially the abundance
of brush and shrub vegetation containing native
plant species will contribute significantly to the
266
habitat quality of the urban green. This is, as these
vegetation layers act as reproduction habitat for
birds, butterflies, dragon flies etc. Also, the banks
of streams and other urban water bodies have a
good potential for wildlife, if not “engineered”
with concrete sheet piling.
For most citizens, urban parks and water bod-
ies are the places where “urban nature” can be
experienced. Although these public areas can
make up an important contribution to the city’s
wildlife habitat, there are other, often private,
areas that have good capacities to enhance the
experience of urban nature by citizens. These
areas are residential neighborhoods, school envi-
ronments, and business districts.
Residential Neighborhoods A good way to
(reconnect humans with nature is to enable citi-
zens to experience nature in their own backyards.
Many people like birdlife around their houses
(especially songbirds), a conclusion that can be
derived from the large portion of residential gar-
dens with bird feeders and nesting boxes
[18]. Abundant and diverse birdlife, however, is
depending on more factors than only these spe-
cific bird features. To attract birds to residential
areas, there should be enough habitat (being
“urban green”) in and around houses so birds
have opportunities to eat, rest, reproduce, and
gather. A high portion of urban green, as well as
Biodiversity in Cities,
Reconnecting Humans
with Nature,
Fig. 6 Urban green in the
ecological housing area The
Cherry Garden (NL),
designed and maintained
such that both biodiversity
conservation as biodiversity
experience is supported.
The nectar plants and shrub
provide habitat for
butterflies, (bumble) bees,
and song birds, the whole
setting with the residential
area is inviting for citizens
to really experience the
wildlife. (Photo: Robbert
Snep)
Biodiversity in Cities, Reconnecting Humans with Nature
sufficient variety in plant species and vegetation
structure, do not only enhance bird life, but also
other animal groups as mammals (e.g., hedge-
hogs, bats) and insects (butterflies, (bumble)
bees) (Fig. 6). Plants provide different habitat
functions as food source (e.g., host and nectar
plants for butterflies) and as reproduction or rest-
ing place (e.g., shrub and trees for bird nests).
Native garden plants generally provide more hab-
itat value for biodiversity than exotic garden
plants, as the local animal life has coevolved
with native plant species. Some exotic plant spe-
cies are exceptions, like the cosmopolitan Butter-
fly bush (Bhuddleja davidii) that is a nectar source
for butterflies in many parts of the world.
Incorporating small water bodies (garden
ponds) in the gardens and neighborhood green
structures adds extra habitat value to residential
areas. Water habitats offer habitat for species with
an entirely aquatic way of life (like fish and water
plants), and also provide places to drink and for-
age for many terrestrial animal species. Addition-
ally, they offer reproduction and nursery habitats
for species with a partial aquatic way of life (e.g.,
amphibians, dragon flies).
On average, private gardens are too small to
accommodate enough habitat, for example, a
bird’s territory. Animals therefore move between
gardens to visit different resources. The urban
Biodiversity in Cities, Reconnecting Humans with Nature
design of the residential area as well as the vicinity
of larger urban green areas have a great impact on
the extent to which resources in a particular gar-
den will be used by animals. If gardens are clus-
tered, and fences between the individual gardens
are permeable for wildlife, animal abundance will
be more likely than in cases where gardens are
walled and isolated from other green. Also, the
presence of larger urban green areas in the vicinity
of residential areas increase wildlife abundance,
especially as there good opportunities for wildlife
to exchange between urban green areas and resi-
dential neighborhood.
Finally, if wildlife is present in residential areas
this does not automatically mean that citizens are
aware of their presence, and as such are able to
fully experience the diversity and phenomena of
plant and animal life. On average, citizens often
have low abilities to detect the presence of wild-
life, as more and more citizens lack a history of
growing up with wildlife [48]. There are two ways
to increase wildlife experience opportunities:
1. To improve the visibility of wildlife for citi-
zens, create habitat resources for wildlife in
such way that wildlife will expose itself
(to some extent) to citizens. Well-known exam-
ples are nesting boxes and feeders for birds,
other examples are bee trap nests, nectar hot
spots for butterflies (e.g., group of butterfly
bush), and garden ponds. A more sophisticated
way is installing webcams in bird and bat
boxes, or infrared cameras for nocturnal
wildlife.
2. To improve the wildlife detection ability of
citizens. Educate citizens in detecting wildlife,
using binoculars (birds) and netting (insects,
aquatic life) and tracking (ground-dwelling
mammals) techniques. Often, (local) conserva-
tion groups are best equipped to stimulate and
educate people on wildlife monitoring, using
citizen science for conservation purposes.
School Environments Richard Louv [41] wrote
a well-known and inspiring book, entitled “Last
Child in the Woods,” addressing the rapidly
decreasing experience of (urban) youth with
nature. This book gives a plea for (re)connecting
267
youth with plant and animal life. School areas are
perfect places to do so, as children will spend a
large part of their early years in these environ-
ments. School yards can be designed and man-
aged such that wildlife experience is optimized.
Replacing a part of the school yard tiles by urban
green that has good habitat value for butterflies,
birds, (bumble)bees will stimulate children to
explore nature. By actually involving children in
the realization and management of this “school
nature,” they will perceive it as “their own” nature
(Fig. 7).
Not only at school yards but also at other
places in the direct vicinity of schools there are
opportunities to let children experience wildlife.
In the Dutch city of Eindhoven, more than 20 pri-
mary and secondary schools participate in the
“school pond project,” a municipal project in
which ponds and nearby schools are managed
and monitored by youth, supervised by local wild-
life experts and teachers. During classes the chil-
dren visit the ponds, making sure they are well
informed about the developments of the local
nature. If necessary, additional conservation mea-
sures such as habitat improvement are executed to
enhance populations of local plants and animals.
Linking the outdoor school nature with the actual
school lessons on environment and biology offer
opportunities to provide more background infor-
mation about the local wildlife, and support chil-
dren to understand the diversity of life and the
working of the ecosystem.
Business Districts “Business districts” can be
further classified as high-quality business sites,
mixed business sites, logistic areas, heavy indus-
trial areas, and seaport areas. Other names for
these areas are business sites, business parks,
industrial sites, industrial districts, or industrial
estates. Opportunities for business sites to provide
ecosystem services are now gradually being rec-
ognized. For example, recent studies have focused
on how flat roofs, a typical feature of business site
buildings, can be used (designed as green roofs) to
reduce urban air pollution [80] or road traffic
noise. Regarding biodiversity conservation at
business sites, some initiatives are already under
268
Biodiversity in Cities, Reconnecting Humans with
Nature, Fig. 7 Greening project at a primary school,
together with the children. Plants with added value for
way in current practice. The US Wildlife Habitat
Council (WHC) encourages corporations to vol-
untarily manage lands for wildlife and biodiver-
sity protection, and certifies companies that
substantially contribute to biodiversity conserva-
tion on their corporate lands [76]. Cardskadden
and Lober [8] studied the benefits to corporations
of participating in the WHC programme in terms
of its influence on relationships with key corpo-
rate stakeholders including employees, host com-
munities, environmental groups, and regulators.
They report that at 164 sites, 95% of respondents
indicated that wildlife habitat programs had led to
improved employee morale; 72% indicated
improved relationships with environmental
groups; 60% noted a positive effect on community
relations; and 49% of respondents reported
improved relations with regulators. These benefits
were in addition to the annual cost savings
reported by 50% of the programs. Besides, rela-
tionships with the community, government, and
environmental groups led to better wildlife pro-
grams due to increased expertise.
In another example, the UK British Trust for
Ornithology (BTO) awards companies that take
specific measures to conserve bird diversity on
their lands. The Business Bird Challenge began
in 1994 and is a partnership between businesses,
Biodiversity in Cities, Reconnecting Humans with Nature
biodiversity are planted (left), attracting small wildlife
that can be experienced (right). (Photo: Soontiëns
Stadsnatuur)
the BTO, and local communities which encour-
ages biodiversity on business and industrial sites.
Sites range from working quarries, power sta-
tions, and oil refineries to research establishments,
company headquarters, and restored nature
reserves. The aim is to maximize the potential of
business sites for birds and other wildlife what-
ever the business site size.
In the Netherlands, Dutch Landscape Manage-
ment promotes the integration of landscape ele-
ments and species conservation measures into
business site development. They aim to raise
awareness among municipalities and the business
community, but also among project developers
and designers, regarding opportunities and advan-
tages that “green” business sites offer. They
thereby focus on fitting business sites into their
surrounding landscape, enhancing the ecological
significance of business sites and increasing the
accessibility of the sites for recreation purposes.
Business sites, often located at the city’s edge,
can offer habitats for rare species (e.g., pioneer
butterflies and amphibians), which mainly occur
in the surrounding rural landscape, and for com-
mon species that also occur in the city [63, 64, 66]
(Fig. 8). This implies that if biodiversity conser-
vation is incorporated in business site planning,
design, and management, the effectiveness of
investments in conservation measures will
Biodiversity in Cities, Reconnecting Humans with Nature
Quality
Quality of (city) Life
Work
CITY BUSINESS SITE
Biodiversity in Cities, Reconnecting Humans with
Nature, Fig. 8 Overview of how the greening of business
sites with vegetation attractive for wildlife may improve
both the business site as its urban and rural surroundings.
The quality of life in adjacent residential areas can be
enhanced by common wildlife originating from the
Biodiversity in Cities, Reconnecting Humans with
Nature, Fig. 9 Left: Illustration of how vegetation with
ecological value (e.g., nectar plants) can be designed for a
increase if the target species and type and amount
of habitat are attuned with the regional context of
ecological networks.
Biodiversity conservation at business sites can be
shaped in different ways, each with its own (socio)
economic and environmental characteristics. There
are different options for biodiversity conservation at
business sites: green roofs and walls, a more eco-
logical management of the conventional business
green, temporary early successional vegetation on
vacant parcels, and the design of ecological corri-
dors and stepping stones throughout the business
site. Results from a stakeholder survey on this topic
suggest that implementing measures to enhance bio-
diversity may be acceptable only if combined with
other green functions (predominantly “recreation”
269
of Biodiversity in
natural habitats
RURAL AREA
business site [64]. The quality of work can be improved
as the green enhances the aesthetic and recreation percep-
tion in the business environment [65]. The biodiversity in
natural habitats near the business site can be enhanced as
the business site may offer specific habitat for endangered
butterflies and other species [66]
business site environment. Right: Actual urban green patch at
a company with host plants for caterpillars of the Swallowtail
(Papilio machaon). (Photos: Soontiëns Stadsnatuur)
and “health and well-being”) and if suited to the
functional appearance of the business site environ-
ment (“external appearance” and “tidiness”) [65]
(Fig. 9).
Future Directions: Integrating Wildlife
Conservation in Sustainable City
Planning and Design
Future directions in research, education, and prac-
tice on integrating wildlife conservation in sus-
tainable city planning and design may focus on:
1. Climate-proof city green with ecological value
According to Pauleit et al. (see chapter
270
▶ “Green Infrastructures to Face Climate
Change in an Urbanizing World”) urban
green may support the resilience of cities
toward climate change, as vegetation is able
to cool (evaporation, shade) city environments
and storage storm water (pervious soil). This
demand for additional, climate-proof, urban
green opens an opportunity to enhance the
ecological quality of the city, if executed in
the right way. As example, green roofs have
excellent capacities to deal with heat and storm
water (see chapters ▶ “Green Roofs: Ecologi-
cal Functions of the Fifth Facade” and “Green
Roof Infrastructures in Urban Areas”), how-
ever the Sedum monoculture roof type – that is
currently applied at large scale – has less ecolog-
ical value than green roof types with more diver-
sity in plant species (preferably, native), soil type,
and depth and other characteristics. A challenge
for the future therefore is to design and manage
the urban green meant for climate change miti-
gation purposes in an ecological way.
2. Urban agriculture with ecological value Allot-
ment gardens in city environments are an
ancient phenomenon, subject to societal trends
and thereby increasing and decreasing in pop-
ularity over time. A whole new global trend is
the concept of urban agriculture, beyond the
traditional allotment garden. Urban farms pro-
duce food for the city, within the city itself.
A well-known and quite extreme example are
the urban farms at roof tops in New York City.
Urban farms appeal to the current demand for
“home-grown food.”
Urban agriculture provides habitat opportu-
nities for urban wildlife and wildlife experi-
ence, if the agricultural practices are based
upon biological principles (e.g., no pesticides).
Urban farmers as well as visitors of these farms
will thereby experience how natural processes
like pollination are essential for growing food.
Though this used to be basic knowledge
among people for ages, citizens often have
lost this knowledge. Urban farms are therefore
excellent places to teach citizens about vital
ecosystem services such as pollination and
biological control. A future challenge is to
integrate the urban agriculture concept in the
city planning and design, as such that this
Biodiversity in Cities, Reconnecting Humans with Nature
phenomenon contributes to the basic under-
standing of citizens about the natural world
they live in.
3. Urban energy and commodity production with
ecological value
With successive energy and commodity cri-
ses worldwide, urban regions start to explore
possibilities to produce their own energy and
commodities, thereby decreasing their depen-
dence from energy and commodity producers
outside their region. There are several ways to
produce energy, using different techniques.
One way to generate electricity or commod-
ity comes from biomass. Although urban
regions in general have a low production of
biomass (e.g., prunings of tree and shrub veg-
etation from urban green management), this
method may enhance the citizens’ awareness
about energy (“burning”) and commodity
(“biorefining”) production, and also provides
an added value to the city green. If in the near
future urban biomass targets are set, this may
lead to more shrubs and trees in the city, mean-
ing more habitat for wildlife. The biomass
topic represents future benefits that urban
green may provide and that are currently not
taken into account by urban planners and land-
scape architects in city development (see also
chapter “Urban Forest Function, Design and
Management”).
Another way of producing energy in cities is by
solar panels at roof tops. These solar energy sys-
tems work most efficiently if the outside temper-
ature is not too high. At roof tops covered with
bitumen, the temperature will increase too much
for optimal functional of the solar panels. At green
roofs the direct surrounding of the solar panels is
cooled by the vegetation (evaporation) and thus
there is more efficiency.
Snep and Opdam [62] and Beatley [3] have
addressed the opportunities to integrate natural
values in urban planning and design quite exten-
sively, like in Fig. 10. These publications focus on
the “nature” aspect of urban green. There is how-
ever a much larger, global trend of “green cities”,
in which “nature” is not mentioned explicitly. The
term “green” here refers to “sustainable” (“green”
being a modern alternative) or “vegetated”
Biodiversity in Cities, Reconnecting Humans with Nature
Biodiversity in Cities, Reconnecting Humans with
Nature, Fig. 10 Green roof vegetation at an inner-city
apartment block in Eindhoven (NL). A nice appearance of
(“green cities” uses urban vegetation for its soci-
etal benefits). A challenge may be to connect these
two worlds, to enable planners, (landscape) archi-
tects, project developers, and others to integrate
wildlife conservation in the planning and design
of sustainable cities. Future directions as men-
tioned above (climate-proof, urban agriculture,
urban energy) can be seen as starting points to
come to green, ecological cities with contain
mutual benefits (both sustainable and natural).
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Biophilic Cities
Timothy Beatley
School of Architecture, University of Virginia,
Charlottesville, VA, USA
Article Outline
Glossary
Background and History of the Idea
Biophilic Design Sets the Stage
Parallel Concepts and Practice: Diverse
Underpinnings of Biophilic Cities
Biophilic Cities Network
Evidence of the Power of Urban Nature
Many Forms of Urban Nature
The Vision of Biophilic Cities
Emerging Practice of Biophilic Cities
Obstacles and Future Directions in Biophilic
Urbanism
Open Questions Remain About the Vision and
Practice
Bibliography
Glossary
Biophilic Cities Are those that are abundant in
nature (trees, greenery, animals, gardens) and
in opportunities to connect with and experi-
ence this nature. BIophilic Cities represents a
global design and planning movement that rec-
ognizes the innate human affiliation with
nature and the need to put contact with nature
at the center of this design and planning.
Biophilic Cities Network A global network of
individuals, organizations and partner cities
that have signed the Biophilic Cities pledge
and agree to work on behalf of more natureful
cities and urban environments. Partner cities
officially apply for membership and as part of
their application council-adopted resolution or
proclamation declaring intent to join the
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
V. Loftness (ed.), Sustainable Built Environments,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-0684-1_1033
Originally published in
R. A. Meyers (ed.), Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology, © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC,
part of Springer Nature 2020, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2493-6_1033-2
Network and to becoming a Biophilic City.
More information about the Network can be
found at BiophilicCities.org.
Biophilic Design the emerging practice of
designing homes, offices, schools, hospitals
and other buildings that incorporate important
elements of nature: natural daylight, plants and
greenery, views of nature, water, and natural
soundscapes, among others. Biophilic design
has been practiced largely by architects and
landscape architects, but the principles are
increasingly applied to the design of cities
and urban infrastructure.
Rewilding The vision and practice of bringing
animals and plants, and natural wildness, back
into our neighborhoods and urban lives.
Rewilding includes such practices as planting
urban forests, daylighting streams, restoring a
variety of wildlife habitats so that experiencing
birds and other fauna is daily or hourly
experience.
Coexistence The many tools and techniques that
can be used by humans to live together with
wild nature. Coexistence with coyotes, for
example, includes techniques for ensuring
they continue to fear humans, while coexis-
tence with birds entails (among other things)
building designs and use of building glass that
will minimize bird-building strikes and fatality.
Coexistence is also an attitude or philosophy of
living that reflects tolerance for the many other
forms of life that will co-occupy cities with
humans and the inherent moral worth of (all
living things?) these “others.”
Nature Pyramid modeled after the food pyra-
mid, it is meant to help us think about the many
different kinds of nature and nature experi-
ences available in and around cities. Like the
food pyramid, the Nature Pyramid shows the
importance of designing a healthy “nature diet”
starting with nearby nature experiences at the
base of the pyramid–the nature that will be
experienced frequently, for instance the nature
that might be experienced on one’s walk to
275
276
work or in view from one’s home or work.
Specific versions of the Nature Pyramid have
been developed by particular cities (for
instance, St Louis) including the nature that is
unique or specific to that climate and place.
Background and History of the Idea
That humans carry with us an innate attraction or
affiliation with nature and the natural world is the
key premise behind Biophilic Cities. Biophilia,
pioneered by Harvard biologist and entomologist
E.O. Wilson, argues that we carry with us our
ancient brains, the result of coevolution with the
natural world [1]. “The innate love of the living
process,” Wilson believes, derives directly from
“humanity’s ancestral environment” ([2], 211). As
Wilson says, the human species has “grown up
with nature” (quoted in [3]), so it is not surprising
that we are calmer, happier, and healthier when we
live in closer proximity to nature and we live our
lives in daily, or not hourly, connection with the
natural world.
“Millions of years of evolution are indelibly
encoded in our genes,” E.O. Wilson says ([2], 211).
In this way biophilia assumes that we are caring
with us our ancient brains and that we respond and
react to our natural settings based on our evolution
(see also [68]). We respond innately to flowers,
water, birds, and sunlight. These things are not
optional but absolutely essential to a happy, healthy,
meaningful life.
Professor Stephen Kellert has described bio-
philia as a “weak genetic tendency,” suggesting
that while humans hold these innate tendencies,
they necessarily require cultivation, activation,
and reinforcement. The vision of Biophilic Cities
is one that understands the importance of maxi-
mizing the chance for daily or hourly contact with
nature and the direct engagement of urban resi-
dents with the nature around them [42]. Biophilia
is very much about the ways in which we visit,
touch and experience, learn about, work to repair,
and actively care for the nature around
us. Biophilic Cities invest in and work hard to
make these experiences abundant and an impor-
tant part of everyday urban life.
Biophilic Cities
Biophilic Design Sets the Stage
Advocates of biophilic design set the stage for the
emergence of the vision and practice of Biophilic
Cities. Biophilic design argues for the importance
of incorporating the essential features from nature
into homes, office building, schools, and work
environments of all kinds. These important
biophilic design elements include full-spectrum
natural sunlight, natural ventilation, living plants
and greenery of all kinds, contact with animals
and wildlife, views of nature, the sounds and other
multisensory experiences of the natural world,
and water, among others (see Table 1). Over the
last decade especially there has been a significant
growth in the literature on biophilic design,
important authors include Stephen Kellert, Bill
Browning, Judith Heerwagen, and Amanda Stur-
geon, among others [4–6].
Biophilic Cities, Table 1 Attributes of biophilic design
I. Direct experience of nature
Light
Air
Water
Plants
Animals
Weather
Natural landscapes and ecosystems
II. Indirect experience of nature
Images of nature
Natural materials
Natural colors
Simulating natural light and air
Naturalistic shapes and forms
Evoking nature
Information richness
Age, change, and the patina of time
Natural geometries
Biomimicry
III. Experience of space and place
Prospect and refuge
Organized complexity
Integration of parts to wholes
Transitional spaces
Mobility and wayfinding
Cultural and ecological attachment to place
Source: Kellert and Calabrese, The Practice of Biophilic
Design, 2015
Biophilic Cities
Biophilic design theory builds as well on the
work of geographer Jay Appleton, who pioneered
the ideas of “prospect and refuge” as elements of
landscape and place that humans are drawn to
Appleton [7]. We seek places with “prospect”
that allow us to see a great distance, perhaps in
order to see dangers and enemies coming. We also
seem to prefer spaces and places that provide
“refuge,” or protected views where we can remain
hidden or protected. Many of the lists of biophilic
design principles or patterns build heavily on this
body of thought and research.
Parallel Concepts and Practice: Diverse
Underpinnings of Biophilic Cities
An advantage of Biophilic Cities is that it draws
upon and builds upon the theory, history, and prac-
tice of several parallel or kindred movements and
visions. These include efforts at creating green
cities, sustainable cities, green urbanism, eco-cities
[8], and more recently resilient cities [9].
There is complementarity here, though
Biophilic Cities tend to focus more squarely on
the conditions and positive natural qualities of
cities and urban neighborhoods. Biophilic city
planning and design are central to the goals of
achieving resilient cities [42]. The rise of urban
resilience as a framework is urgent given the need
to adapt to climate change, and the Rockefeller
Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities initiative has
done much to elevate the importance of the idea
(http://www.100resilientcities.org/). Many of the
ways a city can become more resilient in response
to urban heat, drought, storms, flooding, and other
climate shocks are by including more nature in
their design and planning. Trees serve to cool
urban environments and absorb storm excesses,
for instance, as can urban greening techniques like
living walls and green rooftops ([10, 52]).
Biophilic Cities build on the science and prac-
tice of urban ecology as well as a long history of
research around urban wildlife. There is also har-
mony between Biophilic Cities and new ideas
about wildlife coexistence [11] and a growing
need for conservation of biodiversity more
generally.
277
The vision of Biophilic Cities is strongly
informed by the writing and commentary of Rich-
ard Louv and his idea of “nature deficit disorder.”
Louv has been critical of the denatured ways in
which children grow up today, mostly indoors and
with strong influence of electronic media, pro-
foundly disconnected from nature (see [12, 13]).
Louv has helped to ignite a national dialogue
about this children-nature disconnect and efforts
around the USA to create opportunities for greater
outdoor activities and play for young people. It
has also led to the creation of the Children &
Nature Network and to a new partnership with
the National League of Cities, creating Cities
Connecting Children to Nature (http://www.nlc.
org/cities-connecting-children-to-nature).
There is also constructive overlap between
Biophilic Cities and emerging design and plan-
ning for healthy communities and design for well-
ness. Many of the design attributes of a healthy
building, healthy hospital, or healthy communi-
ties are biophilic and entail nature. New building
and design standards have been developed with
the intention of promoting wellness incorporate
biophilic goals (a new WELL standard, see Inter-
national WELL Building Institute; https://www.
wellcertified.com/).
The benefits of biophilic design are also cap-
tured in the decades of green building certification
systems, including the US Green Building Coun-
cil’s LEED certification and the Living Building
Challenge. Green Roofs for Healthy Cities is a
professional network with similar goals and inten-
tions, with special interest in “living” forms of
architecture (see https://greenroofs.org/).
Biophilic Cities Network
Following the publication of the early books on
Biophilic Design, Beatley and others began
exploring what the biophilic agenda meant for
cities. Publication of the book Biophilic Cities:
Integrating Nature into Urban Design and Plan-
ning, while not a lengthy treatise, sought to set
forth a discussion about the role of nature in the
design of cities [14]. Multiple years of funding by
the Washington, DC-based Summit Foundation
278 Biophilic Cities

provided the resources to explore what the con-
cept of Biophilic Cities means or could mean in
practice and led to the creation of the Biophilic
Cities Project at the University of Virginia. Much
of the initial research was conducted with the help
of ten “partner cities” (see [42]).
A Biophilic Cities Conference and Exhibition
in 2013 brought to Charlottesville representatives
from each of these cities, where they presented the
ongoing work in their respective cities, shared
insights, and formed friendships and professional
connections. On the last day of this 4-day confer-
ence, partner city representative signed a large
Biophilic Cities Pledge on the Downtown Mall,
a symbolic but important gesture of commitment
to further working on behalf of this important
idea. On that day the global Biophilic Cities Net-
work was officially launched, now consisting of
about 20 cities and gaining in numbers (see
BiophilicCities.org; see also [42]).
It is now possible to join the Biophilic Cities
Network as an official partner city, requiring a
council-adopted proclamation or resolution, or as
an individual or organization. In the case of the
latter, all that is required is signing an online
pledge. This pledge, which captures much of the
idea behind Biophilic Cities, is presented in
Table 2.
Cities joining the Biophilic Cities Network as
partner cities must satisfy a membership protocol
and set of guidelines. Applicant partner cities
must describe the ways they are currently
biophilic, their plans and goals for the future,
and must identify a certain number of biophilic
metrics or indicators (from specific categories)
that they agree to collect and monitor over time.
Also required is a city council-adopted resolution
or proclamation, indicating intent to join the Net-
work and to aspire to becoming a Biophilic City.
Membership in the Network does not indicate
“certification” as a Biophilic City but rather the
intent and aspiration to become more biophilic
and natureful. Participating partner cities include
Singapore; Birmingham (UK); Wellington (NZ);
San Francisco; St. Louis; Washington, DC; and
Edmonton, Canada, among others [42].
Evidence of the Power of Urban Nature
The idea of biophilia, or the innate affiliation with
nature and natural systems, is bolstered by a grow-
ing body of research and evidence from environ-
mental psychology, public health, medicine, and
economics, among other disciplines. Claims of
causality remain difficult, but the correlational
findings are convincing.
There is abundant research demonstrating the
mental and physical health benefits of contact
with nature. A seminal study frequently cited as
an important beginning point is Roger Ulrich’s
study of patients recovering from gallbladder sur-
gery, finding differential recovery rates depending
on the view from their patient beds [15]. Those

Biophilic Cities, Table 2 The Biophilic Cities Pledge

I hereby commit my city, organization, university, or self to helping my community become a Biophilic City, and to join
together with other cities in the global Network of Biophilic Cities. I understand that a Biophilic City is a city of
abundant nature, where citizens, young and old, have rich daily (if not hourly) contact with the natural environment;
where citizens have nature nearby, where larger natural areas and deeper nature experiences are an easy walk, bike or
transit ride away; and where the urban environment allows for and fosters connections with diverse flora, fauna, and
fungi; a city where citizens recognize, are curious about, and actively care for the nature around them; a city where
citizens spend extensive time outside, learning about, enjoying and participating in the natural world; a city where
leaders and elected officials place nature at the heart of their decision making, and where every major planning and
development decision is judged by the extent to which nature is restored and connections with the natural environment
enhanced. Declaring my intention to become a member of the global network of Biophilic Cities means that I commit to
working diligently to protect and restore nature and to creating opportunities for new nature and connections to the
natural world wherever possible; sharing information and insights about what tools, techniques, programs and projects
have been successfully applied in our city; assisting other cities to become more biophilic, offering health in data
collection and analysis, sharing technical expertise and knowledge, and other forms of political and professional support
for efforts to protect and expand urban nature; meeting periodically as a group to share experiences and insights and to
provide mutual support and guidance in advancing the practice of biophilic urbanism.
Biophilic Cities
patients with views of trees had significantly faster
recovery and needed fewer pain medications, than
those patients with views of a nearby building
wall or parking lot. A number of other, more
recent studies have demonstrated various physical
and mental health benefits from views of nature
(e.g., [16, 17]).
A recent public health study has found that
proximity to nature is associated with lower levels
of depression in adolescents. This study popula-
tion included more than 9000 adolescents aged
12–18 (part of the Growing Up Today Study;
[18]). “Overall, after adjusting for family and
economic factors, researchers found that young
people living amid the highest-quality green
space were 11 percent less likely than peers with
the poorest-quality green space to be in the high
depression group” [19].
Plants and greenery have been shown to
improve academic performance in schools [20]
and improve worker productivity and well-being
in office settings [77, 85]. Evidence suggests that
planting trees and greening vacant lots in under-
served neighborhoods can serve to reduce gun
violence [21]. A number of studies show the pos-
itive community benefits of tree canopy coverage
in lowering crime rates [22, 23, 60, 66, 73]. This is
in addition to the many ecological services pro-
vided by trees and green elements (e.g., reducing
air pollution, see [74]).
Walking and physical activity have been found
to be greater in greener neighborhoods. Nature
seems to propel us outside, in turn helping us to
be more physically active, with significant health
benefits. Research has also shown that exposure to
nature (natural light in work and school environ-
ments) leads to more and better sleep, in turn
providing health benefits (e.g., [24, 65]).
Spending time in nature has been shown to have
considerable positive effect on health, including
mental health [61, 84]. Contact with nature
enhances mood and reduces stress. Studies have
shown that a walk in nature (compared with a walk
in a shopping mall) results in reduction in depres-
sion, anger, and fatigue and an increase in vigor
[89]. The Japanese concept of “forest bathing”
demonstrates that walks in a forest can lower stress
hormone levels and boost immune systems [25].
279
The benefits of nature extend beyond the visual
and thermal to include their multisensory quali-
ties. Evidence is growing, for example, about the
positive benefit from hearing birdsong [26,
80]. We respond positively to the sound of water
as a further example. And inversely there is strong
evidence about the negative health consequences
of urban noise (e.g., [27, 78]).
Nature is uniquely suited to deliver experiences
of awe and wonder, and there is evidence these
emotional reactions are valuable and contribute to
health and well-being [28]. A meaningful life can
be defined at least in part by opportunities to expe-
rience fascination and wonder, and this is a key
goal of Biophilic Cities [69, 75].
Nature seems especially suited to fostering
social relationships and building social capital and
can help in addressing the epidemic of loneliness
[29, 63]. Many opportunities to engage with peers in
nature through citizen science and volunteering
have positive effects [70] (see also [72]).
Contact with nature has other positive psycho-
logical and societal benefits. The presence of
nature is correlated with more generous behavior
[30], with more cooperative behavior [31], and
with longer-term thinking [32]. There is also a
correlation between nature and creativity (and
performance on creativity tests) (e.g., [33]).
The emergence of new technologies such as
smartphones has offered new ways to measure the
positive value of nature. One recent study utilizes
a newly developed smartphone app called Urban
Mind to ask participants (who are randomly
pinged) what in nature they are seeing or
experiencing at the time. Referred to as “ecolog-
ical momentary assessments,” participants are
asked a series of specific pointed questions about
the nature they are experiencing: “Can you see a
tree?” or “Can you see or hear water” or “Can you
hear birds singing” (along with a visual icon
connected to each of these questions). In a study
of 108 participants, the researchers found that
“being outdoors, seeing trees, hearing birds sing-
ing, seeing the sky, and feeling in contact with
nature were associated with higher levels of
momentary mental well-being” and that “short
term exposure to specific natural features has
measurable beneficial effects on mental well-
280 Biophilic Cities

being” [34]. The researchers also found a “lagged
effect,” that is, that the benefits of nature were felt
by participants several hours later.
Some researchers are now using portable EEG
head caps to understand the brain response to
nature in cities. One of the first to do this were
researchers in the UK who collected brain
response to walks through the City of Edinburgh,
finding that participants shifted to a mental states
of meditation and lowered frustration as they
entered the park segment of the walk (e.g., [35]).
Many Forms of Urban Nature
Cities can contain many forms of living nature –
both remnant nature, such as a river or prairie or
large urban forest, and new human-designed
nature, such as a green rooftop or living wall or
vertical skygarden (see Table 3). In addition to the
flora in most cities, there are extensive fauna that
can be seen and experienced, from microscopic
organisms and arthropods to songbirds to larger
mammals such as coyotes (a coexistence chal-
lenge in many North American cities).
Nature experiences are multisensory, visual,
tactile, thermal, and acoustic – including notably
natural sounds in cities. Seeing trees and nature
through a window or at a distance may make the
experience purely visual, qualities that could also
be conveyed in more indirect ways, for instance,
through video monitor or a virtual window. Nature
in cities may also be purely representative in the
many shapes, forms, and natural images of urban
art and architecture. These might include building
columns that mimic a plant or animal and murals or
other public art with natural themes and content.
How much nature we need and what is the
“minimum daily dose of nature” remain open
questions. A “Nature Pyramid” might be helpful
for understanding about the kinds and frequency
of nature experienced by urbanites. As Fig. 1 indi-
cates, the Nature Pyramid is inspired by the Food
Pyramid used for many years to provide guidance
about healthy food diets [42]. Foods at the top of
the pyramid are healthy in small quantities, with

Biophilic Cities, Table 3 The many different forms of nature in cities

Types of urban
nature Examples Evidence/benefits
1. Growing, living Trees, flowers, greenery Donovan et al. [36]; Troy et al. [23];
nature Haviland-Jones et al. [37]
2. Designed living Green rooftops, green walls Lee et al. [38]
nature
3. Urban ecological Rivers, urban hydrology, topography,
systems and landscapes
4. Water/water bodies Rivers, oceans, shorelines Nichols [90]; Depledge et al. [39]
5. Food-producing Community gardens, community
nature orchards
6. Animals, wild Birds, insects, coyotes, urban wildlife
7. Indoor nature Aquaria, terraria
8. Animals, Cats, dogs, urban livestock
domesticated
9. Sounds/natural Birdsong, katydids, tree frogs Winterman [26]; Smith [80]
soundscapes
10. Murals and nature- 100 Whaling Walls Lankston et al. [88]
themed art
11. Technological nature Video, virtual windows Kahn et al. [40]; Ruckert 2009
12. Hybrid-designed Singapore supertrees
nature
13. Others
Source: Modified from Beatley [41]
Biophilic Cities
the foods at the bottom forming the bulk of a
healthy diet. Similarly, a healthy “urban nature
diet” must consist of daily or hourly experiences
near to where we live and work.
A rich natural environment is essential to
flourishing, and not simply something to be satis-
fied on a summer holiday vacation. Designing
cities with nature in mind becomes a way to
ensure that this essential nature is proximal and
locally abundant. The precise kinds of nature
available in a particular city will vary depending
on its unique environmental setting, climate, and
development context. Figure 1 is a version of the
Nature Pyramid prepared specifically for Singa-
pore, utilizing nature and nature experiences
unique to that city-state.
The Vision of Biophilic Cities
(The next sections draw heavily from, and expand
upon, Beatley.)
Biophilic Cities, Fig. 1 The Nature Pyramid. Source: This is a version prepared by NParks, Singapore. Original concept
by Tanya Denckla-Cobb, further developed by Timothy Beatley
281
What precisely is a Biophilic City and what are
the key elements of the vision?
Biophilic Cities Are Cities Where Nature and the
Urban Exist Together.
At the heart of the idea of Biophilic Cities is the
need to overcome the bifurcation between
nature and cities. Cities are not separate from
the natural world but embedded within it. Too
often, there is a sense that cities may be won-
derful places to live but to experience “real” or
“true” nature requires us to travel to a remote
park or wilderness. This does not recognize that
there is immense biodiversity in and around
cities, and more can be done to protect and
expand the habitat in the built environment.
Some of the challenge in cities is to make nature
visible all around – to be seen and enjoyed and
celebrated. Urban residents need to learn to
look for the nature nearby, including the micro-
scopic, the underwater and the nocturnal, and
the life all around them in cities.
282
Biophilic Cities are cities of abundant nature,
where conserving and protecting biodiversity
are given a priority. We do not want as a
species to live apart from nature, and Biophilic
Cities hold as a key belief that nature must be
“nearby” and all around us. These nature con-
nections are all multisensory including what
we hear, feel, smell (e.g., [58, 80])
Biophilic Cities Are Cities Understood to be
Embedded in Nature and Natural Systems.
Biophilic Cities recognize the false dichotomies
of urban/nature and see cities as profoundly
embedded in complex, interconnected, and
beautiful ecosystems. Cities are themselves
complex ecosystems and must be planned and
designed in ways that acknowledge that com-
plexity and that seek wherever possible to
repair and restore it and to make it a visible
part of the contemporary urban fabric.
Biophilic Cities Understand the Healing Powers
of Nature; Urban Nature Serves as Medicine.
One important reason for the resonance of bio-
philia is the growing body of research from
medicine and public health showing the thera-
peutic and healing powers of exposure to
nature. A walk in a forest or along the river’s
edge has remarkable effects, both short term and
longer term. We need nature in our daily lives to
be healthy, and it also buffers us from life’s
many shocks and setbacks (see [56, 57, 59, 67]).
Biophilic Cities in turn understand the power of
urban design and planning that maximize
exposure to this nature – whether a riverfront
or a view of mountain range or efforts at
including nature in the design of hospitals and
other public buildings [79].
In Biophilic Cities, Nature Is Seen as a Central
Part of a Flourishing Life.
Nature fits in a central way in any understanding
of a meaningful life. Increasingly we recog-
nize the inherent limits of material consump-
tion or the usual accoutrements of “success,”
which are fleeting at best. The concept of
“flourishing” is a more pertinent goal. Contact
with nature and interest in, emotional connec-
tion with, and caring for other forms of life are
an unusually potent source of meaning in life
[54, 55].
Biophilic Cities
Biophilic Cities Are Cities of Wonder, Awe, and
Fascination.
Biophilic Cities provide abundant opportunities for
experiencing awe and wonder. Whether
watching a diving falcon or a jumping hump-
back whale or a bed of flowers bloom, Biophilic
Cities judge their success by their ability to
maximize moments of awe and wonder [69, 75].
Nature Is Blue and Green (and Brown) in
Biophilic Cities.
Nature takes many different forms depending on
geography and climate. “Green” nature is an
apt descriptor verdant settings in many of the
cities of the world, for instance, in tropical
cities like Singapore (Photo 1). In more arid
settings, nature is more brown than green, with
undulating dunes of sand and earth. Biophilic
Cities perched on the edge of oceans or rivers
offer “blue” or watery realms of nature that are
as important as the terrestrial forms. Much of
human population is perched on the edge of the
sea, and there is a remarkable diversity of life
in blue environments as well. We are beginning
to see the emergence of important models of
Blue Biophilic Cities, that is, coastal cities that
work to create physical and visual connections
to the sea around them and the marine biodi-
versity nearby (see [41]).
Biophilic Cities embrace a “Whole of Life”
approach.
Biophilic Cities seek to ensure meaningful connec-
tions with nature throughout the lives of its res-
idents. This begins in early childhood, extends
through adelescence and adulthood, and into
older age. Nature provides important benefits at
every stage of life; (e.g., [62, 64, 76, 81]).
Biophilic Cities Embrace a “Whole of City”
Approach to Nature.
Biophilic Cities understand the importance of
restoring nature and fostering nature connec-
tions at every planning and design scale in the
city. From the backyard garden or balcony
habitat to the large forest at city’s edge, nature
should be present. From “rooftops to region”
or “room to bioregion,” Biophilic Cities pursue
an integrated, multi-scaled view of nature.
Biophilic Cities Aspire to an Immersive Nature for
Residents.
Biophilic Cities
Biophilic Cities, Photo 1 A section of Singapore’s more than 300-km long Park Connector Network. These walking
routes provide impressive access to nature and also serve as important biological corridors. Image credit: Tim Beatley
Increasingly the vision of Biophilic Cities
embraces the bold goal of immersive nature –
that is, moving from a condition where we have
occasional parks or trees or gardens that we visit
when we feel we need connection to nature to a
condition where we understand the city itself as
the park, the forest, and the garden. Why visit a
park or a forest or a garden when you can live
and work in nature. Singapore has changed its
motto from “garden city” to “city in a garden,”
and Melbourne as part of its new urban forest
plan has embraced the vision of “city in a forest”
(rather than simply a city with more trees).
Biophilic Cities Recognize the Need for a Just
Distribution and Access to Nature, or “Just
Biophilia.”
The vision of Biophilic Cities recognizes that all
humans ought to have access to the benefits
and flourishing life qualities that contact with
nature provides. Too often in cities, there are
unequal and unfair access to and contact with
nature. Equally true, Biophilic Cities seek to
temper and dampen the unintended negative
consequences that sometimes result from
investments in nature, say the restoration of
283
a shoreline or a major green infrastructure
project.
In Biophilic Cities Residents Are Personally
Engaged with Nature and with Each Other.
Nature is unusually suited to bringing us together,
to forming friendships and social connections,
and to building social capital in all its forms.
The connections or reconnections to nature are
key, but so also are the human connections that
result. Whether this happens by bringing peo-
ple together for a hike, a bird watch, or a tree-
planting event, Biophilic Cities build commu-
nity and social networks through commitment
to nature, ecology, and place [83].
Biophilic Cities Share Spaces with Other Forms
of Life.
Biophilic Cities understand that cities and metro-
politan areas are habitat for many species other
than humans. We understand that cities are
inherently spaces “shared” with many other
forms of life and that there is an affirmative
duty to actively maintain and support and
expand diverse habitats in urban areas.
Biophilic Cities Recognize the Inherent Worth of
Nature.
284
Biophilic Cities understand that nature does many
things for us as humans – soothes and comforts
us and improves our cognition and mental
health. But nature is not just something to be
instrumentally employed for human benefit.
Biocentrism is a recognition of the inherent
value of other forms of life as an important
ethical underpinning of Biophilic Cities.
Can biophilia and biocentrism be achieved together?
Biocentrism suggests a moral framework that
(in contrast to anthropocentrism) sees the moral
value and inherent worth in all living things.
Biophilic Cities Are Inspired by and Learn from
Nature.
There are strong and important parallels between
biophilia and biomimicry in that Biophilic Cit-
ies seek solutions that mimic and are inspired
by nature. There is a growing recognition that
the design insights from nature’s nearly 4 bil-
lion years of evolution are almost unlimited
(for more on the power and potential of
biomimicry, see [43]).
Biophilic Cities Commit to the Funding and
Resources to Support Nature.
We can judge how biophilic a city is by many
different means. It is the presence of nature –
for instance, the extent of its forest canopy
coverage or what percentage of the population
lives or works in places close to parks or green
spaces. It is also about how engaged residents
are with the nature around them and how much
they know about and care for that nature. It is
also about the pattern of decisions – funding
and otherwise – made by the city government
to support nature. Are parks and urban forests
adequately funded? Are there resources to sup-
port nature education in a city’s school system?
How high a priority is nature compared with
other local government issues?
Biophilic Cities Understood that Nature Is a
Potent Solution for Many Urban Problems.
Increasing investments in nature within Biophilic
Cities serve many important functions at once.
They provide important doses of natural ther-
apy, moments of pleasure and wonder, and
connection, but they also provide many essen-
tial ecological services, from cooling urban
environments to ameliorating air pollution,
Biophilic Cities
retaining stormwater, and more [71]. Nature-
based solutions are often more effective and
cost-efficient than man-made solutions.
Biophilic Cities Work on Behalf of Global Nature.
A city can do many things to protect and celebrate
the nature around them and to create urban envi-
ronments that immerse their residents within
abundant natural settings. At the same time, cities
often exert substantial impacts on more distant
nature, nature beyond their borders.
Biophilic Cities can adopt a variety of measures to
moderate and minimize their ecological foot-
prints and thus reduce their impact on distant
nature. These might take the form of an aggres-
sive set of greenhouse gas reduction targets,
green procurement policies, or intercity initia-
tives (treaties, memoranda of agreement, sister
city initiatives) aimed at helping support con-
servation in distant locations. Biophilic cities
understand the importance of serving as
leaders in support of global conservation.
E.O. Wilson has argued for the need to set
aside at least half of the world’s surface area
for nature (“Half-Earth”), and cities can and
must support (financially, politically) this
vision for it to become reality [2].
These are but a few of the more important
elements of the emerging vision of Biophilic Cit-
ies. Each city in our Network may endorse all or
some of these elements, weighing diverse oppor-
tunities and outcomes as more or less immediate.
Some believe, as I do, that Biophilic Cities must
express their “love of nature” beyond the local
level. It is not enough to celebrate and protect
local nature; a full expression of the spirit of
biophilia requires cities to reduce the impacts of
their actions and consumption patterns on global
nature by promoting and assisting nature hun-
dreds or thousands of miles away, including in
other cities around the world (for a fuller discus-
sion for these issues, see [14, 42]).
Emerging Practice of Biophilic Cities
Emerging Biophilic Cities are undertaking a vari-
ety of strategies and employing a variety of
Biophilic Cities
planning and policy tools to support nature in their
cities. Singapore has emerged as a leading exam-
ple of a city that had both embraced the vision and
implemented a robust toolkit of Biophilic City
measures. The city-state has even changed its
motto from “garden city” to “city in a garden” to
reflect the importance of having nature every-
where. Notable are Singapore’s efforts to con-
serve and protect biodiversity, including more
recently an emphasis on marine biodiversity. It
has been gradually expanding its network of trails
and pathways that run through the city and con-
nect residents with larger parks and also provide
important biological connections [42]. Called the
Park Connectors, they extend now more than
300 km.
Most notable perhaps are its efforts at greening
buildings and its emphasis on “skyrise greening”
reflecting the reality that most new construction in
the city is high-rise buildings (Photo 2). There is
now even a Skyrise Greenery Division within
Singapore’s National Parks Board [44], and inno-
vative vertical greening is supported through
financial subsidies, regulatory mandates
(landscape replacement policy), research and
Biophilic Cities, Photo 2 The Park Royale Hotel in Singapore, sometimes described as a “hotel in a garden” provides
abundant vertical nature to more than replace what is lost at ground-level. Image credit: Tim Beatley
285
development, and an annual Skyrise Greening
Award to recognize exemplary projects.
The adoption of targets or indicators –
biophilic metrics – is also key to demonstrating
progress made in protecting or integrating nature
in cities. A number of cities have now measured
and added targets for urban forest canopy cover-
age. The presence of trees is an important indica-
tor of nature in the city and a proxy for other
aspects of nature, for instance, the likelihood of
seeing and hearing songbirds. Other common
indicators or metrics include the percentage of
residents living within a certain distance of a
park or green space, per capita park space or
green space, and number of community gardens
or community gardening spaces per capita.
Cities are also finding new and innovative
ways to map nature and nature experiences avail-
able to residents. The City of St. Louis has
recently released a Nature Connections Map,
with locations of parks and other nature settings.
This city has placed special emphasis on creating
new butterfly gardens in the city, through an ini-
tiative called Milkweeds for Monarchs. Major
butterfly gardens on St. Louis’ Nature
286
Connections online map now allow residents to
list their own butterfly gardens.
The City of Wellington, New Zealand, has also
developed an interactive online map with a system of
icons for indicating the locations of different forms of
nature in that city. Wellington’s “Nature in the City
Map” records three broad categories of biophilic
features: living nature (such as trees, green rooftops,
living walls), nature activities (such as clubs, resto-
ration projects, natural history education), and nature
spaces and places (biomorphic design, prospect and
refuge, places of mystery and surprise).
Increasingly cities around the world are
establishing minimum green space standards.
These include mandates on installation for green
roofs, protection and replacement of urban trees,
dark skylighting for stargazers, and bird-friendly
design guidelines, among others. Biophilic struc-
tures increasingly include a variety of design ele-
ments including living walls, green rooftops, urban
orchards, and agriculture, among others. Projects
that incorporate “vertical forests” are now emerging
in a number of building projects around the world
(for instance, Bosco Verticale, in Milan, Italy).
Designing new buildings with birds and other
wildlife in mind is a priority, and finding ways to
coexist with urban wildlife is a common strategy in
Biophilic Cities. Urban buildings of all kinds, and
urban neighborhoods, can be designed in ways that
support birds and wildlife of various kinds.
“Habitecture” is an emerging approach to designing
structural elements and exterior building facades, to
deliberately accommodate multiple species.
Biophilic Cities invest in robust systems of
parks and greens paces linked to emerging com-
mitments to water. Daylighting streams and
creeks and protecting shorelines and rivers are
important goals. River conservation and restora-
tion have been important efforts in many
Biophilic Cities including San Francisco, Mil-
waukee, and Richmond [45]. Oslo has an ambi-
tious plan for restoring the major rivers running
through the city and connecting its large expanse
of municipally owned forests with its marine
shoreline. Advancing ecological networks and
connectivity, Vitoria-Gasteiz, the Basque capital
of Spain, has completed a green ring that encircles
this city and more recently been working to bring
that green ring into the city (what it is calling its
Biophilic Cities
interior green ring) (Photo 3). The latter has taken
the form of daylighting a major underground
stream, creating a new green corridor running
through the heart of the city.
Integrating opportunities to grow food in cities
is another example of biophilic urbanism found in
many cities. Community gardens, rooftop farm-
ing, community orchards, and edible landscaping
are a few of the ideas being implemented. These
efforts are partly aimed at food security and
supporting a local economy as well as providing
a hands-on connection to nature.
Biophilic Cities also support a variety of initia-
tives and programs aimed at educating and
connecting residents with nature. Celebrating the
nature in cities can take many community build-
ing forms, from watching bats (the Mexican free-
tailed bats in Austin, Texas) to nesting swifts
(Vaux’s swifts in Portland, OR).
Many cities have undertaken some effort at
repurposing spaces in the city for nature. Often
these are quite creative ways to grow new nature
in leftover or vacant spaces in the city. Cities like
St. Louis and Milwaukee have developed initia-
tives for consolidating vacant lots and creating new
small neighborhood parks from them. In San
Francisco, residents can now apply for a Sidewalk
Landscaping permit allowing to take up some of
the pavement and to create a sidewalk garden.
Many cities have invested in urban trails and
nature pathways. These provide important oppor-
tunities for residents to reach and move through
parks and nature. Cities such as Singapore lead the
way, with more than 300 km in its Park Connec-
tors Network. These connectors provide impor-
tant biological corridors for flora and fauna as well
as provide human connections. The City of
Edmonton, Canada, a partner city in the Biophilic
Cities Network, has adopted an ecological net-
works approach and emphasizes ecological con-
nections in its city planning and design. The city
has designed and built at least 27 wildlife passages
that permit wildlife to easily move through this
city of nearly a million in population [42].
Emerging Biophilic Cities have not forgotten
the marine realm, and cities such as Wellington
(New Zealand) and Singapore are increasingly
attending to nearby marine nature. Singapore has
recently completed a comprehensive marine
Biophilic Cities
Biophilic Cities, Photo 3 A map of the Green Ring of Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain, depicting as well the concept of the
Interior Green Ring. Image credit: Tim Beatley
biodiversity inventory and has established a new
marine protected area. Wellington, with remark-
able nearby marine life, has undertaken similar
steps and designated a “Blue Belt” to complement
its Green Belt [46]. A number of cities around the
world, from Sydney to New York, have developed
new waterfront parks and trails that provide new
physical access to marine settings. Some cities are
creatively blending projects which will adapt to
sea level rise while enhancing water-based recre-
ational opportunities.
Biophilic Cities also take into account impacts
on nature beyond the city or metropolitan region’s
boundaries. New York City recently took the bold
step of divesting from fossil fuels (in its five
pension funds) and also the unusual step of
suing oil companies for the climate damages
they have caused. New York was already a leader
in this area, phasing out the purchase of damaging
tropical hardwoods in the past decade. Vancouver
287
has set the goal of reducing their ecological foot-
print by a third by 2020 [47].
Obstacles and Future Directions in
Biophilic Urbanism
Cities, organizations, and individual citizens have
certainly encountered obstacles and impediments
to implementing a vision of Biophilic Cities.
These obstacles can be political (lack of leader-
ship or priority given to nature compared with
other local issues), fiscal and financial (concerns
about how to pay for expenditures needed to fund
the planting of trees, gardens, new parks), and
sometimes technological. Some of the obstacles
faced are cultural, or perceptual such as the
prevailing notion that nature and cities are necessarily
polar opposites and the impression that to experience
genuine or real nature requires travel to a distant or
288
remote site, disconnected from human habitation.
A traditional view of wilderness (enshrined in legis-
lation like the Wilderness Act of 1964) understands it
as the very opposite of an urban setting: remote,
pristine, and medieval, where humans are temporary
visitors. The vision of Biophilic Cities challenges this
traditional view and argues that cities can support
extensive opportunities for “wildness” (a better
word than wilderness; see [46]).
The Biophilic Cities vision also faces the seri-
ous issue of how socially inclusive it is and has
been and whether and in what ways rewilding
cities can have unequal and inequitable results.
Larger urban greening projects, such as the High
Line in New York City, have been found to result
in neighborhood gentrification and displacement,
something that has been dubbed eco- or ecological
gentrification [48].
Planners and other advocates for nature in cities
must recognize and seek to minimize these
unintended consequences. A variety of approaches
have been suggested to reduce eco-gentrification,
including a shift from larger green infrastructure
projects and parks, to smaller, more decentralized
greening measures, to development of mechanisms
for capturing and more equitably sharing the ben-
efits from urban greening. Some have argued for an
approach described as “just green enough” –
rewilding neighborhoods enough to enhance qual-
ity of life but not too much that displacement and
gentrification occur [49, 91]. Some new large pro-
jects, notably the 11th Street Bridge Park in
Washington, DC, a pedestrian space and linear
park crossing the Anacostia River, are developing
comprehensive strategies and plans ahead of time
to ensure local residents benefit from and are not
harmed by new urban nature.
Open Questions Remain About the
Vision and Practice
While the concept and vision of Biophilic Cities
are compelling and timely, there remain a number
of open questions about its implementation. Pre-
cisely what constitutes a Biophilic City remains a
point of discussion. Each city will have its own
special and unique forms of biodiversity given its
Biophilic Cities
own ecology and climate. Lush green nature that
is abundant in a city like Singapore, which makes
possible extensive use of techniques such as living
walls and green rooftops, will be less possible in
more arid and desert cities, such as Phoenix and
Dubai. In the desert, “brown” and softer green
cacti landscapes are more prevalent than green,
but no less powerful for biophilic connection. The
use of drought-tolerant, low-water planting can
provide for visually rich and extensive connec-
tions with landscape and natural systems.
There remains as well an ongoing discussion
about the status and role of “nonliving” forms of
biophilia. Supporters of biophilic design hold that
connection to nature can happen as well through
images and natural shapes and forms in art and
architecture. A building designed in the shape of a
seashell, for instance, or a nature-themed mural on
the side of an urban building should also qualify
as biophilic, offering important references to
nature. The research and science showing the
value and benefit of these nonliving elements are
less extensive or settled, but there is general agree-
ment that such forms of biophilia are valuable
additions to urban life [82].
There remain as well important questions
about the role of technology generally and
whether technologies like smartphones enhance
or hinder connections to nature. Louv and others
have been critical of the power of digital media of
all sorts (computers, television, etc.) to distract,
disconnect, and soak up large amounts of free
time. Experiences of nature are increasingly medi-
ated through these digital technologies. Recent
evidence suggests that our overreliance on
smartphones, for instance, may be resulting in
diminished conversation and lower-quality social
interactions [50]. On the other hand, urbanites are
also utilizing this technology in ways that help
them access and understand the nature around
them. The City Nature Challenge, for example,
in which citizens in participating cities engage in
friendly competitions to see which city can amass
the most number of nature observations on
iNaturalist, is one such example (and several part-
ner cities in the Biophilic Cities Network, includ-
ing San Francisco and Washington, DC,
participate). More generally, a view referred to
Biophilic Cities
as Technobiophilia and advanced by UK
researcher Sue Thomas sees biophilic qualities
and benefits in the Internet and believes that
these digital technologies can be useful in foster-
ing connections to the natural world [51].
Another important open question is how suited
the model and vision of Biophilic Cities are to
cities in the Global South, where poverty and pres-
ence of slums and informal housing are more prev-
alent. Do the same kinds of urban nature and urban
greening make equal sense in these settings?
A critique can be made that the typical range of
biophilic design and planning measures, tech-
niques, and tools – whether a living wall or a
green rooftop or an emphasis on activities such as
listening and watching to birds – are of marginal
value and concern in cities where basic survival
remains a challenge. A response is that many of the
profound problems facing cities of the Global
South, such as highly dangerous levels of air pol-
lution or deep food insecurity, are effectively
addressed through nature-based and biophilic solu-
tions. Case studies of programs aimed at greening
informal settlements show significant value [42]
but clearly more can and must be done. Recent
work by The Nature Conservancy shows the spe-
cial importance of trees and tree planting in devel-
oping cities around the world [52].
A connected question has to do with the role
that cities, especially those in the Global North,
have on distant ecosystems by virtue of their large
ecological footprints. There is a paradox here –
some of the most Biophilic Cities have very large
ecological footprints, meaning that to support
local lifestyles and high quality of life may have
resulted in the diminution or destruction of distant
nature. A legitimate critique of Biophilic Cities is
that while it may be possible to protect and inte-
grate nature at home and to foster deep connec-
tions to the natural world for their citizens, little is
done to address or curtail the larger impacts on the
natural world, much of which will be hidden from
those citizens. There is, moreover, relatively little
transparency about the ecological damage done to
the sourcing of food, energy, building materials,
and consumer goods of various kinds, from the
larger global “hinterland.” One answer is that pro-
ponents of the vision of Biophilic Cities must
289
work to include these considerations of more dis-
tant nature. There is a need to develop more tools
and mechanisms and more avenues for cities to
support a more geographically interconnected
vision of nature in cities. These future strategies
could include versions of fair trade that emphasize
and financially support habitat protection in
source locations, more extensive use of city-to-
city agreements to work together on cross-
boundary nature (collaborative work to support
migratory birds, for instance), and the practice of
setting and working toward ambitious ecological
footprint (reduction) goals, among others.
Wilson’s bold vision of Half-Earth suggests an
important future role for Biophilic Cities.
Biophilic cities should be understood as “Half-
Earth cities” (something recently explored by
Australian eco-designer Paul Downton) and
work in whatever ways possible to ensure a
biophilic planet as well as cities [53].
The recent emphasis on the human benefits –
mental health especially – has raised some con-
cerns about the human-centric underpinnings of
Biophilic Cities. The strong emerging evidence of
the therapeutic and health-enhancing benefits of
access to nature has led physicians and health
professionals to advocate for “nature prescrip-
tions,” for example, for walks in nature or visits
to a park. Some initiatives, such as ParkRX, take
this approach (http://www.parkrx.org/). Much of
the literature of biophilic design emphasizes these
health benefits, moreover. While the public health
and mental health arguments of protecting nature
and designing nature into cities are compelling
and persuasive, there are additional values that
are sometimes overlooked. A recognition of the
inherent worth of nature – that plants and animals
and living systems have a moral worth and value
beyond or in addition to the instrumental value for
human gain – is often missing from the Biophilic
Cities agenda. E.O. Wilson argues for a more
encompassing ethical frame, a “major shift in
moral reasoning, with greater commitment to the
rest of life.” Wilson believes there exists “an
instinct for true altruism,” which derives from
evolution and extends to the rest of life, or to
what he refers to as our “phylogenic kin”
([2], 211).
290
It is an open question whether biophilic design
and planning can be successfully defended in ways
other than referencing direct human benefits. An
intermediate view highlights the essential role of
nature in forging social connections and relation-
ships, in creating opportunities for deep meaning
and purpose in life through nature, and thus in this
way contributing to a flourishing life [54, 55].
Wilson’s biophilic ethics also appear to
endorse the idea that contact with nature is some-
thing every human is entitled to, by virtue of its
evolutionary heritage and history. “Nature in the
wildlands,” Wilson says, “is the birthright of
everyone on Earth” ([2], 211). The move to cities
does not squash or eliminate this birthright but
makes its necessity even clearer and gives further
support for a “just biophilia,” where access to
nature ought not to be just a function of income
or wealth. Nature is (again) not something
optional but absolutely essential to a happy,
healthy life and as such deserved by all humans.
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 Part III
Building Design for Sustainability
 can be used for both, but requires significantly
Facades and Enclosures: greater design resolution for task lighting
Building for Sustainability Biophilia Introduced by E.O. Wilson, the bio-
philia hypothesis suggests that there is an
Volker Hartkopf, Azizan Aziz and instinctive bond between human beings and
Vivian Loftness other living systems that must be met by build-
Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics, ings that ensure critical connections
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA Carbon neutral net-zero and the 2030
challenge Carbon-neutral buildings and net-
zero buildings are typically defined as build-
Article Outline ings designed to achieve net-zero in green-
house gas emissions during their lifetime.
Glossary This has been set as a requirement for all new
Definition of the Subject buildings by 2030 in the 2030 Challenge™
Introduction (http://architecture2030.org/)
Facades That Maximize Individual Access to the Double envelope The introduction of two facades
Natural Environment with a captured air space and static or dynamic
Facades That Ensure Daylighting as the Dominant components that support orientation- and season-
Source for Both Task and Ambient Lighting specific modulation of climate conditions
Facades That Ensure Natural Ventilation as the Facade enclosure envelope Throughout this
Dominant Fresh Air and Cooling Source entry, Facade is a subset of Enclosure and
Combined with Mixed-Mode HVAC Enclosure is considered the same as Envelope
Conditioning Mixed-mode or Hybrid HVAC An approach to
Facades That Minimize Enclosure Heat Loss and space conditioning that combines natural ven-
Heat Gain tilation from operable windows or vents with
Facades That Integrate Climate-Responsive mechanical heating, cooling, and ventilation
Shading and Glare Control systems (HVAC)
Facades That Engineer Load Balancing and Mean Night ventilation An approach to space condi-
Radiant Temperature Control tioning that utilizes cool night air to precool the
Facades That Integrate Passive and Active Solar thermal mass in buildings in order to reduce
Heating, Cooling, and Power daytime cooling demands
Facades Designed to Manage Water Passive survivability Environmental Building
Facades That Maximize Enclosure Life News uses the term passive survivability to
Future Directions: Facade Innovation Through describe a building’s ability to maintain critical
Systems Integration life-support conditions in the event of extended
Bibliography loss of power, heating fuel, or water, or in the
event of extraordinary heat spells
Glossary PassivHaus™ and PHIUS™ Standards that
codify energy conservation and passive condi-
Ambient and task lighting Ambient lighting is tioning requirements for residential and small
the light needed for safe movement and non- commercial buildings
visual tasks, while task lighting is linked to visual Rainscreen An independent layer on the facade
acuity at task and must be glare-free. Daylight to manage weather challenges, separated by

© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020 295

V. Loftness (ed.), Sustainable Built Environments,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-0684-1_873
Originally published in
R. A. Meyers (ed.), Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology, © Springer Science+Business Media LLC 2018
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2493-6_873-3
296 Facades and Enclosures: Building for Sustainability

vent spaces from the structural, thermal, and innovative opportunity, in the pursuit of aes-
vapor management of the primary facade thetics, comfort, and resource conservation:
Thermal bridge A conductive or noninsulated
element in the facade assembly that allows heat 1. Access to the natural environment
to be unnecessarily lost or gained, and allows 2. Daylighting
condensation to occur, to be addressed by well- 3. Natural ventilation
designed thermal breaks 4. Heat loss/heat gain control
5. Solar control
6. Load balancing
Definition of the Subject 7. Passive and active solar
8. Water
Sustainable buildings have enclosures that ensure 9. Enclosure life
the highest level of thermal, visual, acoustic, and 10. Systems integration
air quality, as well as design for change, through
system flexibility, and for long-term building In addition to performance goals for building
integrity. Sustainable enclosure design clearly roofs and exposed floors, the design of high-
demonstrates advances in enclosure components performance building enclosures must fully resolve
and assembly design, as well as their effective at least 12 facade layers (Fig. 1): the transom, view-
integration with interior systems, structural sys- ing field, kick plate, and spandrel (top to bottom) as
tems, mechanical conditioning systems, lighting well as the interior, integral, and exterior layers
systems, telecommunications and power systems. (inside to out) to resolve each of the 10 performance
Sustainable enclosures effectively address goals. Throughout this article, the relative impor-
10 major responsibilities, indeed areas of major tance of facade components and layers to each

Facades and Enclosures: Building for Sustainability, Fig. 1 Diagram illustrating 12 areas in the facade critical to
various performance outcomes
Facades and Enclosures: Building for Sustainability
performance outcome are highlighted in graphics
with deepest shading for the most important design
decisions.
Introduction
Architecture Unplugged: Super-Efficient
Buildings That Environmentally Surf
Carbon-neutral buildings, net-zero buildings, and
the 2030 challenge. To meet these goals, the next
generation of buildings must be designed to use so
little energy that on-site renewable energy can
fully meet the heating, cooling, and lighting
loads – loads that represent over 35% of all US
energy.
For the first generation of projects, these chal-
lenges are being met by tight buildings, with
superefficient equipment, fed in part by solar
installations. While this will help ensure a 30%
reduction, it will never achieve carbon neutrality.
Carbon neutrality is critically dependent on the
maximum use of nature’s renewable energies –
daylight, natural ventilation, natural cooling, and
passive solar heating. Building systems will need
to be turned off as long as possible – ensuring
buildings that “free-roll” or better yet “environ-
mentally surf” through hours, days, months, and
seasons with natural conditioning. The beauty of
free-rolling buildings goes beyond energy and
carbon, however, to support health, productivity,
and a higher quality of life.
The most critical early design decisions relate
to building massing – the height, depth, and ori-
entation of buildings – which has a major impact
on indoor environmental quality and energy
loads. Neither “the tallest building in the world”
nor “the largest building under one roof” will offer
sustainable work environments in a power failure.
Indeed, these buildings create significantly
higher-energy loads in almost every climate
since they eliminate the use of daylight, natural
ventilation, or the natural dissipation of internal
heat gains through the building skin [1], and must
be abandoned in a power outage. If air quality,
comfort, and energy are drivers for building form,
then the next generation of buildings will strive
toward controlling the building depth, height, and
297
orientation to achieve environmental comfort for a
maximum percentage of the year – unplugged.
“Architecture Unplugged” would require
enclosures that demonstrate serious attention to
the management of solar gain, heat transfer, mois-
ture migration, and day-night load balancing – a
form of environmental surfing that depends on
dynamic facades that recognize time of day, sea-
son, and variability of climate. These mass, color,
venting, and thermal insulation characteristics are
key to energy conservation in buildings, and
require entirely regional solutions. Heavy capaci-
tance masonry facades will be seen in desert cli-
mates with large diurnal swings; heavily shaded
and highly operable facades will be seen in warm,
humid climates; and solar exposed yet well-
insulated facades will be seen in cold climates.
In each climate, the massing, orientation, and
selection of facade materials will be regional in
character, providing the maximum natural com-
fort before mechanical systems need to be intro-
duced (Figs. 2 and 3).
Facades That Maximize Individual
Access to the Natural Environment
The most significant step that designers, engi-
neers, and building managers can take to move
toward healthier and more sustainable buildings is
the commitment to increasing individual contact
with the outside environment. The emerging field
of “biophilia” has identified the importance of
access to nature for human well-beings [2–5],
exploring a range of qualities of the natural envi-
ronment: views, daylight, sunlight, fresh air,
breezes, access to outdoor spaces and activities,
circadian rhythms, seasonal and daily climate var-
iations, and nature’s sounds, smells, and habitat.
Windows and doors connect building occupants
with a richness that may be critical to individual
health. At the same time, windows and doors
provide those inside and outside the building
with a level of transparency, oversight, and con-
tact that may be critical to community.
Europe and Scandinavia have guaranteed
every worker seated access to a window with
views, setting a maximum distance of 7 m, or
298 Facades and Enclosures: Building for Sustainability

Facades and Enclosures: Building for Sustainability, Fig. 2 Deep energy conservation combined with passive
conditioning including daylighting, natural ventilation, and passive solar can dramatically reduce energy consumption

Facades and Enclosures: Building for Sustainability, Fig. 3 Critical facade elements to maximize access to the
natural environment

20 ft from the window wall. In Switzerland and 60 ft from window wall to window wall, and
Scandinavia, they have further guaranteed access always maintain operable, dynamic facades
to operable windows in each workplace [6]. With instead of sealed, seasonally unchanging building
these standards, buildings typically do not exceed enclosures.
Facades and Enclosures: Building for Sustainability
Driven by the advent of air conditioning and
inexpensive electricity, the “obese” buildings of
today (maximum volume – minimum surface area
buildings) have actually resulted in a dramatic
increase in the length of the cooling “season” for
buildings in all climates. They have also resulted
in a significant increase in lighting loads during
daylight hours, a combination that often contrib-
utes more than 50% of the total energy demand in
buildings. A study of the Building Research
Establishment of a portfolio of UK office build-
ings clearly illustrates the energy penalty of
sealed, deep floor plan “prestige” buildings [7].
While there is less research about the importance
of daylight or sunshine indoors for human health or
performance, there is a body of research that dem-
onstrates access to views is significant. Beginning
with the seminal work of Ulrich [8], then Mendell
[9], Heschong Mahone Group [10], and now Kellert
[4], seated views of nature and proximity to win-
dows are being linked to reduced length of stay after
surgery in hospitals, reduced sick building syn-
drome in offices and schools, increased performance
at task, and overall improved emotional health.
Facades and Enclosures:
Building
for Sustainability,
Fig. 4 Window proximity
correlates to a 5–25%
reduction in health
complaints among 2000
workers in two US office
buildings, controlled for
rank [11]
299
In a 1990 survey of over 2000 employees in two
buildings at the US Department of Energy, Carnegie
Mellon University’s Center for Building Perfor-
mance identified 10–20% lower sick building symp-
toms among employees with seated views of
windows, controlling for rank (Fig. 4) [11]. Whether
user perception of personal health is improved due
to the daylight, the view, the perimeter conditioning
systems, or an increased level of environmental
control at the window (blinds, HVAC controls) is
unclear. Regardless, there is a measurable benefit to
ensuring that a workforce has fewer health symp-
toms across the board.
Two studies that frame the conclusion that
views are a significant factor in health and pro-
ductivity are captured below from the Carnegie
Mellon Building Investment Decision Support
Tool (BIDS™) [7, 8, 10]:
Window View of Nature = Health
In a 1984 observational field study at a Penn-
sylvania hospital, Ulrich identifies an 8.5% reduc-
tion in postoperative hospital stay (7.96 days
vs. 8.7 days) for gall bladder surgery patients
who had a view of a natural scene from their
300 Facades and Enclosures: Building for Sustainability

hospital room, as compared to those with a view
of a brick wall. Patients with a view of a natural
scene also received fewer negative evaluations
from nurses and took fewer strong analgesics
(Pennsylvania Hospital/Ulrich [8]).
Window View of Nature = Productivity
In a 2003 building case study of the Sacra-
mento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) Call
Center, Heschong et al. identify a 6–7% faster
Average Handling Time (AHT) for employees
with seated access to views through larger win-
dows with vegetation content in view from their
cubicles, as compared to employees with no view
of the outdoors (SMUD/Heschong Mahone
Group [10]).
These studies illustrate the value of windows
with views for all occupied spaces, alongside
effective design of window size and orientation,
sight lines, and view content. The studies suggest
that views of the outdoors should be with
“biophilic” content – views of pedestrians and
trees and community life – to critically maintain
our sense of time and season. At the same time, it
will be imperative for designers to ensure that
requirements for glare control, heat gain and
noise control, privacy and security are equally
met – the definition of quality design (Fig. 5).
In pursuing design for sustainability, the chal-
lenge to designers is not only to connect indoor
spaces with the outdoors visually, but to
physically connect building occupants with nature
and each site’s unique climate and seasons, the
textures, sounds, smells, and diversity of land-
scape and species. This suggests a shift away
from megaplexes and high-rise buildings toward
open-air campus and village planning, and a com-
mitment to operable windows, as well as distrib-
uted doors, terraces, and landscapes.
The physiological and psychological benefits
of an ongoing connection to the unique and sea-
sonally dynamic natural environment are now
being quantified in emerging standards such as
FITWEL (https://fitwel.org/). For example, stud-
ies in early childhood development reveal the
academic and emotional benefits of natural play-
grounds as opposed to hard-top play yards
[12]. Sustainable buildings must incorporate
physical access to outdoor spaces for a host of
reasons, including physical exercise, exposure to
sunshine and circadian rhythms, variations in
thermal stimuli, and access to community (Fig. 6).
Facades That Ensure Daylighting as the
Dominant Source for Both Task and
Ambient Lighting
A building with lights on during the daytime is not a
sustainable building.

Facades and Enclosures:

Building
for Sustainability,
Fig. 5 Designing window
dimensions, orientations,
and sight lines as well as
adjacent landscaped spaces
(with substantial storm
water management benefits)
are critical to ensuring
access to views with
“biophilic” content
Facades and Enclosures: Building for Sustainability
Facades and Enclosures: Building for Sustainability, Fig. 6 Critical facade elements to ensure daylighting as the
dominant light source
Electric lighting is almost 25% of our primary
energy use and over 35% of all electric energy
use in the USA [13] – and much of that is during
the daytime! Energy-efficient lamps, ballasts, and
fixtures are obvious first steps for ensuring 30%
lighting energy savings, and daylight responsive
and occupancy responsive controls for these fix-
tures can reduce the next 20% [14]. The giant leap,
however, is achieved by buildings designed for
daylighting as the dominant light source – environ-
mentally “surfing” for 90% of the day without
electric demand for lighting. This is more than
rediscovering the design expertise of the nineteenth
century. Good daylighting design demands effec-
tive integration of new glazing technologies, intro-
ducing light redirection and shading layers, actions
that enrich and regionalize architecture. Critically,
buildings must be articulated, in finger or courtyard
shapes, to ensure universal access to daylight.
There are two main alternatives in the use of
daylight in work environments. The first is the use
of daylight for ambient lighting requirements of
200–300 lx and for spatial highlights. The second
is the use of daylight as the dominant task lighting
source at the work surface. This second alternative
301
offers the greatest energy savings but also the
greatest design challenge, since both the daylight
“fixture” and the electric lighting interface need to
be effectively designed. The daylight fixture –
window, transom, skylight – will need appropriate
orientation, size, reflector-frame design, and
glazing-blind designs as well as the corresponding
design of the room to ensure effective light distri-
bution without glare.
There are a broad range of traditional and inno-
vative technologies to be considered for effective
daylighting of buildings to achieve both ambient
and task lighting needs. New developments in
glazing enable architects to specify high visual
transmittance (short wave energy) while control-
ling solar transmittance and heat loss (long wave
energy). Given innovations in glazing technology,
it is possible to achieve high light transmittance
over 50% while maintaining shading coefficients
below 40% in cooling load-dominant climates, or
above 60% in heating load-dominant climates.
However, sustainable design recognizes that
not all shading should be solved with the glass
selection, since this can rob spaces of daylight and
solar heat where needed.
302 Facades and Enclosures: Building for Sustainability

Each window must be designed as a lighting
“fixture” in relation to interior space configuration
and layout. If lighting engineers can design effec-
tive reflectors and diffusers for point and linear
sources, they can design for planar sources as
well. Transom glazing will be critical to effective
distribution in deeper rooms, combined with exte-
rior, integral, or interior light redirection devices to
ensure a more even distribution of daylight and to
reduce glare from the window. If there is a shortage
of window access, it should never be given to
circulation aisles in a sustainable design (Fig. 7).

Facades and Enclosures: Building for Sustainability, Fig. 7 Daylight is celebrated at Pelli’s terminal at Reagan
National Airport, Washington DC
Facades and Enclosures: Building for Sustainability
The rules for effective daylighting in offices,
schools, and hospitals have long been established,
relating to percent of aperture, ceiling height,
room depth and color, as well as glare control
and light redirection devices at the window.
Today, high-performance enclosures go even fur-
ther, fully exploring the benefits of a layered
facade. The design of layered facades enables
seasonally and daily dynamic control of the
light, heat, and ventilation energies available in
the natural environment. All three layers should
be designed together – external shading and light
shelves to distribute daylight and reduce high sun
angle glare; integral high visible transmittance
glazing with climate responsive or dynamic shad-
ing coefficients; and internal light redirection
blinds that sustain views while diminishing low
sun angle glare. It is critical that the design of
these layered facades be entirely regional in char-
acter, and suited to the function of the building, as
they control light, glare, solar heat, heat loss/gain,
even thermal mass. By displacing mechanical and
electrical loads, these facades provide long-term
energy savings. In retrofitting deep buildings for
daylighting, the sustainable design community is
exploring atria, light wells, light ducts, and light
pipes. Bank of America in San Francisco cut an
atrium into an overly deep building to bring day-
light to all spaces. Innovations in light pipes,
reflective ducts, and tracking/beaming heliostats
all have potential for increasing daylight effec-
tiveness and delight (Fig. 8).
Facades and Enclosures: Building for Sustainability,
Fig. 8 The central atrium and “sky gardens” at Foster’s
Commerzbank in Frankfurt bring daylight to all spaces and
303
At the same time, the daylighting “system”
must give the appropriate information to the elec-
tric lighting interface so that it can offer the appro-
priate “infill” through continuous dimming
control. Studies indicate that the selection, place-
ment, and installation of the photosensor is criti-
cal, concluding that a ceiling-mounted
photosensor shielded from direct window light
will ensure the best correlation with daylight
work-plane illuminance [15]. The net impact of
daylighting and electric lighting integration is sig-
nificant energy savings and improved workplace
satisfaction [16].
Emerging research is revealing that day-lit
offices, classrooms, and hospitals may measur-
ably contribute to greater health and performance
at task [17]. Light levels can be higher without
energy penalty; full spectrum light offers rich
color rendition and three-dimensional modeling;
circadian rhythms set by daylight variations
throughout the day trigger melatonin production
and sleep patterns; and views meet fundamental
human needs.
Sustainable buildings are designed for daylight
to meet all ambient and task requirements during
the day. The investment in a layered facade for
daylight effectiveness will simultaneously sup-
port natural ventilation, night ventilation, thermal
load balancing, and passive solar heating – the full
complement of regional opportunities for natural
conditioning.
Daylight Lighting Control = Energy Savings
provide occupants with access to nature in a dense urban
environment
304
In a before and after building case study of the
New York City federal building, the Electric Power
Research Institute (EPRI) identifies 64% lighting
energy savings and net HVAC energy savings of
0.07 kWh per square foot annually following the
installation of an energy-efficient lighting system
with daylight dimming and lumen maintenance
controls (NYC Federal Building/EPRI [16]).
Daylight Spectrum and Timing = Individual
Productivity
In a controlled experiment, Boyce et al. iden-
tify a 1.6–12.8% improvement in night-shift
workers’ performance on short-term memory
and logical reasoning tasks under large skylight-
simulating fixtures with hidden fluorescent lamps,
capable of providing variable illuminance from
200 lx to 2800 lx. Performance was enhanced by
steadily decreasing illuminance from 2800 lx to
250 lx to simulate daylight from midday to dusk,
as compared to increasing illuminance of
250–2800 lx to simulate daylight from dawn to
midday (Boyce et al. [17]).
Facades and Enclosures: Building for Sustainability, Fig. 9 Critical facade elements to ensure natural ventilation as
the dominant fresh air and cooling source
Facades and Enclosures: Building for Sustainability
Facades That Ensure Natural Ventilation
as the Dominant Fresh Air and Cooling
Source Combined with Mixed-Mode
HVAC Conditioning
A sealed building is not a sustainable building.
The use of natural ventilation and natural cooling
with direct outside air for swing and winter sea-
sons ensure affordable high levels of fresh air with
the greatest energy efficiency (Fig. 9). Interna-
tional studies consistently link increases in out-
door air supply to both productivity and health
gains in the workplace [9].
Natural Ventilation = Health
In a multiple building study of 880 workers in
11 office buildings in the San Francisco bay area,
Mendell identified 20–81% reductions in reported
SBS symptoms for occupants of naturally venti-
lated buildings as compared to occupants of office
buildings with air conditioning or mechanical ven-
tilation (CA Healthy Building Study/Mendell [9]).
Facades and Enclosures: Building for Sustainability
Natural Ventilation = Health + Individual
Productivity
In a 2004 multiple building study of profes-
sional middle-aged women in France, Preziosi
et al. identify a 57.1% reduction in absenteeism,
a 16.7% reduction in medical services use (doctor
visits), and a 34.8% reduction in hospital stays
among subjects with natural ventilation in their
workplace, as compared to those with air condi-
tioning (Preziosi et al. [18]).
In addition, the substantial opportunity for
“free cooling” through the use of outside air is
significantly underestimated by calculations
focused on only “comfort zone” natural ventila-
tion. Natural cooling is possible whenever outside
conditions are within or below the comfort zone
both in the day and at night, as long as drafts can
be effectively managed through mixing or heat
recovery. The use of both passive (open windows)
and active economizer cycles can save from 50%
to 100% of the cooling demand in various regions
of the USA, when including the benefits of night-
time cooling of the building’s thermal mass [19].
Natural Ventilation = Individual Productivity
+ Energy Savings
In a multiple building study of 39 Australian
office settings, Rowe identifies a 13.8% perceived
productivity improvement, a 15% improvement in
overall comfort, and 79% annual HVAC energy
savings due to replacing a mechanical air-
conditioning system with mixed-mode HVAC
that supports both natural ventilation and air con-
ditioning (Australian Offices/Rowe [20]).
Design for effective natural ventilation and
natural cooling of the building mass and its occu-
pants requires multidisciplinary expertise to
ensure that building shape, orientation, atria/
courtyards, chimneys, window types (awning,
casement, double hung), sizes, and locations
ensure effective cross and stack ventilation.
Cross and stack ventilation demands that building
form and space layout reflect prevailing wind
directions and the potential for thermal and solar
assist, often studied through wind model testing or
computational fluid dynamic simulations. In cli-
mates with day-night temperature swings, night
ventilation should be explored and building mate-
rials or storage selected to store cooler
305
temperature, creating a thermal “flywheel” for
the following day.
In many climates, “mixed-mode” HVAC sys-
tems are designed to support natural ventilation
and to provide air conditioning and ventilation –
when and where natural ventilation is inadequate.
UC Berkeley’s Center for the Built Environment
has defined three types of mixed-mode HVAC
systems [7]:
• Concurrent systems, which use natural ventila-
tion and mechanical HVAC simultaneously.
Occupants are free to open windows and the
HVAC system provides supplemental ventila-
tion, dehumidification, and cooling, while an
advanced control system coordinates zone air
supply rates with window positions.
• Changeover systems, where the building alter-
nates between natural and mechanical mode on
a seasonal or daily basis.
• Zoned systems, in which different condition-
ing strategies are used simultaneously in dif-
ferent zones of a building.
Concerns related to outdoor air pollution, pol-
len, and humidity can be effectively addressed
with well-designed mixed-mode conditioning
systems. Natural ventilation in high-rise buildings
demands both architectural and engineering inno-
vations to manage both pressurization issues and
stack effect. This has been accomplished through
the design of stacked 6–8-story buildings such as
the Commerzbank in Frankfurt (Fig. 10 left), and
through double envelope designs, where wind and
pressure are moderated through intermediate
facade spaces.
For both natural ventilation and mechanically
assisted ventilation, it is critical to engineer venti-
lation effectiveness, ensuring adequate fresh air
volumes through large apertures or economizers;
accessible, large volume fresh air paths from air-
intake locations to occupants, such as in displace-
ment ventilation systems; multiple fresh air
sources with operable windows, distributed air
handlers, or facade integrated HVAC; and ade-
quate exhaust without recirculation or contamina-
tion of the air flow paths. Air intakes especially
should be strategically located, not near loading
306
Facades and Enclosures: Building for Sustainability,
Fig. 10 Commerzbank, a high-rise structure (left), uses
operable windows to provide natural conditioning for the
occupants, linked with mechanical cooling in a hybrid
docks with idling engines or on roof decks with
standing water, but in nonpolluted areas, without
standing water or solar overheating. Indeed, air
sources should be freshest where prevailing
breezes travel through shaded, landscaped areas
with some level of natural air purification and
cooling.
To achieve effective natural ventilation with
mixed-mode mechanical conditioning, the design
team must work together to engineer and integrate
the natural ventilation/natural cooling controls
and the HVAC controls to maximize air quality,
user control, passive conditioning, and energy
efficiency (Fig. 10 right). Given the growing
body of research, natural ventilation with mixed-
mode conditioning should be the norm in all com-
mercial buildings for human health and produc-
tivity, energy efficiency, and the viability of
occupied spaces in the face of electricity
shortages.
Facades That Minimize Enclosure Heat
Loss and Heat Gain
One of the earliest decisions affecting the sustain-
ability of buildings is the overall massing of the
building and the orientation of major facade and
Facades and Enclosures: Building for Sustainability
system. The atrium at Institute for Forestry and Nature
Research in Wageningen (right) provides a protected
space for natural ventilation in the offices while giving
occupants a natural setting for meetings and relaxation
roof surfaces (Fig. 11). While very harsh climates
might benefit from minimum surface area to
usable space enclosed, there are climate-specific
arguments for increasing building enclosure for
daylighting, natural ventilation, passive solar
heating, and even the dissipation of excessive
internal heat gains (see Load Balancing). These
increased exposures must be strategic, however,
avoiding solar overheating, cold air infiltration,
and increased heat loss or heat gain. Serious
re-evaluation of vast roof exposures and
cantilevered floors is needed, minimizing exces-
sive heat losses or heat gains unless they have
corresponding benefits from natural conditioning.
Even the location of the HVAC system will be
significant, with rooftop and west facing cooling
equipment measurably less efficient due to solar
heat gains. Design goals should be set for building
shape and orientation to ensure the best integra-
tion of passive conditioning while reducing envi-
ronmental loads.
Architects make major decisions about the
thermal performance of buildings through the
specification of window to wall ratios. Sustain-
able designers weigh heat loss and heat gain
against daylighting, natural ventilation, passive
solar heating, and load balancing through the
facade, alongside the spatial flexibility needed
Facades and Enclosures: Building for Sustainability
Facades and Enclosures: Building for Sustainability, Fig. 11 Critical facade elements to minimize enclosure heat
loss/heat gain
by dynamic organizations. Innovative building
enclosures are designed to act like the human
skin, dynamically supporting heat, air, and mois-
ture dissipation for the health of the occupants in
changing climate conditions. The sustainable
design community has rediscovered the opportu-
nities for dynamic thermal performance of build-
ing enclosures, with high-resistance louvers,
curtains, and dynamic layered facades changing
heat transfer characteristics hour by hour, day to
night, or season by season.
Needless to say, the highest level of thermal
resistance to heat loss and heat gain is pursued for
both the wall and window assemblies in sustain-
able buildings. Innovations in wall insulation
have supported a doubling of the thermal resis-
tance of the assembly, with significantly greater
air tightness. Window innovations also abound,
with R2 double glazed assemblies replaced by R4,
R8, and even R12 assemblies (IP units) as a result
of low-e, gas filled assemblies with innovative
spacer and frame technologies, even while visible
transmission is critically kept above 50%. At the
same time, low solar heat gain coefficients
(SHGC) of 0.35–0.50 can be achieved where
307
needed to reduce overheating at the facade with-
out loss of visual connection to the outside. At a
very minimum, these three window variables –
resistance to heat transfer (R), visible transmission
(tv), and solar heat gain coefficients (SHGC, solar
transmission) – must be balanced in response to
each orientation, climate, and building type.
Facade Temperature Control = Individual
Productivity
In a field case study of telecommunication
office workers in Finland, Hannula et al. identify
a 2.8% increase in measured productivity in north-
facing offices with an average temperature of
23.6  C (range 21.9–27.8  C) as compared to
south-facing offices with an average temperature
of 25.2  C (range 22.8–28  C), supporting the
need for improved heat gain control by orientation
(Telecommunication Office/Hannula et al. [21]).
Finally, sustainable enclosure design detailing
ensures the lowest level of thermal bridging
through walls, roofs, floors, and foundations.
Structural and enclosure designers must work
together to ensure the elimination or minimization
of structural elements that connect indoor heated
or cooled areas with the outdoors, including the
308
facade, roof, floor, and foundation. Ideally the
thermal “wrapper” is continuous and fully outside
the structural frame, except at foundation connec-
tions that might indeed support ground source
conditioning (see Thermal Load Balancing).
Cantilevered balconies, overhangs, floors, and
roof elements can contribute to significant heat
loss, moisture and vapor migration, and conden-
sation that lead to building degradation (see
Enclosure Life). Not only the structural integra-
tion, but also product specification, enclosure
detailing, and design for constructability are crit-
ical to the thermal performance of facades. There
are numerous conditions where well-insulated
facades, roofs, and foundations are compromised
by penetrations that were not anticipated in the
drawings (vents, tie rods, utility meters, etc.), or
not adequately sequenced in construction to
ensure the continuity of the thermal envelope.
One of the most exciting new developments in
enclosure design is green roofs and green walls
(Fig. 12). Green roofs and their layers of waterproof-
ing, insulation, soils, and vegetation have the poten-
tial to improve roof resistance to heat gain by 50%
[22], improve roof longevity by a factor of 2 [23],
reduce storm water runoff by 50% [24], reduce air
plane noise transmission, as well as reduce urban
heat islands and air pollution [25, 26]. Green walls
are also offering measurable gains by reducing solar
heat gain, providing evaporative cooling, and creat-
ing seasonal qualities for our buildings.
Facades and Enclosures:
Building
for Sustainability,
Fig. 12 Green walls at
Nouvel’s Musee Branly
reduce heat gain in summer
Facades and Enclosures: Building for Sustainability
Green Walls + Double Skin Façade = Energy
Savings
In a 2005 controlled lab experiment in the Neth-
erlands, Stec et al. identify an 18% reduction in
cooling system capacity requirements and a 19%
reduction in cooling energy consumption for a
double skin façade with plants in the cavity rather
than blinds, due to a 20% reduction in temperature
on the interior wall of the façade (Stec et al. [27]).
Facades That Integrate Climate-
Responsive Shading and Glare Control
As with heat loss and heat gain, managing solar
overheating and glare begins with the careful sizing
and location of windows to ensure shade and light
without glare (Fig. 13). East and West orientations
are the most problematic, since sun angles are too
low to be effectively blocked with overhangs or
open blinds. Skylights in horizontal roofs can also
be problematic since they receive excessive solar
heat in summer and significantly less energy in
winter (when solar energy is most beneficial). Win-
dow sizes and locations should be uniquely con-
sidered for each building face, as well as the
detailing of internal and external controls.
Integral shading devices, the selection of
reflective or low transmission glazing, or the
introduction of “frit” patterns to reduce solar
transmission, are the most common strategies for
Facades and Enclosures: Building for Sustainability
Facades and Enclosures: Building for Sustainability, Fig. 13 Critical facade elements for climate-responsive
shading and glare control
shading and glare control. Unfortunately, low
solar transmission glass will block useful gain in
winter as well, and can also result in low daylight
transmission. Many high reflectivity glass speci-
fications inhibit daylighting, passive solar
heating, and clear views of the landscape. How-
ever, new developments in glazing support high
visible transmittance (daylight and view) with low
solar transmittance (solar heat) for buildings in hot
climates. Just as low-e glazing is becoming the
norm for improved thermal resistance in glazing
assemblies, this high-visible, low-solar glazing
must become the norm for all buildings where
cooling loads dominate on the perimeter.
A number of new glazing materials are emerg-
ing that support seasonally dynamic management
of solar heat and light. Electrochromic, prismatic,
and holographic glazing assemblies are in devel-
opment that would enable the seasonal or hourly
separation of light and heat spectrums, and the
depth and color of the beamed light, so that build-
ing spaces can be naturally conditioned with the
least amount of solar overheating or glare. The
combination of these heat and light redirection
glazings with exterior and interior shading
309
devices enable the appropriate percentages of the
solar light and heat to be independently tapped.
Exterior shading devices, overhangs, light
shelves, blinds, fins, and shades are the most
effective means of reducing solar load while
maintaining visual connection with the landscape.
Clearly, the shading devices must be designed for
each orientation, and for each site’s climate and
latitude. At least six types of exterior devices can
be explored: an overhang/light shelf, recessed
windows that act as an “egg-crate” shading
device, dynamic shades or awnings, exterior
blinds, exterior green walls, and a second dynamic
facade (Fig. 14).
Just as a baseball cap allows a clear view of the
action without glare in the eye, overhangs or light
shelves can allow for views without glare and
solar overheating. While an overhang provides
shade from high sun angles, it could act as a
light shelf and reflect sunlight deeper into the
space when positioned below the upper
(transom) portion of the window wall. Fully
retractable exterior blinds can support both sea-
sonal shading and daylighting goals, and enable
views to be fully enjoyed during those hours when
310
Facades and Enclosures: Building for Sustainability, Fig. 14 Exterior shading devices at the SmithGroup’s
Chesapeake Bay Foundation Headquarters are designed to account for different building orientations
the sun is away from the facade. Awnings offer
seasonally and daily adjustable shading on all ori-
entations, full views when the summer sun has
passed, and a colorful gaiety to the building. Land-
scape materials are re-emerging as effective shading
for roofs, walls, windows, and terraces, self-
regulating their density of shade to match the sea-
sons, and offering potential to manage storm water
as well.
Green Walls = Energy Savings
In a 2000 controlled experiment at Tanz Green-
house at the University of Toronto and a follow-up
computer simulation, Bass and Baskaran identify
a 23% reduction in cooling load and a 20% reduc-
tion in the fan energy use, for an 8% reduction in
total annual energy consumption, when a green
wall is used to shade the exterior surface of the
building, as compared to unshaded surfaces (Tanz
Greenhouse/Bass and Baskaran [28]).
The line of last defense, interior shading
devices are less effective than exterior shading at
minimizing solar load (heat gain from the sun),
since the energy is able to enter the building before
it can be reflected. While roll-down mesh shades
provide a level of solar heat and glare control,
inverted horizontal venetian blinds provide heat
and glare control as well as daylight contribution
for sustainable buildings. Research at the Law-
rence Berkeley National Laboratories demon-
strates that exterior operable shading devices, and
even interior shading devices, are more cost effec-
tive and energy/resource effective than highly
tinted (low visible transmission) glass in all
regions of the USA, from Los Angeles to Chicago
to Miami [29]. The selection of interior blinds
Facades and Enclosures: Building for Sustainability
should: maximize light reflection, typically with a
white or metallic color; maximize light distribution
in the room, typically through inverted blinds and
carefully shaped blinds that act as effective light
shelves; and provide adjustable slat angles to max-
imize view potential while also maximizing work-
plane illuminance [30] (Fig. 15).
If they are combined with exterior shades in a
multilayered facade, interior shades and blinds
can be dedicated to light diffusion and glare man-
agement, with fabric/color selection designed to
minimize brightness contrast between the window
and its surroundings. Coupled with operable exte-
rior shading devices, interior blinds could also be
selected to absorb solar heat for perimeter heat
gain in winter months. As innovations in phase
change materials emerge, it is possible to imagine
internal shutters or shades that absorb solar heat
during the day, and then are reversed at night to
radiate solar heat to the occupied space.
The most far reaching facade development in
the past 10 years has been the development of the
double envelope. When a second facade is intro-
duced 1–3 m from the window wall, the interme-
diate space can be used to moderate the
environment – heat, light, wind, noise, pollution,
and other environmental stressors. These second
facades house layers of shading, light redirection,
air redirection, thermal load balancing, mechani-
cal conditioning, and even dynamic levels of
resistance to heat loss and gain. The research on
the life cycle benefits of these innovations reveals
significant variations in both costs and perfor-
mance [31]. If double envelopes provide the
greatest number of hours, days, and months
Facades and Enclosures: Building for Sustainability
Facades and Enclosures: Building for Sustainability,
Fig. 15 The dynamic light redirection louvers in the
Robert L. Preger Intelligent Workplace can be configured
to increase daylight levels in the interior spaces while
Facades and Enclosures:
Building
for Sustainability,
Fig. 16 Light shelves in
the double envelope
combined with external
overhangs provide
wonderful daylight and
views for Rawn’s
Cambridge public library
without mechanical conditioning, they will be
invaluable to carbon-neutral designers. The fol-
lowing section explores a number of enclosure
solutions that use dimensioned “circulatory sys-
tems,” such as double envelope designs, to reduce
environmental loads in buildings (Fig. 16).
Facades That Engineer Load Balancing
and Mean Radiant Temperature Control
To work toward healthier buildings with higher
levels of local/individual comfort, it is imperative
that the thermal imbalances, mean radiant
311
reducing glare at the perimeter. Interior venetian blinds
have engineered w-sections that manage low and high
angle sun differently, reducing direct glare while maximiz-
ing view and daylighting
imbalances, and conductive losses in buildings
be addressed (Fig. 17). The engineering team is
equally responsible with the architect for ensuring
that the building enclosure detailing fully resolves
thermal bridges and radiant imbalances.
As the internal heat gains in buildings have
increased with office automation, the disparity in
temperature conditions between facades and inte-
rior spaces has grown. Surprisingly, some
designers have removed or reduced perimeter
conditioning on the assumption that the interior
loads will compensate for perimeter losses. This
convective exchange will not be effective, how-
ever, without specifying super-insulated facade
312
Facades and Enclosures: Building for Sustainability, Fig. 17 Critical facade elements for load balancing and mean
radiant temperature control
assemblies and/or deliberate load balancing by
mechanically moving “core” heated air or water
through the window wall.
Both air flow windows and water flow mullion
systems enable excess heat from the building core –
heat from occupancy, lights, and equipment – to be
effectively dissipated through the facade. By taking
return air through the “glass duct” of a triple glazed
air-flow window, core cooling loads are dramati-
cally reduced and perimeter heating is almost elim-
inated through core-to-perimeter load balancing.
Water mullions (thermally broken from the out-
doors) can also use “waste” heat from the core to
minimize loads (Fig. 18). In this system, waste heat
from building cooling or power generating systems
can be circulated through the facade to eliminate
perimeter heating requirements and radiant imbal-
ance, while allowing an increase in building periph-
ery for views and light at every workstation. Indeed,
the building facade could be seen as the natural
dissipater of energy, a “circulatory system” resem-
bling that of a healthy human – with appropriate
surface to volume ratios. Given the constant
Facades and Enclosures: Building for Sustainability
increases in internal loads today, there is a real
justification for increasing the periphery of buildings
with the facade designed as an integral part of the
mechanical system.
In addition to core and perimeter load differ-
ences, there are also significant load imbalances at
different facade orientations, typically driven by
solar load differentials. One facade mechanical
system of note is the use of double envelopes to
provide north-south-east-west load balancing in
climates where solar loads are significant and
beneficial. The Occidental building in Niagara
Falls is one of the earliest examples of a double
envelope construction. When solar energy is
received on the east, a natural convective loop of
solar-heated air wraps the entire building. This
continues throughout the day to eliminate simul-
taneous heating and cooling, to maximize passive
solar contributions to the heating load, and to
ensure excellent mean radiant conditions. In sum-
mer, the double envelope is vented to the outside,
and precautions are taken for fire protection. The
Occidental building used 70% less heating and
Facades and Enclosures: Building for Sustainability 313

Facades and Enclosures: Building for Sustainability, integrated into the façade, supports comfortable tempera-
Fig. 18 Using water for energy-efficient load balancing, tures year round in the Intelligent Workplace
through radiant ceiling panels and radiant water mullions

cooling energy than a conventional office building

in upstate New York [32].
A third strategy for reducing or eliminating the
need for mechanical cooling is the use of day-
night load balancing strategies. Night ventilation
of a building’s structural mass can successfully
reduce or eliminate cooling loads in cooler cli-
mates, or climates with day-night temperature
swings. Combined with the careful monitoring
of dew point temperatures to avoid overcooling
and condensation, nighttime cooling of a build-
ing’s mass can provide adequate capacitance to
absorb an entire day of internal gains (Fig. 19).
Thermal mass can be achieved through “heavy” or
high-capacitance building walls and floors, or
through the strategic introduction of phase change
materials (PCM) to absorb daytime heat or night-
Facades and Enclosures: Building for Sustainability,
time cool when most effective. A corollary to Fig. 19 Architecturally articulated thermal mass at
nighttime ventilation is the use of off-peak night- Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia minimizes daily temperature
time electricity to generate chilled water and ice or swings by night ventilation through architecturally expres-
to chill PCMs for daytime cooling. This “ice stor- sive openings
age” cooling strategy can be effectively bundled
with nighttime ventilation of a building’s thermal climates has led to a new era of “cool roof” design
mass to absorb daytime overheating loads without [34]. The combination of high reflectivity and
peak electricity demands. Phase change materials night venting of enclosure mass in climates with
also offer the potential for storing daytime solar day-night temperature swings has the greatest
heat for nighttime use, a strategy integrated into a potential for natural comfort and low energy
number of PassivHaus projects [33]. cooling [35].
For opaque enclosure surfaces, the value of Cool Roof = Energy Savings + Peak Demand
high reflectivity surfaces in all overheated Reduction + Extended Roof Life
314
In a multiple building controlled experiment in
Florida, Parker et al. of the Florida Solar Energy
Center identify 17.8–24.9% annual cooling
energy savings and a 28.5–35.5% peak cooling
load reduction from highly reflective white metal,
white barrel tile, and white flat tile roofing; 9.5%
annual cooling energy savings and a 12.9% peak
cooling load reduction from terra cotta tile roof-
ing; and 3.2% annual cooling energy savings and
a 17.2% peak cooling load reduction from white
asphalt shingles, as compared to dark asphalt
shingles, on a single-family house (Florida Sus-
tainable Energy Center/Parker et al. [35]).
The final load-balancing strategy for reducing
heating and cooling loads in buildings is to take
advantage of ground and aquifer temperatures
through ground-coupling. Ten feet below ground,
and in underground aquifers, the temperatures are
surprisingly stable at year-round (interseasonal)
averages of approximately 12–18  C (55–65  F).
Given excellent temperatures for radiant-, water-
and air-based cooling, high-performance building
designers have tapped into this natural cooling
potential through: earth sheltered construction;
large diameter “cool tubes”; and aquifer or ground
sourced chilled water loops that serve radiant, fan
coil, or heat pump systems. Ground coupling sig-
nificantly impacts foundation and flooring design,
and might impact the facade “circulatory” systems
as well (Fig. 20).
The benefits of active (mechanically inte-
grated) load balancing to resolve mean radiant
Facades and Enclosures:
Building
for Sustainability,
Fig. 20 “Cool tubes”
beneath the greenhouses at
Phipps Conservatory
provide free cooling
Facades and Enclosures: Building for Sustainability
imbalances – from core to perimeter, from N/S
to E/W, from day to night, and interseasonally
through ground coupling – include: improved
individual comfort, productivity, and health
[36, 37]; reduced building material degradation
from thermal differentials and condensation; sig-
nificant energy conservation; and the potential to
replace mechanical heating or cooling first costs
and operating costs with high-performance build-
ing enclosures [38].
Radiant Cooling = Individual Productivity +
Energy Savings
In a controlled field experiment, Takehito et al.
identify a measured 22% increase in speed and a
1.5% improvement in accuracy on simple tasks
among women subjects, and a simulated 10%
HVAC energy savings in the Tokyo climate, in
offices with radiant ceiling cooling system as
compared to conventional ceiling-based air con-
ditioning (Imanari et al. [36]).
Night Ventilation Cooling = Individual
Productivity
In a 2003 meta-analysis study, Seppänen et al.
identify a productivity increase equivalent to
0.39 h of work per day (4.9% for an 8-h workday)
due to reducing daytime indoor temperatures with
nighttime ventilation cooling of the building’s
structure and furnishings (Seppanen et al. [37]).
Geothermal Heat Pump = Energy Savings +
First Cost Savings
In a field study of Maxey Elementary School in
Lincoln, Nebraska, Shonder et al. identify an
Facades and Enclosures: Building for Sustainability
average 47% reduction in annual HVAC energy
use with a geothermal heat pump system as com-
pared to the alternatives of VAV systems with air-
or water-cooled chillers, as well as a first cost
savings of $1.80/sf. Geothermal heat pump sys-
tems were found to have the lowest first cost,
operational cost, and life cycle emissions of the
three systems studied (Maxey Elementary School/
Schonder et al. [38]).
Facades That Integrate Passive and
Active Solar Heating, Cooling, and
Power
The most direct use of solar energy in buildings is
for passive solar heating (Fig. 21). The design of
building enclosures to support direct gain through
high solar transmission glass can effectively offset
over 50% of the heat loss of buildings in many
climates. Indeed, it is critical that glazing be care-
fully selected for high solar transmission in cold
climates to enable passive solar heating. In locations
where direct gain would cause excessive daytime
Facades and Enclosures: Building for Sustainability, Fig. 21 Critical facade elements for passive and active solar
heating, cooling, and power
315
overheating or glare, the design of indirect gain
passive solar facades – glazed mass walls or Trombe
walls [39], water walls, or phase change walls – can
strategically collect solar heat for nighttime heating.
Recent developments in phase change materials that
can be embedded in common construction or finish
materials will help ensure that adequate solar heat
storage exists to shift daytime solar gain to nighttime
loads. Each of these solar heating strategies can be
fully passive, utilizing no mechanical energy to
collect, store, or distribute solar heat while providing
potential health benefits to building occupants [40]
(Fig. 22).
Sunlight = Health
In a 2005 building case study of Inha Univer-
sity Hospital in Korea, Choi identified a 41%
reduction (3.2 days) in average length of stay
among gynecology patients in brightly day-lit
rooms (317 lx average), as compared to those in
dull rooms, in the spring, and an average 26%
reduction (1.9 days) in average length of stay
among surgery ward patients in bright rooms, as
compared to those in dull rooms, in the fall.
Across all seasons, the average daylight
316
Facades and Enclosures:
Building
for Sustainability,
Fig. 22 Interior and
exterior views of the south
facade at Fraunhofer
Institute in Freiburg
illustrate the integration of
active and passive solar
strategies
illuminance in bright rooms was 317 lx, compared
to 190 lx in dull rooms (Inha University Hospital/
Choi [40]).
The solar heat gained in building atria or dou-
ble envelope facades can also be actively trans-
ferred to a range of storage media, from rock
storage to phase change storage to underfloor air
systems with thermal mass. Active solar hot water
collectors integrated into building roofs or facades
can also transfer solar heat to architectural or
mechanical heat exchangers. The effective inte-
gration of solar heat gain with the ventilation air
systems in buildings can significantly reduce
heating loads while supporting greater ventilation
rates for human health.
While solar thermal collectors can provide excel-
lent hot water temperatures for heating, concentrat-
ing solar thermal collectors can generate the
extreme high temperatures needed for cooling and
power generation. Bundled with the latest in absorp-
tion chillers and steam power generators, a new
generation of solar-evacuated tube and concentrat-
ing collectors are beginning to transform building
enclosures to help meet the growing electrical
demands in buildings for air conditioning (Fig. 23).
Integrating photovoltaic solar (PV) elements
into the building curtain wall or roof can generate
on-site power for feeding into the grid or for
immediate use in the building. For maximum effi-
ciency, PV energy could be used directly as DC
electricity (without transformer loses to AC) to
meet the power demands of fans and air
Facades and Enclosures: Building for Sustainability
conditioners, plug loads, and dynamic facade
elements – from operable windows to light
shelves and shading devices. Recent thin film
developments have significantly improved the
performance of building integrated photovoltaics
(BIPV), supporting a range of design choices
regarding shape, orientation, transparency, and
color. For windows, new PV glazing assemblies
can provide effective shading, daylight distribu-
tion, and a competitive power source. The next
generation of building windows may absorb solar
energy in almost transparent coatings and carry
the electricity to window mullions for transport to
the grid. For roofs and walls, the early PV assem-
blies that were rigidly sandwiched behind glass
have been replaced by newer flexible PV mate-
rials that can replace common building materials,
with 3–10-year life-cycle justifications. The vast
areas of roof and facade that absorb or reflect long
hours of sunshine can be turned into an asset even
in hot climates, with building-integrated photo-
voltaics playing a major role in generating distrib-
uted power, eliminating the source and
distribution inefficiencies of conventional power
production, for greatly reduced carbon impacts.
Wind power generation can also be integrated
with building facades and roofs. A new generation
of micro-turbines may create the parapets of
future buildings, and large wind farms may
occupy the upper floors of skyscrapers, as pro-
posed in early solutions for the World Trade Cen-
ter by Battle Engineering [41].
Facades and Enclosures: Building for Sustainability
Facades and Enclosures:
Building
for Sustainability,
Fig. 23 Concentrating
solar thermal collectors on
the roof of the Intelligent
Workplace produce steam
in the summer to power
absorption chillers to cool
the space
Finally, algae farming can become an integral
component of a building’s façade. Photosynthesis
supports the rapid generation of algae for com-
bustible fuel to be fed to a bioreactor for energy
generation. The world’s first algae-powered build-
ing, the BIQ house with a bio-adaptive algae
façade, was completed in Hamburg, Germany.
Photovoltaic System = Energy Saving
In a building case study of Bren Hall, a LEED
Platinum-rated building at the University of Cal-
ifornia, Santa Barbara (UCSB), Aigner identified
that the building’s 47 kW rooftop photovoltaic
system reduces purchased electricity consumption
by 7–10% annually, at a first cost of $240,000, for
an ROI of 5% (Bren Hall/Aigner [42]).
Facades Designed to Manage Water
A fundamental role for high-performance build-
ing enclosures is the management of water. It is
imperative that roofs and facades effectively man-
age rainfall through material selection and artic-
ulated detailing from top to bottom (Fig. 24).
While gargoyles and expressive cornices were
once the solution to ensure heavy rains were
shed away from the building, modern facades
rely far too heavily on the caulked joint – often
with poor results as the facades age.
As we embrace a greater set of sustainability
challenges, building enclosures also need to
317
collect rainwater today. As we face declining
sources of fresh water, and increasing storm run-
off challenges, the importance of designing build-
ing enclosures to catch and store water is of
growing importance (Figs. 25 and 26).
A lesser understood role for building facades is to
manage the vapor migration that might lead to
condensation on embedded surfaces that are below
dew point temperature. This is typically achieved
through the design of pressure equalized walls and
continuous, smart vapor retarders on the “warm side
of the facade” to stop the humidity from migrating
into the wall. Detailing in design and construction
supervision is critical, especially in complex cli-
mates where humidity and cold temperatures may
both be from the inside or outside. In addition,
moisture that is trapped in construction materials
must be released naturally as well, typically through
a vapor porous skin or vented air spaces [43].
Rain screens are an innovative solution to man-
aging both rain and vapor migration. Rain screens
introduce an uncaulked and vented second skin
for the facade – typically of ceramic tile or metal
or wood panels – that sheds the rain and utilizes
the vented air space to dissipate moisture buildup.
Green Roof = Energy Savings + Peak Load
Reduction + Storm Water Retention
In a demonstration case study at the Chicago
City Hall, the city of Chicago identified annual
cooling energy savings of 0.02 kWh/sf and annual
heating energy savings of 0.02 therms/square
318 Facades and Enclosures: Building for Sustainability

Facades and Enclosures: Building for Sustainability, Fig. 24 Critical facade elements to manage rainwater and
moisture migration

Facades and Enclosures:

Building
for Sustainability,
Fig. 25 On the left, water
sculpture by Herbert
Dreisetl playfully manages
storm water, enticing
visitors to return in the rain
to watch. On the right,
rainwater capture provides
acoustic and visual richness
in the Dockside Green
development by Joe Van
Bellingham

foot, as well as a 70% reduction in storm water
runoff from their installation of a 20,000 ft2 green
roof (Chicago City Hall/City of Chicago [44]).
Green Roof = Energy Savings + Storm Water
Retention
In a case study of the 901 Cherry Offices of Gap,
Inc. in San Bruno, CA, Green Roofs for Healthy
Cities identify a 100% reduction in storm water
runoff (7.54 gal/sf of roof area) and a simple pay-
back of 11 years from energy cost savings alone
(equivalent to 7% annual energy savings in a base-
line building) due to the installation of an extensive
green roof (901 Cherry (GAP)/Green Roofs for
Healthy Cities [45]).
Facades and Enclosures: Building for Sustainability
Facades and Enclosures:
Building
for Sustainability,
Fig. 26 Green roofs at
Piano’s California
Academy of Sciences
capture storm water while
providing a learning
environment for landscape
and habitats
Facades That Maximize Enclosure Life
High-performance building enclosures will need
to use materials sustainably (Fig. 27). Wherever
possible, existing enclosures should be preserved
to protect their “embodied” energy, or built of
100% recycled content materials. If virgin mate-
rials are used, their “chain of custody” should be
known in relation to energy, carbon, rare mate-
rials, and toxicity. Toxic materials should be
avoided in all assemblies, or designed for retrieval
during disassembly.
Enclosure assemblies should be designed for
their longevity, for natural weathering and effec-
tive maintainability. Most critically, enclosures
should be designed and built for cherish-ability,
the desire on the part of owners and the commu-
nity to want to preserve the building rather than
tear it down. This is typically ensured by the use of
quality materials, assembled for longevity, and a
high level of craftsmanship (Fig. 28).
Enclosure design must also address the needs
for human safety in the face of manmade and
natural disasters. This includes structural integrity
in the face of earthquakes, hurricanes, and cyclones
as well material integrity in the face of fires, floods,
and blasts. Design for disaster protection should be
about human safety not building protection,
319
ensuring adequate egress and adequate safe har-
bors. Design for human safety must also ensure
adequate access to water, breathing air, and light,
even in the face of power outages – a redundancy
that can be best achieved by sustainable facade
design that fully incorporates natural conditioning.
At the same time, building enclosures need to
be designed for change – for expansion or con-
traction, for changes in use or function. Change
can be supported through building generosity,
floor-to-floor heights, size of openings, and level
of building articulation. Change can be supported
by modularity, with a kit of parts that anticipates
the evolution of scale and function over the life of
the building. Change can also be accommodated
by design for disassembly, by which the building
and/or its enclosure can be relocated to a second or
third life. All high-performance enclosure compo-
nents, such as window and door assemblies, water
management systems, and ornamental parapets,
should be designed to be recovered as the
“value-added” assemblies that they are well
beyond the value of the raw materials (Fig. 29).
Construction Waste Management = Salvage
and/or Waste Savings
In a case study of the renovation of the Boston
Scientific Company, Inc. office building, the Insti-
tutional Recycling Network identified a 32%
320 Facades and Enclosures: Building for Sustainability

Facades and Enclosures: Building for Sustainability, Fig. 27 Critical facade elements to maximize enclosure life

Facades and Enclosures:

Building
for Sustainability,
Fig. 28 Historical
structures such as the
Beaune Hospital were
designed and built to last
hundreds of years

reduction in disposal costs due to a comprehensive
waste management process, compared to the cost
of renovation with conventional landfill disposal of
material waste. A site separation process allowed
materials to be disposed of at lower costs than
co-mingled materials and resulted in a 92%
recycling rate by weight (Boston Scientific Com-
pany/Institution Recycling Network [46]).
Construction Waste Management = Salvage/
Waste Savings
In a case study of the demolition of the
133,000 ft2 Hume Residence Hall on the campus
Facades and Enclosures: Building for Sustainability
Facades and Enclosures: Building for Sustainability, Fig. 29 Forty percent of the total waste stream can be
attributed to the construction industry, both off-site and on-site
of the University of Florida, Guy and Strong iden-
tify new revenues, reduced disposal costs, and
cost avoidance from substitutions of reclaimed
materials, achieved through a process of salvage
and source separation. A comprehensive C&D
debris management process resulted in a net sav-
ings of 4% compared to the cost of conventional
demolition, and diverted waste from landfill dis-
posal (University of Florida Hume Residence
Hall/Guy and Strong [47]).
Future Directions: Facade Innovation
Through Systems Integration
In times of limited resources and limited building
budgets, some of the most innovative high-
performance facades are achieved through sys-
tems integration (Fig. 30). Collaborative design
is critical for high-performance sustainable build-
ing facades to:
321
• Integrate structure and enclosure to ensure heat
loss/heat gain control, provide shading and
glare control, and support daylighting
• Integrate fire and enclosure to support load
balancing innovations
• Integrate HVAC and enclosure to support nat-
ural ventilation, load balancing, and passive
and active solar energy utilization
• Integrate interior systems and enclosure sys-
tems for access to nature, daylighting, natural
ventilation, shade and glare control, and pas-
sive solar heating
• Ensure design for enclosure life and design for
change without waste
When expert disciplines work collaboratively
early in the design process, a range of innovations
are generated – structural systems that offer shading
and light redirection; enclosures that are integral
with the mechanical duct or piping; fire egress that
provides shade and access for maintenance;
322 Facades and Enclosures: Building for Sustainability

Facades and Enclosures: Building for Sustainability, Fig. 30 Critical facade elements for innovation through
systems integration

Facades and Enclosures: Building for Sustainability, building systems, assemblies, and components to export
Fig. 31 The proposed “Building as Power Plant” Innova- excess renewable energy while providing optimum com-
tion center for Carnegie Mellon University integrates fort for the occupants

ornament that manages water; and expressions of environmental quality and environmental sustain-
function, culture, or ambition that serve a critical ability. Sustainable building enclosures are the
purpose for ensuring the highest level of indoor deliverables of integrated design teams and
Facades and Enclosures: Building for Sustainability
integrated building delivery processes that in turn
are pivotal to achieving the highest level of health,
productivity, energy, and environmental benefits
(Fig. 31).
High Performance Building = Energy Savings
In a case study of BRE’s Environmental office
building in Garston, UK, Fisher et al. identify a
66% annual energy savings compared to a typical
type III UK office building due to the use of ther-
mal mass, natural ventilation, passive and low
energy cooling, daylighting, high-performance
electric lighting, and on-site power generation
(BRE Environmental Building/Fisher et al. [48]).
High-Performance Building = Energy Savings
+ Rent Premium
In a case study of the Phillips Eco-Enterprise
Center in Minneapolis, Brinkema identifies $0.31/sf
energy savings and a 5–10% lease premium for the
building owner (a financial gain of $0.62/sf) due to
high-performance building design that incorporates
passive solar and geothermal heating and cooling,
daylighting and high efficiency electric lighting, sal-
vaged building materials, nontoxic paints and fin-
ishes, and landscaping with native plants (Philips
Eco-Enterprise Center/Brinkema [49]).
High-Performance Building = Energy Savings
+ Individual Productivity
In a case study of ING Bank in Amsterdam,
Bill Browning of the Rocky Mountain Institute
identifies a 92% reduction in primary energy
consumption and a 15% reduction in employee
absenteeism compared to the bank’s former
headquarters, given high-performance design
strategies including daylight, a narrow floor
plan that allows landscaped views for every
occupant, passive solar conditioning,
co-generation, and the use of heat recovery
(ING Bank/Browning [50]).
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Passive House (Passivhaus)
Katrin Klingenberg
Passive House Institute US, Chicago, IL, USA
Article Outline
Glossary
Definition of Subject
Introduction
Passivhaus Standard in Europe
Passive House Standard in North America
Climate-Specific Passive House Building
Standards
Principles of Passive House Building Design
Design and Construct Continuous (Super)
Insulation
Eliminate Thermal Bridges by Design
Design and Construct Airtight Envelopes
Engineer Heat or Energy Recovery Ventilation
Specify High-Performance Windows and Doors
Importance of Managing Internal Heat Gains
Design and Construct Continuous Water-
Resistive Barriers
Design and Construct Continuous Airtight Vapor
Control Layer
Specify a Micro-load Space Conditioning System
Specify Materials Capable of Thermal and
Hygrothermal Storage
Ensuring Performance of Passive House Projects
Future Directions for Passive House Construction
Internationally
Bibliography
Glossary
Airtight construction A method of construction
for building envelopes that targets less than
0.6 ACH or 0.5 cfm50/ft2 envelope – infiltra-
tion rates when tested for air leakage at 50 Pa
pressure.
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
V. Loftness (ed.), Sustainable Built Environments,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-0684-1_351
Originally published in
R. A. Meyers (ed.), Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology, © Springer Science+Business Media LLC 2018
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2493-6_351-3
Balanced mechanical ventilation with heat
recovery Highly energy-efficient mechanical
equipment for airtight homes to provide con-
stant amounts of fresh air (20 cfm/person
[30 m3/h]) to the inhabitants and to exhaust
the same amount of air to remove moisture,
stale air, and indoor pollutants. The system
must also recover the energy from exhaust air
at the highest possible level, which helps main-
tain thermal comfort in the building.
Passive (house) building concept A building
achieving close to thermal stasis by employing
a set of building science principles to optimize
heat loss and gain through the building shell.
Primarily, this means limiting transmission
losses by using climate-specific insulation
levels of its components and appropriate win-
dow specifications to maintain thermal comfort
in winter using a very small amount of energy
input – roughly 1 W/ft2 [10 W/m2] – during
peak temperature periods.
Passive (house) building standards A three-
step design methodology that guides enclosure
optimization by (1) defining specific energy
metrics for space conditioning needs, (2) guid-
ing systems design by curbing overall total
carbon emissions, and (3) specifying a whole
building airtightness criterion to limit energy
loss and to assure hygrothermal performance
of the building enclosure.
Super-insulation Climate-specific level of insu-
lation to adequately balance heat gains and
losses in a cost-effective manner, often at ther-
mal resistance levels triple US minimum stan-
dards depending on climate and building
typology.
Thermal bridge elimination The design of
building enclosure assemblies to minimize or
eliminate areas of high conductivity.
A building system is considered to be thermal
bridge-free when every component, for exam-
ple, a stud in a wall, has a conductivity lower
than 0.006 BTU/(ft F) [0.01 W/mK].
327
328
Definition of Subject
Buildings account for as much as 50% of carbon
emissions – passive house design and construction
methodologies hold the greatest promise of sub-
stantially reducing carbon emissions from the built
environment for both residential and commercial
buildings. They also provide a cost-effective path
toward net zero or even net positive buildings.
Passive house building standards are perfor-
mance based, as opposed to prescriptive. Lower-
ing energy consumption is paramount – it is
achieved by using sophisticated software model-
ing tools that allow designers to change multiple
variables (insulation levels, windows, building
orientation) to achieve stringently low energy
consumption targets cost-effectively.
Passive house traces its history back to the
1970s when energy conservation became a priority
in the USA and Canada after the oil embargo and
ensuing energy crisis. The fundamental principles
that are being implemented today were pioneered
in the USA and Canada. The term passive house
was coined for buildings using these principles.
The drive toward conservation waned in North
America, but in the 1990s, European building sci-
entists took the fundamental principles advanced in
North America and built formalized protocols to
develop a measurable performance standard. They
also developed a spreadsheet software tool for
designers. Physicist Wolfgang Feist, who led the
effort, founded the German Passivhaus Institut
(PHI) to certify projects, train professionals, and
do research. Passivhaus is the German translation
of the US approach to passive house design.
German-born and trained architect Katrin
Klingenberg built the first passive house in the
USA in 2003 to meet the Passivhaus standard. The
house succeeded in generating keen interest from the
US building community, and Klingenberg devel-
oped an English language training program that
quickly grew in popularity. Klingenberg founded a
nonprofit – initially to develop affordable housing
using passive building principles – that later
morphed into Passive House Institute US (PHIUS).
PHIUS collaborated with PHI under operating agree-
ments, though they were always strictly independent.
As the US passive house community grew, so
did experience in North America’s much more
Passive House (Passivhaus)
variable and severe climate zones. PHIUS recog-
nized a need to adapt methods and the standard
itself to make passive building successful in all of
North America’s diverse climates.
PHIUS and PHI both promote the adoption of
fundamental passive house building principles:
super-insulation, airtight building envelope, elim-
ination/reduction of thermal bridges, high-
performance windows and doors, heat/energy
recovery and mechanical ventilation, and optimiz-
ing solar gains and losses.
The organizations differ substantially, however,
in how they develop and maintain performance
standards. PHIUS has developed a performance
standard that is optimized for each of North
America’s climate zones, recognizing differences
not only in climate conditions but also in methods
and markets. In so doing, PHIUS also developed a
framework that can be used to develop climate-
specific targets around the world. Passive house
design and construction has been successfully exe-
cuted in homes, high rises, schools, and offices and
is applicable to any typology.
Given the different approach to standards,
PHIUS and PHI are based on individual software
tools to design and model projects. PHI continues
to support and require an Excel-based Passive
House Planning Package (PHPP ®). PHIUS, in
partnership with Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute
for Building Physics, developed WUFI© Passive.
WUFI Passive was built on the established WUFI
Plus, a sophisticated modeling tool that is capable
of modeling hygrothermal performance – and
solving potentially catastrophic moisture issues
in the design stage. WUFI Passive includes
PHPP’s functionality and adds the hygrothermal
capabilities as well as a dynamic modeling mode.
Residential and commercial building adoption
of passive house design is now growing exponen-
tially and holds enormous promise in reducing
energy consumption and the commensurate car-
bon load in the USA and worldwide.
Introduction
Buildings account for 40–50% of the total US
carbon emissions and commensurate carbon
emissions in Europe and Scandinavia. In the effort
Passive House (Passivhaus)
to reduce carbon from the built environment, pas-
sive house building standards are the most ambi-
tious energy standards in the world. The passive
house design and construction approach aspires to
slash space-conditioning energy consumption of
buildings by up to 90% and to reduce overall
energy use of space conditioning combined with
household electricity by 60–80%. Thousands of
homes, schools, and commercial buildings have
been built or remodeled to meet the Passivhaus
Standard, developed by Germany’s Passivhaus
Institut (PHI) in Europe. Application of passive
house design principles and construction
methods – in both new construction and retrofit
scenarios – is burgeoning in the USA. Structures
built to passive building standards have high-
quality and long-lasting enclosures and superior
comfort and indoor air quality, use substantially
less energy, and produce dramatically reduced
carbon and other harmful admissions.
Today’s passive house building standards
evolved from the super-insulated buildings of the
1970s, many of which were pioneered and built in
North America. In response to the oil embargo in
1973, the US and Canadian governments both
intensified research in energy-efficient building
solutions. North American researchers identified
the basic passive building principles and neces-
sary technologies in an effort to create homes that
were less dependent on foreign oil supplies. The
Small Homes Council of the University of Illinois
(now known as the Building Research Council)
developed the Lo-Cal house in the mid-1970s, and
Wayne Schick, a member of the architectural fac-
ulty then, is credited with coining the term “super-
insulation.”
A second group of early designs incorporated
passive solar heating strategies in addition to
super-insulation and increased air tightness. The
Saskatchewan Energy Conservation House, built
at the end of the 1970s, succeeded in reducing
losses and peak loads in this extremely cold cli-
mate to 1.5 W/ft2 – equivalent to the best peak
loads in today’s passive houses in similar cli-
mates. The Canadian National Research Council
and Minnesota’s Housing Finance Agency were
instrumental in supporting the construction of
very low-energy prototypes and in launching
low-energy programs including the R2000
329
standards. William Shurcliff [1], a Harvard phys-
icist, declared research into passive principles and
technology complete and accurately predicted fur-
ther developments in the areas of smart vapor
retarders, more efficient heat exchangers, compact
space conditioning systems, and high-performing
windows. By the end of 1986, an estimated
10,000–30,000 very low-energy homes had been
built in North America. Many of these early pro-
totypes are still around today and provide excel-
lent long-term experience with this construction
type. They are, to this day, comfortable, energy-
efficient homes with very good indoor air quality
(IAQ) and long-lasting, high-quality enclosures.
Originating in Canada and the USA in the
1970s and 1980s, the terms “passive” and passive
solar described the combined approach of super-
insulation and measured passive solar strategies to
minimize space conditioning to extremely low
loads. The Saskatchewan Energy Conservation
House was called a “passive house” at the time.
Passivhaus Standard in Europe
In Germany in the early 1990s, the North Amer-
ican passive, low-energy home concept was fur-
ther refined into a comprehensive design approach
and energy standard called “Passivhaus Stan-
dard.” It was named after the term previously
coined by Canadian researchers: “passive house”
translated into the German language. Swedish
professor Bo Adamson and German physicist
Wolfgang Feist envisioned a low-energy building
that could meet and exceed the rigorous 1988
energy standard for new buildings in Sweden: a
house they called “Passivhaus.” The construction
of the first Passivhaus prototype, a four-unit row
house structure in Darmstadt, Germany, was com-
pleted in 1991. In 1995, Amory Lovins – an
American energy pioneer and founder of the
Rocky Mountain Institute – visited the optimized
Passivhaus prototype at Darmstadt and was
impressed. Lovins had implemented passive
building principles in his own home and office
building in the 1980s, published papers on passive
buildings’ energy savings potential, and saw in
Feist’s work a standard for the future. He encour-
aged Feist to use the project as a basis for
330
redesigning details to reduce construction costs in
order to meet energy needs for a broad range of
implementation. The project triggered the devel-
opment of improved high-performance materials,
components, and micro-load systems, as had been
predicted by Shurcliff in 1988.
The passive house design principles were opti-
mized by Feist and Adamson to describe a holistic
design strategy tailored to the heating-dominated
Central and Northern European climate. Then, as
now, the primary components of a passive house
were thick insulation, few or no thermal bridges,
an airtight envelope, excellent insulated glazing,
and balanced heat recovery ventilation. The goal
was to reduce the energy required to heat to com-
fortable conditions to the point where a conven-
tional heating system could be eliminated,
offsetting the increased costs of super-insulation,
high-performance windows, and increased air
sealing. A single 1000 W heating element in a
pressure balanced ventilation stream provided all
the heating requirements for a home of approxi-
mately 1000 ft2 or 100 m2. The annual total
heating demand could be minimized by making
careful use of existing internal heat sources – peo-
ple, lights, and appliances – and optimized (not
maximized) solar energy admitted by the win-
dows. The fresh air heating supply was preheated
by a highly efficient heat recovery from the
exhaust air. In earlier Passivhaus projects in
Europe, preheating would also be provided by
an earth tube for the supply air, a passive geother-
mal heating-and-cooling system that is also
intended to prevent the heat exchange core of the
ventilation system from freezing.
Early prototypes were designed so that the
maximum heat load in the German winter was to
be less than 10 watts per square meter (W/m2) or
0.9 watts per square foot (W/ft2) of floor area.
Under these circumstances, the heat load could
be comfortably supplied using the required venti-
lation air – eliminating the need for a separate
means of heat distribution. Cost-optimized solar
thermal systems for hot water production were
also specified. Supported by research grants
from the German state of Hessen, Dr. Feist created
detailed computerized simulations modeling the
energy behaviors of wall and window assemblies
and other construction elements. Then he
Passive House (Passivhaus)
systematically varied these elements to arrive at
the best possible construction packages based on
energy efficiency, installation expense, and
sustainability.
In 1996, Dr. Feist founded the Passivhaus Institut
(PHI) in Darmstadt. The PHI has flourished under
his leadership, designing, testing, calculating, certi-
fying, and analyzing data on buildings constructed
to the Passivhaus Standard. The Passivhaus Stan-
dard has since been recognized in the European
Union to be a cost-effective way to achieve near
zero- or zero-energy buildings. The Passive House
Planning Package (PHPP) is the institute’s energy-
modeling tool. The methodology used in this Excel-
based calculation tool is profoundly thorough and
balanced for interdependencies, and it has been used
to design and certify approximately 1000 projects of
all building types across Europe. The PHPP model-
ing tool is a relatively easy-to-use tool to predict the
energy consumption of extremely low-energy
homes. Its granularity has been calibrated to identify
the smallest design effects on the energy perfor-
mance of a building. Some of those effects are
precise calculation of transmission losses through
all components of the thermal envelope, solar gains,
shading, thermal bridging effects, the influence of
thermal mass, ventilation losses, systems efficien-
cies, and ventilation system design for minimized
fresh air conditioning. The model is based on static
calculations using average monthly climate data to
make its energy performance predictions. The
underlying algorithms are based on publicly avail-
able ISO (International Organization for Standardi-
zation) standards.
The Passivhaus Standard defines one of the
most stringent energy metrics and standards world-
wide (see Table 1). It requires that a building use no
more than 15 kilowatt-hours per square meter
(kWh/m2) per year in heating and cooling energy
(plus a dehumidification allowance in addition to
the cooling limit) or 4.75 thousand British thermal
units per square foot (kBtu/ft2) annually. It further
requires that the building’s total primary energy
consumption – that is, source energy used for
space conditioning, hot water, and electricity –
does not exceed 120 kWh/m2 (10.8 kWh/ft2 or
38 kBtu/ft2) per year, in reference to the interior
treated floor area (discounted conditioned floor
area according to a German rental law). Retrofit
Passive House (Passivhaus) 331

Passive House (Passivhaus), Table 1 Passivhaus Standard criteria [2]

Airtightness Primary Renewable Renewable
Heating (ACH @50 energy primary energy energy
demanda Cooling demanda pascals) demanda demanda generationa
Passive 15 15 (+ 0.6 120 60 –
House dehumidification
Classic contribution)
Passive – 45 60
House Plus
Passive – 30 120
House
Premium
EnerPHit 15–35 (per 30 (+ 1.0 Varies 120 Varies
(existing climate dehumidification)
buildings) zone)
Low-energy 30 Passive House 1.0 120 75 –
building requirement + 15
standard
a
kWh/m2 year

(EnerPHit) projects have to meet less stringent
energy targets for annual demand and primary
energy. Most recently a new Primary Energy
Demand (PER) limit was added as well as new
classes of certifications for projects that include
renewable energy systems on the path to zero.
Structures built to the Passivhaus Standard –
and the techniques and products developed for
them – were further popularized in Europe through
the European Union’s CEPHEUS project (Cost
Efficient Passive Houses as European Standards)
[3], which validated how well the Passivhaus Stan-
dard worked in five European countries over the
winter of 2000–2001. PHI created the international
Passive House Association (iPHA) in 2010 for its
worldwide member organizations to join. PHI and
its international membership organizations have
certified approximately 100 projects outside of
Europe, half of those in the USA and Canada.
Many cities in Europe are now mandating that all
new construction built with public monies be built
to Passivhaus Standards. In 2015, Belgium became
the first country to adopt a modified version of the
Passivhaus Standard as nationwide code for all
new and retrofit (residential and commercial) con-
struction. Switzerland created a Swiss-specific
Passivhaus Standard program called Minergie-P
[4], and while Denmark – with its mild climate –
mostly follows the Passivhaus criteria, other North-
ern Scandinavian countries created and enacted
their own modified reach code versions for very
cold climate zones (see Table 2).
The European Union recommends passive
house building principles be applied to all enve-
lope designs but decided against making a specific
standard mandatory for their Europe-wide Build-
ing Energy Directive – beyond the requirement
for near zero-energy buildings by 2020 for all new
construction.
Passive House Standard in North
America
In the spring of 2002, German-born architect
Katrin Klingenberg traveled from the USA,
where she has lived since 1994, to Germany to
tour “Passivhaus” buildings with Manfred
Brausem, a leading architect and Passivhaus pio-
neer there. An ardent advocate of sustainable
architecture, Klingenberg returned to the USA
and began designing the Smith House, which
broke ground in 2003 in Urbana, Illinois. After
attending the Seventh International Passivhaus
Conference in Hamburg, Germany, where she
met Dr. Feist, Klingenberg returned to finish the
Smith House (see Fig. 1), which became the first
Passivhaus in North America that used the PHPP
software as a design tool.
332 Passive House (Passivhaus)

Passive House (Passivhaus), Table 2 Sweden’s Passive House criteria compared to Denmark (Source: Rolf Jacobson [5])
Certification
requirements Denmark – PHI Sweden – FEBY’12 Sweden – notes
Specific </=15 kWh/m2/year No requirements set
space heat
demand
Specific </=15 kWh/m2/ No requirements set
space year+0.3 W/m2/year
cooling K  CDD
demand
Airtightness </=0.6 ACH@50 Pa </=0.3 l/s/m2 envelope area @ 50 Pa First result is roughly equivalent to
test (0.06 cfm/sf envelope area) (or) 0.6 ACH for small homes, but much
</=0.5 l/s/m2 floor area @ 50 Pa for lower as building size increases
small houses (0.72 ACH @50 Pa)
Specific </=120 kWh/m2/year </=63, 59, 55 kWh/m2/year in Requirements listed for buildings
primary climate zones 1, 2, 3, respectively less than 400 m2, otherwise subtract
energy (no electric heat) 5 kWh/m2/year for no electric heat,
demand </=31, 29, 27 kWh/m2/year in 2 kWh/m2/year for electric heat, and
climate zones 1, 2, 3, respectively 5 kWh/m2/year for district heat. For
(electric heat) non-district heat options, this is
</=78, 73, 68 kWh/m2/year in delivered energy, not primary energy,
climate zones 1, 2, 3 respectively and only includes energy used for
(district + mixed energy) (district + heating, hot water, and ventilation.
mixed energy calculated using 2.5* For district + mixed heat, listed
Eel + 0.8* Eheat + 0.4* Ecool + energy demand is primary energy
Eother)
Heating load </=10 W/m2 </=19 W/m2 in climate zone 1 Requirements listed for buildings
(alternative to </=18 W/m2 in climate zone 2 less than 400 m2, otherwise subtract
specific space heat </=17 W/m2 in climate zone 3 2 W/m2/year. Alternatively, can use
demand requirement) equation Max
2 W/m2 subtracted for floor
VFT = 12.3–0.227  DVUT12 day
area > 400m2
Cooling load </=10 W/m2 + No requirements set
etc. (alternative to
specific space cooling
demand req.)

Passive House (Passivhaus), Fig. 1 Smith House, Urbana, Illinois, USA, 2003 (Source: K. Klingenberg)
Passive House (Passivhaus) 333

Monitoring devices installed at the Smith

House after its completion confirmed the energy
model predictions [6]:

• The house uses only 11 kWh/m2 (1 kWh/ft2 or

3.5 kBtu/ft2) per year in heating energy
(in reference to the passive house interior
treated floor area).
• The highest monthly total energy use ever for
space and water heating, appliances, and light-
ing was 599 kWh.
• With an average electrical base load of
265 kWh, the highest monthly energy use for
space heating has been 334 kWh.
Passive House (Passivhaus), Fig. 2 BioHaus,
The Smith House confirmed the applicability of Concordia Language Village, Bemidji, Minnesota, USA,
the European-developed design tool for this North 2006 (Source: S. Tanner)
American location, both to predict heating demand
and to demonstrate the relative ease of transfer to
the winter Olympics of 2010 and certified in
local construction techniques. However, early les-
2010 in Whistler, British Columbia (see Fig. 3).
sons regarding overheating and cooling demands
In April 2007, Klingenberg and passive house
also emerged. At the time, the PHPP did not include
builder Mike Kernagis cofounded the Passive
any cooling algorithms, a topic that would soon be
House Institute United States (PHIUS) to dissem-
addressed so that Passivhaus modeling tools now
inate information and promote the construction of
include cooling load predictions.
passive houses and buildings in North America.
Encouraged by the success of the Smith House,
PHIUS created a training curriculum and certifi-
Klingenberg went on to found the Ecological
cation (Certified Passive House Consultant –
Construction Laboratory in September of 2003, a
CPHC ®) for professionals in 2008, the first of its
nonprofit Community Housing Development
kind in the English language. It also began offer-
Organization with the mission to promote and
ing certification for projects, initially in coopera-
build affordable passive homes in the Midwest.
tion with the PHI in Germany. PHIUS was the first
The first of those affordable passive homes was
to offer project certification outside of Europe.
completed and sold in Urbana in 2006.
In 2005, Stephan Tanner, a Swiss-born archi-
tect, started working on the first American
Passivhaus school building, the BioHaus in Climate-Specific Passive House Building
Bemidji, Minnesota – located in an even more Standards
challenging climate. Designed as a learning facil-
ity for the German language Concordia Village, By 2011, PHIUS had consulted on 22 pilot projects
the BioHaus succeeded in meeting the Passivhaus that had been built in the full range of North Amer-
Standard and was certified in 2006 (see Fig. 2). ican climates, from Fairbanks, Alaska, to Lafa-
In October 2006, Klingenberg and Tanner yette, Louisiana. It had become clear that North
teamed up to organize the first North American America’s diverse and more extreme climate zones
Passive House conference at the BioHaus in Min- presented new challenges for the Passivhaus Stan-
nesota. Interest was piqued and new projects were dard that required ongoing refinement of design
started. The first Canadian project meeting the guidelines, standards, construction techniques,
Passivhaus Standard was built as a showcase to component design, and manufactured products to
house the Austrian Olympic Committee during meet the special requirements of each climate zone.
334
Passive House
(Passivhaus), Fig. 3 Lost
Lake Passivhaus, Whistler,
British Columbia, Canada,
2010 (Source: S. Tanner)
PHIUS and PHI ended their collaboration in
2011 over disagreements of the applicability of
the Passivhaus Standard for all climate zones.
PHIUS went on to partner with the Department
of Energy (DOE) Zero Energy Ready Home
(ZERH) program, the Residential Energy Net-
work (RESNET), and the Building Science Cor-
poration (BSC) to redesign and advance a passive
building standard appropriate for US climates,
standards, and construction practices.
Since 2012, PHIUS’s certification program has
incorporated accepted industry standards and
practices regarding quality assurance and best
building science practices as brought forward by
the Department of energy and the Environmental
Protection Agency (see Fig. 4).
PHIUS project certification is now based on
cost-optimized climate-specific passive house
building standards developed by PHIUS in coop-
eration with the leading enclosure experts at
Building Science Corporation (its principal
Dr. Joe Lstiburek was an early passive house
pioneer in Canada in the 1980s) under a Depart-
ment of Energy Grant [8]. The resulting passive
building standard is called PHIUS+ 2015 (see
Table 3) with energy metrics that vary according
to climate to more appropriately balance heating
and cooling demands.
A building certified to PHIUS+2015 meets the
standard guidelines for space conditioning energy,
source energy, and airtightness as well as onsite
verification requirements. An additional certifica-
tion, PHIUS+ Source Zero, is awarded if a
Passive House (Passivhaus)
renewable energy system has been specified to
meet the energy demands of the building or to
become a positive energy building.
In 2012, PHIUS also partnered with the Fraun-
hofer Institute for Building Physics to develop a
new all-in-one design and verification software
tool for passive buildings: WUFI Passive/Plus
supports static calculation based on the same
methodology, EN and ISO standards used by the
PHPP. In addition, it offers a dynamic, hourly
energy modeling capability. The dynamic mode
provides accurate assessment of thermal and
hygrothermal storage effects on the overall energy
balance for very low-load homes in hot and humid
climates and offers zonal thermal comfort checks.
The refined passive building design guidelines,
standards, and tools adjusted for North American
climate zones are a critical solution for the more
diverse climates in the USA and Canada.
By the end of 2016, there were a total of 1000
dwelling units certified by PHIUS and PHI in
North America (see Fig. 5), with the majority
certified under the climate-specific PHIUS certifi-
cation protocols.
The exponential growth of passive house
building construction has been accelerated by
incentives from affordable housing finance agen-
cies, utility incentives, and cities looking to meet
their carbon reduction goals. Expedited permit-
ting rules for passive house projects have been
implemented in San Francisco and Seattle. The
cities of Vancouver, Seattle, and New York City
and the state of Massachusetts are beginning to
 Passive House (Passivhaus)

Passive House (Passivhaus), Fig. 4 High-performance home staircase [7] (Source: Zero Energy Ready Home (DOE), PHIUS)
335
336 Passive House (Passivhaus)

Passive House (Passivhaus), Table 3 PHIUS+ 2015 passive building standards [7] (Source: PHIUS)
Airtightness Renewable
Heating demand/ Cooling demand/ (cfm50/sf Source energy generation for
loada loada envelope) demand source zero
Single family 1–16.8 kBTU/ft2. 1–23.4 kBTU/ft2.year 0.05 6200 kWh/ >Source
year 0–7.6 BTU/h.ft2 1.3–9.5 BTU/h ft2 person.year energy
demand
Commercial 38 kBTU/ft2 >Source
year energy
demand
Multifamily 0.08b 6200 kWh/ >Source
person.year/ energy
38 kBTU/ demand
ft2.year
Retrofit As above, + As above, + 0.05/0.08b
allowance for allowance for
existing thermal existing thermal
bridges bridges
a
Maximum climate-specific targets for each individual project
b
Buildings with five stories-+, non-combustible construction

Passive House (Passivhaus), Fig. 5 Certified Passive House Building Units in North America by the end of 2016 [9]
(Source: Pembina Institute)
Passive House (Passivhaus)
put legislation in place that incorporates passive
house building design targets. Since 2008, more
than 3000 professionals have taken the PHIUS
certification training for architects, designers,
builders, raters, and verifiers. The number of cer-
tified passive house consultants (CPHC ® – a reg-
istered certification mark of PHIUS) who have
taken and passed the final rigorous PHIUS
exams has surpassed 1500. PHI has also trained
and certified approximately 1000 professionals in
North America but holds no certification mark and
does not follow accepted US testing standards.
Adoption of passive house building standards
will continue to accelerate in Europe and North
America. For passive building standards to
become the mainstream energy performance stan-
dard, it is critical that:
• Legislative efforts as well as incentive pro-
grams will continue to develop.
• Training and continuing education opportuni-
ties grow to meet the need.
• Experiences in North America’s diverse cli-
mate regions are measured and shared with
the building community, driving continual
refinement of principles, construction tech-
niques, component design, design standards,
and guidelines to measure efficacy on the
path to zero energy and carbon.
• Manufacturers invest in R&D and produce
more cost-effective high-performance compo-
nents to facilitate scaling the market and to
bring down cost.
• Rigorous project and professional certification
programs must be maintained to maintain the
integrity in the marketplace.
Principles of Passive House Building
Design
While there are different passive house design
approaches and building standards emerging world-
wide, there is general agreement on the basic under-
lying passive building principles and building
science. The passive building concept is a
performance-based comprehensive approach to
cost-effective, high-quality, healthy, and sustainable
construction. It seeks to balance minimizing energy
337
losses and maximizing passive energy gains for the
winter case and optimizing losses and minimizing
gains for the summer case. A passive house or
building requires up to 90% less energy for space
heating and up to 50% less for cooling than conven-
tional construction. To attain such outstanding
energy savings, passive house consultants and
builders work together to systematically implement
the following six basic design strategies (see upper
half of Figs. 6 and 7):
• Continuous (super) insulation (depending on
climate)
• Elimination of thermal bridges
• Airtight construction
• Heat or energy recovery ventilation (depending
on climate)
• High-performance windows and doors
(depending on climate) to optimize passive
solar heating (depending on climate)
• Shading (depending on climate) and capturing
internal heat gains (depending on climate),
daylighting design
These basic energy principles can be reliably
modeled in a simplified static whole-building
energy balance. But there are also important
dynamic aspects to passive house designs. Static
calculations are simplified versions of dynamic
models based on monthly average climate data.
They work well to obtain fast design feedback in
relatively simple climates. Designing for thermal
comfort in more complex climates and moisture
assessments would be vastly inaccurate if not
more granular climate data was used for the cal-
culations. Dynamic models therefore use hourly
climate data and can calculate results more accu-
rately. To attain a high-quality envelope without
moisture problems, to manage indoor moisture
and achieve the best thermal comfort, passive
house consultants and builders use the dynamic
modeling tool WUFI Passive/Plus and work
together to implement the following four design
strategies (see lower half of Figs. 6 and 7):
• Continuous water-resistive barriers (designed
based on climate) and appropriate flashing on
the exterior of the enclosure, controlling initial
moisture content of construction materials
338 Passive House (Passivhaus)

Passive House
(Passivhaus),
Fig. 6 Passive house
building principles (Source:
Fraunhofer Institute for
Building Physics, PHIUS)

SUMMER

Muffler

WINTER
Supply Exhaust
Undercut door
SLEEPING or jump duct BATHING

Supply Exhaust
Exhaust
LIVING COOKING Fresh Air

Filter
Supply Air Air/air heat
with heat register exchanger

PASSIVE HOUSE INSTITUTE US

Subsoil heat exchanger

Passive House (Passivhaus), Fig. 7 Integrated design and passive house building section (Source: PHIUS)
Passive House (Passivhaus)
• Airtight construction with appropriate vapor
control layers (designed based on climate)
• A micro-load space conditioning system
(designed based on climate)
• Thermal and hygrothermal storage (designed
based on climate)
Design and Construct Continuous
(Super) Insulation
The insulation in a house works in much the same
way as the insulation in a thermos bottle. In both
cases, the insulating outer shell or envelope
blocks or slows heat transmission and maintains
the contents at a relatively constant temperature.
Warm contents stay warm, cool contents stay
cool, even when the temperature on the outside
hits one extreme or another. In a building
constructed to passive house building standards,
the entire envelope of the building – walls, roof,
and floor or basement – is well insulated.
How well insulated? That depends, of course,
on the climate. To achieve passive house building
standards, a home in Sonoma, California, required
only 6 in. (15 cm) of blown-in cellulose insulation
to meet the standard, while a home in the far
colder climate of Urbana, Illinois, needed 16 in.
(40 cm) – almost three times as much. In colder
climates, the first feature of a passive house to
catch a visitor’s attention is often the unusual
thickness of the walls. This thickness is needed
to accommodate the required level of insulation
but also creates effective shading or delightful
window seats. In larger buildings – multifamily
passive buildings, for example – the insulation
needed to meet the standards is much less. Larger
structures have a much lower surface to volume
ratio, which means they lose much less heat per
enclosed square foot (m2) of space because they
are more compact than a single family home.
Designing to the Comfort Principle
Thermal comfort in summer and winter is the
focus for determining the required thickness of
the insulation based on climate. Human thermal
comfort is commonly evaluated by the air temper-
ature in the space but is more accurately measured
339
in terms of air temperature, radiant temperature,
relative humidity, and air movement.
If the mean radiant surface temperature of rooms’
interior wall components is substantially below air
temperature, then discomfort will increase. In fact,
room temperature must rise by 1.4  F for each 1  F
degree drop in wall surface temperature in winter,
with the reverse in summer. Keeping interior wall
temperatures warm is a key benefit of passive house
design, achieved through high levels of insulation
and the elimination of thermal bridges.
Discomfort can also be caused by airflow from
infiltration or induced convection. Different tem-
peratures near the floor of a room compared to the
ceiling, or significant differences in first floor
temperatures and second floor temperatures, will
create drafts that increase discomfort – a condition
eliminated through super-insulation and high-
performance windows. Infiltration through poorly
assembled enclosures will also create drafts that
lead to discomfort, which should be eliminated
through the airtight enclosure assemblies in pas-
sive house projects.
Passive houses maintain room surface tempera-
tures at a level that nearly eliminates convection. By
determining the set points for the interior room
temperature for summer and winter comfort, and
looking at the summer and winter design tempera-
tures in any given climate, the R-value can be cal-
culated so that the wall temperature – even during
the coldest design day in winter or hottest in
summer – will remain within the acceptable comfort
range. In a passive building, a room’s wall surfaces
will not exceed 4  F below air temperature to main-
tain human thermal comfort – a far cry from the
10 to 20  F differences between wall and room
temperatures in many conventional buildings.
Specifying Insulation Materials
Passive building designers have a wide range of
choices for the materials used to create well-
insulated building envelopes for various climates.
Wall assemblies can be built using conventional
lumber or masonry construction, double-stud con-
struction, structural insulated panels (SIPs), insu-
lated concrete forms (ICFs), truss joist I-beams
(TJIs), steel or concrete frame, or straw bale
construction.
340
Similarly, designers can choose from a number
of different types of insulation. These include cellu-
lose, high-density blown-in fiberglass, polystyrene,
spray foam, and again straw bale. Although spray
foams have a high R-value and are easy to apply,
many builders prefer not to use them because they
are petroleum-based products with high embodied
energy and because some expansion agents can
contribute significantly to global warming. Manu-
facturers have made significant progress over the
last few years in developing spray foams that do
not have these disadvantages. Vacuum insulated
panels (VIPs) are a relatively new, and still pricey,
option with an exceptionally high R-value per inch.
Using VIPs allows designers and builders to greatly
decrease the thickness of the walls in passive homes.
Even higher-tech insulations are in development
such as aerogels.
No matter which type of insulation gets chosen,
the builder must install it correctly. If loose fill
insulation such as cellulose or high-density fiber-
glass is being used, it is important to ensure the
proper density on site before insulation is blown in
to prevent any settling. The application and perfor-
mance of insulation can be directly measured using
thermographic imaging. Variations in infrared radi-
ation (IR) between well-installed insulation and
gaps and thermal bridges can be observed using a
thermographic, or IR, camera. These cameras can
detect where insulation is insufficient, incomplete,
damaged, or settled. Technicians who read thermal
images of properly constructed passive homes
have jokingly called them boring, as they often
reveal very little substantive heat loss.
Eliminate Thermal Bridges by Design
Heat loss follows the path of least resistance: Heat
will pass very quickly through an element that has a
higher thermal conductivity than the surrounding
material, forming what is known as a thermal
bridge. Thermal bridges can significantly increase
heat losses, which can create areas in the walls that
are cooler than their surroundings. In humid cli-
mates or humid rooms, inadequate insulation and
thermal bridges can cause moisture problems: when
warm, moist air condenses on a cooler surface.
Passive House (Passivhaus)
Thermal bridges occur at edges, corners, con-
nections, and penetrations. A bridge can be as
simple as a single lintel that has a higher thermal
conductivity than the surrounding wall or several
steel wall ties that pass through an envelope.
A cantilevering balcony slab that is not thermally
isolated from the interior concrete floor can be a
potent thermal bridge. An effective thermal isola-
tion is called a thermal break. Without a thermal
break, the balcony will act as a very large heat
exchanger to the outdoors – in the wintertime!
In a passive house construction, there are few
or no thermal bridges. A detail or wall assembly is
said to be thermal bridge-free when the thermal
bridge coefficient, which is an indicator of the
extra heat loss caused by a thermal bridge, is less
than 0.01 watts per meter per Kelvin (W/mK) or
0.006 British Thermal Units per hour foot and
degree Fahrenheit (BTU/h ft  F). Heat loss
through this detail is negligible, and interior tem-
peratures are sufficiently stabilized to eliminate
moisture problems and to meet human comfort
criteria. It is critical for the passive house designer
and builder to plan for reducing or eliminating
thermal breaks by limiting penetrations and by
using heat transfer-resistant, thermally broken
materials. Again, thermographic imaging during
quality control visits can be used to determine
how effective the efforts to eliminate thermal
bridges have been.
Design and Construct Airtight Envelopes
Airtight construction helps the performance of a
building by reducing or eliminating drafts –
whether hot or cold – thereby reducing the need
for space conditioning to maintain comfort. Air-
tightness also helps to prevent warm, moist air
from penetrating the structure, condensing inside
the wall, and causing structural damage.
Airtight construction is achieved by wrapping
an intact, continuous layer of air barrier materials
around the entire building envelope. Special care
must be taken to ensure continuity of this layer
around windows, doors, penetrations, and all
joints between the roof, walls, and floors. Insula-
tion materials are generally not airtight and that
Passive House (Passivhaus)
includes spray foams. The materials used to create
an intact airtight layer include various mem-
branes, tapes, plasters, glues, shields, and gaskets,
but sheathing materials can also be used as a
primary airtight layer. It is important that the air
barrier accommodates vapor migration, to be
discussed further in sections “Design and Con-
struct Continuous Water-Resistive Barriers” and
“Design and Construct Continuous Airtight Vapor
Control Layer.” These materials are durable,
adherent, easy to apply, and environmentally
sound, which in turn makes it easier for a builder
to meet the stringent airtightness requirement of
the passive house standards.
Airtightness of a Building: A Measurable
Dimension of the Quality of Construction
Testing airtightness requires the use of a blower
door, which is essentially a large fan used in
conjunction with sensitive measuring instru-
ments. The blower door can be used to either
depressurize or pressurize a house to a designated
pressure. With the fan set to maintain this desig-
nated pressure, a technician can assess how much
air is infiltrating the building through all its gaps
and cracks. Specific leaks can be detected during
the test either by hand, by employing tracer
smoke, or by looking at thermographic images if
there is a temperature difference between inside
and outside. It is best to conduct the blower door
test at a point in construction when the airtight
layer can still be easily accessed, when any leaks
can be readily addressed.
Passive house buildings are extremely tight. At a
standard test pressure of 50 pascals (50 Pa), a build-
ing that meets passive building standards must allow
no more than 0.6 air changes per hour (ACH) in
order to achieve certification under the PHI certifi-
cation protocol. Under the PHIUS+ 2015 certifica-
tion protocol, the building has to meet a revised
metric of 0.3 l/s m2 envelope (at 50 Pa) or
0.05 CFM per gross ft2 of envelope area (at 50 Pa)
or 0.08 CFM50 per gross ft2 gross of envelope area
(at 50 Pa) for buildings over five stories.
While the volume reference of ACH50 is
appropriate for single family homes, it does not
scale with the size of the building and cannot be
used to assess the risk of condensation accurately
341
on a per square foot enclosure basis. PHIUS
changed to a per square meter or per square foot
envelope measurement for airtightness as more
multifamily and larger commercial buildings
applied for certification. At the original 0.6
ACH50, a larger building could be up to seven
times leakier than an average size single family
home and meet the inadequate metric.
Projects that have successfully met passive
house standards have been built from the full
range of construction materials – timber, masonry,
prefabricated elements, and steel or concrete frame
buildings with highly insulated curtain walls.
Airtightness does not mean that one cannot
open the windows. Passive houses have fully oper-
able windows, and most are designed to take full
advantage of natural ventilation to help maintain
comfortable temperatures in the spring, fall, and
even the summer, depending on the local climate.
Engineer Heat or Energy Recovery
Ventilation
Perhaps the most common misconception regard-
ing passive homes is related to the airtightness. “A
house needs to breathe,” builders might say dis-
approvingly, when first presented with the idea of
building very tight homes. Buildings that meet
passive building standards do breathe – excep-
tionally well. However, rather than breathing
unknown volumes of air through uncontrolled
leaks, passive homes breathe controlled volumes
of air through mechanical ventilation. Mechanical
ventilation continuously circulates measured
amounts of fresh air through the house and
exhausts known quantities of stale air from the
house. This makes for excellent indoor air quality
(IAQ). The amount of air exchanged is strictly
based on the exchange necessary to assure all
pollutants are sufficiently removed. The health
and comfort of the occupants come first for the
passive building designer, and excellent IAQ is
indispensable for occupant health.
A passive house is ventilated using a balanced
mechanical ventilation system. To be extremely
energy efficient, passive house designers specify
energy recovery ventilators (ERVs) or heat
342
recovery ventilators (HRVs) in cold, dry, and
marine climates. These machines incorporate an
air-to-air energy recovery system, which con-
serves most of the energy in the exhaust air and
transfers it to the incoming fresh air. This signif-
icantly reduces the energy needed to heat or cool
that incoming air.
State-of-the-art ERV and HRV ventilation sys-
tems have measured and verified heat recovery
rates of 75–96%, including the energy consumed
by the motor of the ventilator. To avoid a loss of
input energy versus heat recovery effectiveness,
the efficiency of the motor needs to be extremely
high. The energy efficiency limit for passive house
ventilation system motors should meet 0.45 watt
hours per cubic meter (Wh/m3) of air or 0.76 watts
per cubic foot per minute (W/cfm) of air.
The ventilation system generally exhausts air
from the rooms that produce moisture and
unwanted odors, such as the kitchen and bath-
rooms. The flow rate is set to a low level. For a
typical single family home, the base airflow rate is
approximately 90–120 cfm total. Timed overrides
are typically installed in the exhaust rooms to allow
the user a short period of time to increase the
ventilation flow rate if moisture or odor levels are
elevated. The exhaust air gets drawn through the
ventilator on its way out of the building. There it
passes through a heat exchanger that transfers the
reusable heat energy to the incoming fresh air. It is
important to note that the exhaust air is not mixed
with the incoming air; only its heat or coolness is
transferred. Acceptable contamination of the two
air steams is limited to 3% max. Unlike conven-
tional forced air heating and cooling systems, no air
is recirculated with a balanced mechanical ventila-
tion system. All supply air is fresh air.
When operating, the ventilator constantly pro-
vides a steady supply of fresh air. At the same
time, it removes excess moisture, CO2, and other
pollutants like VOCs from furniture, unwanted
odors, and even radon. The outside air is filtered
and the house pressure is balanced. Outdoor air
filtration is important for indoor hygiene as well as
for a long-lasting ventilation system. Passivhaus
buildings have a requirement of a minimum filter
quality of F7 (Europe) and passive houses here in
the USA a minimum MERV 8. The air is
Passive House (Passivhaus)
distributed at the low flow rate through small,
unobtrusive but highly effective diffusers. The
system is generally very quiet and draft-free.
Dust circulation is minimized. The passive house
design and verification tools (WUFI Passive/Plus
and PHPP) recommend a ventilation ACH (air
change per hour) of 0.3–0.4 times the volume of
the building and a guideline ACH of 30 cubic
meters (m3) per person.
The main difference between an HRV and an
ERV is that while the HRV conserves heat and
cooling energy, the ERV also transfers humidity.
In summer, an ERV helps keep the humidity out-
side; in winter, it helps prevent indoor air from
becoming too dry. For in-between seasons, when
no conditioning is needed, a bypass can be
installed for either HRVs or ERVs to avoid
heating the incoming air. Alternatively, the venti-
lation system can be turned off altogether, and
windows can be opened to bring in fresh air.
Both HRV and ERV system efficiency can be
further increased by pre-warming or precooling the
incoming air. This was initially done in early pro-
jects by passing the incoming air through open
channels known as earth tubes. Since the ground
maintains a more constant and moderate tempera-
ture throughout the year than outdoor air, passing
the air through tubes buried in the earth either pre-
heats or precools the air depending on the season.
The use of earth tubes is diminishing because they
can be prone to collecting condensation, which can
lead to health concerns. Preheating and precooling
are now often accomplished indirectly, by circulat-
ing water or antifreeze liquid in very cold climates
through an underground pipe as a closed loop heat
exchanger to heat or cool the air with a water-to-air
exchanger integrated with the intake air stream.
Condensation in humid climates is drained in a
controlled location rather than occurring in the air
stream.
Specify High-Performance Windows and
Doors
Designers of passive buildings choose windows
and doors based on their performance qualities,
especially their insulating value and airtightness.
Passive House (Passivhaus)
Exceptional insulating properties are required to
ensure low-energy and thermal comfort standards,
and there have been extraordinary advances in
window quality over the past 30 years. Many
brands of windows and doors are now being
made with exceptional thermal resistance and air
tightness, with appropriate thermal breaks and
double gaskets, reducing losses through conduc-
tion, radiation, and infiltration. High-performance
windows and doors are proving to be cost-
effective in passive building applications.
One development that has significantly
affected the heat conductivity of window glazing
is the introduction of low-emissivity (low-e) coat-
ings. These are microscopically thin, transparent
layers of metal or metallic oxide deposited on the
surface of the glass. The coated side of the glass
faces the airspace between two panes of a glazed
assembly, and the airspace is filled with low-
conductivity argon or krypton gas rather than air,
greatly reducing the window’s heat transfer. Dif-
ferent low-e coatings have been designed to allow
for high, moderate, or low solar gain as well as
high, moderate, and low visible light transmis-
sion. This provides a range of options for houses
in all climates, from heating dominated to cooling
dominated. Today, builders can choose to install
triple-pane low-e-coated, argon-filled windows
with special low-conductivity spacers and insu-
lated, thermally broken frames. These windows
eliminate any perceptible cold radiation or con-
vective cold airflow, even in periods of heavy
frost. For the moderately cool climate
(US climate zone 4) and the central European
climate, a U-value of 0.85 W/m2 K or 0.15 BTU/
h ft2  F is recommended for the entire installed
window assembly accounting for frame values,
glass values, spacer, and installation thermal
bridge effects. Recommended U-values may
vary for larger building typologies in climate
4 and higher and vary for other climates for all
building typologies.
Optimizing Passive Solar and Internal
Heat Gain
Designers of passive house buildings design to
minimize energy loss but also to manage energy
gains from the sun and internal sources. The first
343
step in designing a passive house is to consider the
orientation of the structure to allow for maximum
sunlight when sunlight is wanted in cooler periods
and minimum sunlight when heat gain is
unwanted in warmer periods. For the northern
hemisphere, maximum winter sun and minimum
summer sun is best captured on southern facades.
The second step in designing a passive house is
to consider the layout of the home. Designers
should enhance residents’ enjoyment of available
sunlight by orienting bedrooms and living rooms
to the south and putting utility rooms, closets, and
circulating spaces, where sunlight is not needed,
to the north or where shading is needed on the
west and east facades. Designing for sunshine also
provides daylight to often used rooms. The more
direct natural lighting there is, the less energy will
be needed to provide light.
It is not always possible to site or layout a
home in this ideal way. There may be buildings,
trees, or landforms that cast shadows during short
winter days, blocking out much of the lower win-
ter sun. The designer may need to accommodate
the homeowner’s demand for a certain view – a
view that would not be available in an ideal ori-
entation for solar management.
Windows are designed, oriented, and installed
to take advantage of the outstanding passive solar
energy that can be gained through them. However,
the goal is not simply to allow for as much solar
gain as possible. Some early super-insulated
buildings suffered from overheating because not
enough consideration was given to the amount of
solar gain that the house would experience.
A good design should balance solar gain within
the home’s overall conditioning needs – and
within the glazing, budget. In the northern hemi-
sphere, in climates with cold winters, windows on
the north allow for no direct solar heat gain, while
those on the south allow for a great deal of winter
solar gain. In summertime, and in primarily
cooling climates, it is very important to prevent
excess solar heat gain. This can be done by shad-
ing the windows, most easily accomplished on the
south facade. Roof eaves of the proper length can
effectively shade south-facing windows when the
sun is higher in the summer and still allow for
maximum solar heat gain in the winter, when the
344
sun is lower and the days are colder. Deciduous
trees or vines on a trellis can also block out sun-
light in the summer and admit it in the winter. In
climates that have a significant cooling load, the
designer should consider limiting east- and west-
facing windows which receive excessive summer
sun at low sun angles and specifying only win-
dows that have low-solar-gain, low-e coatings.
During the morning and late afternoon, low-
angle sunlight can generate a great deal of heat
through east and west windows. A guiding value
for passive house solar gain optimization in colder
climates is the recommendation of a solar heat
gain coefficient (SHGC) of approximately 50%
or slightly higher for heating climates and a
SHGC below 35% in cooling-dominated cli-
mates. In commercial building typologies, win-
dow design should ensure excellent daylighting
with climate-appropriate shading strategies to
ensure lower lighting loads that contribute to
internal heat gains.
Importance of Managing Internal Heat
Gains
Another, perhaps less obvious, source of heat gain
is internal gains from people, lights, and equip-
ment. Given the exceptionally low levels of heat
loss and infiltration in a passive house, heat from
internal sources can make quite a difference for
inside temperatures. Household appliances, elec-
tronic equipment, electric lighting, and people –
all can have a significant effect on the heat gain in
a passive building. This is an advantage when
temperatures are cool, but a disadvantage when
temperatures are warm or hot outside. While
designers may not be choosing how many or
which appliances will be installed in a home,
designers often select lighting sources and must
take into account these heat gains when calculat-
ing the overall internal energy gains.
Multifamily residential buildings with higher
occupant densities make internal gains a bigger
challenge that in single family homes. Even in a
heating dominated climate, the cooling demand
criterion (and with it the source energy criterion)
can become difficult to meet.
Passive House (Passivhaus)
In commercial buildings, additional process
loads can add to the internal heat gain and over-
heating challenge. All passive house projects,
small and large, are by design “warm” buildings
and will overheat if internal load management and
shading strategies are ignored.
Design and Construct Continuous
Water-Resistive Barriers
Passive house enclosures have less drying poten-
tial than wall assemblies in conventional build-
ings. This is due to the continuously insulated
envelope and the reduced heat losses through the
wall. Passive houses do not manage minor leaks in
the water-resistive barrier (WRB) well or faulty or
missing flashing details. Therefore, a continuous,
well-designed, and well-executed continuous
exterior water management system is critical.
This factor is often overlooked when designers
focus on the energy aspects of detailing.
A water-resistive barrier (WRB) consists of a
special membrane that is designed to repel liquid
water coming from the exterior while allowing
vapor to pass through from the inside of the wall
to the outside (vapor open). The exception is a
water-resistant barrier in a cooling climate that
functions as a vapor control layer (VCL) as
described below and primary airtight layer all at
once. Walls in cooling-dominated climates typi-
cally dry to the inside, and it is not as important for
the WRB to be vapor open to the exterior.
The WRB membrane is complemented by
flashing details around windows, openings, and
at all material connections – from a roof to a wall,
for example. Typically, designers use flexible
flashing materials around openings, such as self-
adhering tapes. There are now also fluid applied
coatings that can be used on sheet goods and
around window openings as the primary water
proofing. Metal flashing should be avoided and
replaced with plastic or less conductive materials
unless it is thermally separated and completely
outside of the thermal envelope.
The water-resistive barrier (WRB) is applied in
an airtight manner and serves as a secondary air-
tight layer. Exterior wind-tightness is important if
Passive House (Passivhaus)
loose-fill insulation is used inside the walls.
A leaky exterior can lead to air infiltration and
significant performance losses due to convection.
Design and Construct Continuous
Airtight Vapor Control Layer
The water-resistive barrier (WRB) facing the
weather and the airtight layer retarding airflow
through holes and cracks are accompanied by a
vapor control layer retarding diffusion. It allows
vapor to evaporate typically in two directions
away from its location – to the outdoors and into
the occupied space – if it is located in the middle
of the wall. If located on the inside of the wall,
then it allows drying to the outdoors. If located on
the exterior, then drying happens to the inside.
There are two mechanisms through which
unwanted outdoor moisture can be carried into wall
assemblies: infiltration and diffusion. Rigorous
wind-tightness of the WRB prevents moisture from
traveling into enclosure components and is most
important for the durability of the building enclosure.
More moisture can travel through small cracks and
holes in the enclosure than through diffusion through
the wall materials. As passive house walls are more
highly insulated and airtight, they become more
prone to moisture damage if even minor air leaks
or thermal bridges exist. Consequently, airtightness
criteria for passive buildings have been calculated to
be the safe threshold for highly insulated walls to
avoid moisture damage through infiltration.
Super-insulated walls also have reduced drying
potential because the heat loss from the interior
has been so significantly limited. To further avoid
any diffusion of moisture into the wall from either
the inside or outside, a continuous vapor control
layer (VCL) needs to be installed. In conventional
houses vapor control from the inside was a serious
concern because of air leaks and resulting conden-
sation on thermal bridges in poorly constructed
walls. In the passive house construction, these air
leaks and thermal bridges are eliminated so that
the vapor control layer is to protect from mostly
outdoor and indoor moisture from diffusion. As a
consequence, in many climates, the VCL is also
the primary airtight layer. Since the vapor control
layer is the layer of material inside the wall that
345
retards moisture flow, it typically has a lower
permeance to water vapor than all the other mate-
rial layers in the wall (chosen according to cli-
mate). The VCL could be as simple as a
polyethylene layer (climate specific). Depending
on climate, taped and sealed sheathing can also
function as a vapor control layer.
Recently smart vapor retarders have arrived on
the market. These membranes are made from
materials that can alter their molecular structure
based on the presence of liquid water or water
vapor at different temperatures. If moisture builds
up inside of the assembly, the membrane can
change its molecular structure and switch from
being vapor closed to vapor open, which promotes
drying. Such smart membranes work well in cold
climates. They are not recommended in warmer
climates and in fact not allowed by code in climate
zone 3 and lower. Their inflection point is too low,
meaning the vapor barrier opens too late, causing
assemblies to store moisture for too long rather
than allowing the assembly to dry. As a result,
smart membranes can actually trap moisture in
warm climates and lead to unsafe moisture accu-
mulation in the wall assemblies.
The location of vapor control layers must be
climate specific. They should be installed on the
indoor, warm side of the wall in a cold, heating-
dominated climate. In a hot, cooling-dominated
climate, the VCL should be toward the outside of
the insulated layer, with the remainder of the wall
being designed to dry to the inside. Vapor control
layers on both sides of the wall must be avoided
since this could lead to trapping moisture. In mixed
climates, with both heating and cooling needs, it is
best to install the vapor control layer in the middle
of the wall, allowing the wall to dry to both sides of
the vapor control layer (PHIUS has certification
requirements for hygrothermal wall assembly per-
formance based on climate that have to be met and
verified using WUFI Passive/Plus [10]).
Specify a Micro-load Space Conditioning
System
Contrary to myth, passive houses are not totally
passive. Most passive houses still need a micro-
load space conditioning system to assure thermal
comfort and ventilation during the coldest, hottest,
346
and most humid times of the year. How low that
load can realistically be reduced to, in a cost-
effective way, depends on the climate the building
is in.
In the 1990s, the German Passivhaus Institut
established a “functional” definition of a
Passivhaus by defining the mechanical space con-
ditioning and ventilation system: “a Passivhaus is a
building that can be kept comfortable by condition-
ing the ventilation air alone without employing
additional recirculation systems” [11]. The Insti-
tute to this day adheres to that definition.
As compelling as that definition and goal is, it
ignores climate differences. Micro-load space con-
ditioning and distribution systems need to be
designed to varying climate conditions. In most
regions around the world, temperature differentials
are more extreme than in Central Europe and peak
loads cannot be kept economically below 10 W/m2
through envelope upgrades alone. In most North
American climates, for example, the peak load
conditions can exceed the carrying capacity of the
recommended ventilation air volume – needing
additional heating, cooling, and dehumidification.
As a result, most current passive house projects
in North America do not have fresh air integrated
space conditioning systems. Instead, they separate
the ventilation system from the space condition-
ing distribution entirely. The typical system would
include a balanced ventilation system, and a duct-
less or ducted air-to-air heat pump for heating,
cooling, and dehumidification. In humid climates
and for certain building typologies, dedicated
dehumidification would also be included.
As the application of passive house building
concepts extends into larger residential and com-
mercial buildings, other micro-load space condition-
ing technologies are emerging. Larger multifamily
projects are currently applying semi-decentralized
solutions, either a balanced ventilation system per
unit or one per floor. Heating, cooling, and dehu-
midification systems are typically heat pump based
(VRF systems – variable refrigerant flow). Central-
ized ventilation systems in the larger passive build-
ings are not recommended – they are less efficient
because they have to overcome stack effect in the
vertical distribution ducts. They also make it diffi-
cult to maintain ventilation balance over time and
present indoor air quality concerns due to difficulty
Passive House (Passivhaus)
to effectively compartmentalize units and remaining
cross contamination pathways.
Specify Materials Capable of Thermal
and Hygrothermal Storage
In all climates, a cost-effective level of materials
with good thermal storage capacity located inside
the super-insulated envelope has a beneficial
effect on the overall energy balance. Thermal
mass is typically achieved through dense, heavy
materials, although today phase change materials
are increasingly offering thermal capacitance in
lighter construction materials.
Generally, it is good practice to avoid a concen-
tration of heavy material in one place and to instead
evenly distribute thermal mass throughout all
spaces to buffer the space from temperature swings
from day to night. Thermal storage must be fac-
tored into all whole-building analyses for passive
house projects. The specific effect of certain mate-
rials and their amounts on the indoor thermal com-
fort in a specific building zone can be assessed
using a dynamic whole-building energy model.
In addition to thermal storage, building walls can
provide a level of hygrothermal or vapor storage in
the face of variations in indoor and outdoor humid-
ity. Hygrothermal storage is currently not calculated
in the energy balance for passive buildings. The
hygrothermal storage capacity of materials can be
significant. For example, lime plaster or wood
paneling have considerable storage capacity and
provide a buffering effect on indoor humidity but
only a small effect on the actual energy balance.
Effects on indoor comfort, relative humidity, and on
the energy balance can be modeled using a dynamic
model such as THERM or WUFI Plus. The main
benefit of specifying hygrothermal materials is
aiding indoor moisture management and comfort.
Ensuring Performance of Passive House
Projects
Energy Balance Modeling with WUFI Passive
and PHPP
Passive house projects require a holistic, inte-
grated design approach. It must balance wall
thickness, R- or U-value specifications,
Passive House (Passivhaus)
airtightness, ventilation and HVAC sizing, as well
as window specifications in relation to building
massing and solar orientation given a specific
occupancy and climate. Modeling software for
passive houses needs to facilitate accurate energy
use prediction to help the designer make “what-if”
tradeoffs of these factors so that the final design
will meet passive building performance
requirements.
Professionals have two options: PHPP, the Pas-
sive House Planning Package, developed by the
PHI, and WUFI Passive/Plus developed by
PHIUS and the Fraunhofer Institute for Building
Physics. PHI requires a completed PHPP model
for certification; PHIUS requires WUFI Passive/
Plus. Both models are very responsive what-if
tools, allowing designers to readily shift the vari-
ables of design to reach their goals. They also
effectively model such things as solar water
heating for combined space heating and domestic
hot water, natural ventilation for night cooling,
and the efficiency of heat/energy recovery venti-
lation. They incorporate an impressive depth and
level of detail when considering the variables that
create a building’s unique energy balance.
The WUFI Plus model adds more granularity to
the static simplified model options of PHPP and
WUFI Passive, which use average monthly climate
data only. Through dynamic hourly modeling in
WUFI Plus, the designer has the capability to run
hygrothermal simulations to check for possible
condensation inside proposed wall assemblies.
The designer supplies initial moisture content and
material characteristics, and simulations are run
based on the specific hourly climate conditions
for worst-case warm and cold years (according to
ASHRAE RP 1325, data prepared by Oak Ridge
National Laboratory). This is especially critical in
more complex climates that have combinations of
heating, cooling, and dehumidification needs.
PHPP supports only whole-building single
zone modeling. WUFI Passive/Plus provides
zonal modeling for more complex projects such
as multifamily and commercial buildings. WUFI
Passive/Plus also provides calculations of comfort
conditions (ASHRAE 55 Thermal Environmental
Conditions for Human Occupancy) using the
dynamic mode for each zone, which is a plus in
mixed and humid climates, as well as in internal
347
load dominated large multifamily and commercial
buildings. WUFI Plus also has the capability to
model 3-D thermal bridges.
Both passive house design and verification
tools now feature an import from SketchUp,
which makes entering the building geometries
much easier. WUFI Passive/Plus also features a
REVIT import plug-in. Other design and model-
ing tools on the market such as IES and Sefaira
already have or are starting to incorporate similar
strategies that may eventually make them suitable
for passive house design.
The Challenge of Cooling and
Dehumidification
Designs in climates of extreme heat and humidity are
more challenging because internal heat and moisture
gains are a liability in the summer and add to the
cooling energy load, unlike cool and cold climates
where internal gains help heat the house.
In cooling load dominated climates, the space
conditioning load must be minimized with both
common and unique design solutions. The high
levels of insulation in a passive house help to
keep indoor temperatures cool from outside heat
and sun. The measures for preventing excess solar
gain, shading and convective venting behind siding
and roofing, as well as night cooling will often help
to maintain indoor comfort. In humid climates, an
additional cooling load may stem from the need to
remove latent moisture from the air. A very small
and efficient air-to-air heat pump – also known as a
mini-split – can remove this moisture and provide
adequate cooling. In extremely humid climates or
climates where latent removal does not align with
sensible cooling needs, such as in Louisiana, addi-
tional dehumidification might be necessary.
Another strategy is to first minimize ventilation
rates to necessary levels for good indoor air quality.
Overventilation is often the source of avoidable
dehumidification loads.
Economic Viability
Passive house design focuses on balancing energy
gains and losses, in accordance with each climate,
in order to attain a level of energy efficiency that is
far beyond the norm. This focus on energy effi-
ciency makes passive houses more expensive to
build. Construction costs generally run 10–15%
348
higher for single family homes than the costs for
conventional houses. The additional upfront costs
for more insulation, better windows and doors,
and more labor for higher-quality installations
are partially offset by the lower cost of the heating
and cooling systems. Because passive buildings
have such small heating and cooling require-
ments, conventional heating and cooling systems
can be replaced with smaller and less costly com-
ponents. Significant cost savings are being real-
ized in larger multifamily passive buildings
through reductions in systems size, with maxi-
mum cost premiums of 0–5% being reported for
those building typologies across the country. For
those larger passive buildings, the integrated plan-
ning and system design helps builders to “tunnel
through the cost barrier,” in the words of Amory
Lovins, by downsizing conditioning systems. The
remaining construction cost is readily recovered
in savings on the homeowner’s energy bill.
Energy savings from passive house designs
continue throughout the life of the house or build-
ing. On-site renewable energy resources can be
added to create a true zero-energy or even
positive-energy building – one that produces
more power than it consumes. Most important in
the long run, passive buildings will generate a
carbon footprint that is a fraction of the size of
conventionally constructed projects.
In the past, most buildings were built with
scant attention paid to their long-term energy con-
sumption. This approach needs to change. It is
important to use our limited natural resources
wisely and to build our homes with quality and
durability in mind. The savings to be realized over
the life of a passive house project are remarkable,
both economically and environmentally.
Future Directions for Passive House
Construction Internationally
The Passivhaus Institut (PHI) and its standards
have influenced and accelerated the adoption of
much more stringent energy targets and codes
throughout Northern Europe. Since 2010, the insti-
tute has promoted its standard internationally
through its membership organization, International
Passive House (Passivhaus)
Passive House Association (iPHA). Pilot projects
are now being completed in countries from
New Zealand to China to Russia. The iPHA
partnered with the newly founded North Ameri-
can Passive House Network (NAPHN) in 2012 to
exclusively promote the German Passivhaus stan-
dard in North America. The PHI and its certifiers
in North America have to date certified 45 single
family projects in the USA, nine single and small
multifamily projects in Canada, and one project in
Mexico [12]. Twelve regional passive house
groups, most of which had been formed with
PHIUS, joined NAPHN as well.
The Passive House Institute US (PHIUS) has
worked diligently to move market transformation
in the USA and Canada through certification,
design consulting, training, education, and
research in the USA and Canada. The Passive
House Alliance US (PHAUS), PHIUS’ nation-
wide professional membership organization of
18 chapters around the country, focuses on edu-
cating its members, policy makers, and the gen-
eral public, advancing awareness of passive
building construction and principles in various
legislative programs, and providing continuing
education opportunities to its members. PHIUS
has two international partner organizations, the
Passive House Institute Japan and Passive Build-
ings Canada.
Since 2008, the number of certified passive
house building professionals in the USA and
Canada has been steadily growing through activ-
ities of both PHI and PHIUS. Since the release of
its climate-specific certification protocol, 95% of
all passive construction in the USA and Canada is
being certified by PHIUS and demand for PHIUS
certification is expected to increase significantly
over the next years (see Fig. 5). Passive buildings
in the certification process with PHIUS in North
America now number more than 700, including
single family, multifamily, offices, and schools
across all North American climate zones. Close
to 500 have been fully certified or pre-certified
(under construction) [13]. The Building America
program of the Department of Energy (DOE), the
USGBC, as well as federal and state legislators
have embraced PHIUS+ Passive Building Stan-
dards as a Low/Net Zero Energy alternative in
Passive House (Passivhaus)
their programs. The programmatic alignment with
the DOE and the relatively recent climate-specific
and cost-optimized improvements in the
PHIUS+2015 standard have accelerated the
uptake in general but also have reignited activity
in more extreme climates, warm and very cold.
The International Energy Agency,
headquartered in Paris, France, has invested in
research on how to guide and make recommenda-
tions to governments toward the implementation
of highly efficient building codes, envisioning
cost-effective zero-energy buildings by 2030 as
an international goal. The successful strategy will
most likely be a coordinated code implementation
coupled with a grass roots effort from organiza-
tions and individuals working from the bottom up.
As a result, there is a substantial need to
increase capacity by training professionals as
well as students in the field of passive house
design and construction.
The benefits of passive house building design
are immense. Passive building design increases
the comfort and health for building occupants,
reduces both operational energy and peak load
demands, ensures more resilient buildings in the
face of power outages, dramatically reduces the
carbon footprint of nations, and provides quality
local jobs in the construction industry with time-
less additions to our built environment.
349
Bibliography
1. Shurcliff W (1988) Superinsulated houses and air-to-
air heat exchangers. Brickhouse Publishing Company,
Andover
2. Passive House Institute. Passive House requirements.
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house-requirements/02_passive-houserequirements.htm
3. https://www.proklima-hannover.de/experten/studien/
cepheus/cepheus_38_final_publical_report.pdf
4. https://www.minergie.ch/de/verstehen/baustandards/
minergie-p/
5. Jacobson R (2013) Passive House certification in
Scandinavia, http://www.phius.org/NAPHC2013/
jacobson.pdf
6. Stecher D., Klingenberg K (2008) Design and perfor-
mance of the Smith House, a Passive House.
ASHRAE Transaction Papers, NY-08-027
7. https://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2017/02/f34/PHIUS
%2B2015%20Passive%20Building%20Standards.pdf
8. Wright G, Klingenberg K (2015) Climate-specific pas-
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Building America, Office of Energy Efficiency and
Renewable Energy. National Renewable Energy Lab-
oratory (NREL), Golden, CO
9. Frappé-Sénéclauze T, Heerema D, Tam Wu K (2016)
Accelerating market transformation for high-
performance building enclosures. Pembina Institute,
Calgary, AB
10. http://www.phius.org, PHIUS+ 2015 Passive Building
Standard North America: certification guidebook, Ver-
sion 1.1 (2017). http://www.phius.org/PHIUSPlu
s2015docs/PHIUS+ Certification Guidebook v1.1.pdf
11. http://passiv.de/former_conferences/Passive_House_
E/passivehouse_definition.html
12. http://Passivhausprojekte.de/index.php?lang=en
13. http://www.phius.org/phius-certification-for-buildings-
products/certified-projects-database
The Passive House Institute United States (PHIUS) is a
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further the implementation of passive building standards in
North America and globally. www.passivehouse.us.

Passive Solar Heating in the
Built Environment
Robert Hastings
Danube University-Krems, Wallisellen,
Switzerland
Article Outline
Glossary
Definition and Importance of Passive Solar
Heating
Introduction
History
Principles, Applications, and Integration
Direct Gain
Indirect Gain
Isolated Gain/Hybrid
Passive Solar Use in Passive or Energy-Plus
Buildings
Future Directions
References
Glossary
Solar architecture The deliberate use of solar
energy by means of the building architecture,
thereby reducing purchased energy dependence
while enhancing the quality of enclosed space.
Passive Not requiring actions to achieve a desired
goal. In the case of passive solar energy use, solar
energy is captured and distributed in a building
without machinery by using the physics of con-
duction, free convection, and radiation.
Direct gain The direct gain of heat within a
building by sunlight entering through glazed
openings in the enclosure, which then traps and
stores the heat.
Indirect gain Solar energy absorbed in some
fashion on or in walls or roofs and converted
to heat. This heat either remains entrapped in
the building envelope to reduce building heat
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
V. Loftness (ed.), Sustainable Built Environments,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-0684-1_372
Originally published in
R. A. Meyers (ed.), Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology, © Springer Science+Business Media LLC 2017
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2493-6_372-3
losses, or it is transferred into the building by
conduction or convection. There may be a
delay between the time when sunlight is
absorbed and when heat penetrates into the
enclosed volume.
Isolated gain Solar energy absorbed outside the
insulated building envelope and then transported
by free convection to the enclosed volume.
Solar air system Type of isolated gain system
where heat from the collector transported to the
point of use or storage by air (verses water in
active thermal systems).
Hybrid solar system A passive system assisted
by a small fan to increase system efficiency,
possibly PV powered. The energy ratio of heat
output to electrical input can easily exceed 20:1.
Passive house A very energy-efficient building
not exceeding an annual heating and useful
cooling demand of 15 kWh/m2 of conditioned
area; an annual primary energy renewable
(PER) demand for heating, hot water, and
domestic electricity of 60 kWh/m2; a maximum
power in winter for heating and maximum
power in summer for cooling and dehumidifi-
cation on the coldest and warmest day, respec-
tively, of 10 W/m2; an air tightness of 0.6 air
changes per hour at 50 Pa pressure (ACH50); if
only passive cooling in moderate climates is
possible, the indoor temperature may be over
25
C 10% of the hours in a given year [1].
Energy-plus house A building in which the
renewable energy supply exceeds the energy
demand, weighted by the respective primary
energy factors for the energy supply and
demand. Typically a plus is achieved by exten-
sive photovoltaic electrical generation and a
very low energy demand, as in a passive house.
Definition and Importance of Passive
Solar Heating
Passive solar heating is the use of solar energy to
heat a building without mechanical or electrical
351
352 Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment

energy. The architecture and construction capture,

store, and distribute the sun’s energy. Every build-
ing with windows exposed to the sun is passively
heated, but heat losses may exceed the solar gains.
Accordingly, if the passive heat gain is to reduce
heating costs, the system heat losses must be
minimized. Ideally, the concept includes mass to
store daytime solar heat for nights, increasing the
usability of the gains. Finally, the heating system
must be shut off when solar heating achieves the
desired room temperature. Two constraints on
passive solar use are: glare control and shading
during non-heating months.
Maximizing usable passive solar gains is an
important design aspect, but often designers focus
only on minimizing heat losses. Taking finances as
an analogy, no one will accumulate wealth through
savings alone; income must be maximized and
wisely invested. So not only reducing heat loss is
essential to low-energy architecture, but also max-
imizing solar gains is important, as it has been over
the history of building.
An often-cited early example of solar design Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment,
awareness is the “Megaron House” described by Fig. 1 A living room flooded with sunlight from large
south-facing windows (Photo source: robert.hastings@aeu.
Socrates in the year 400 BC. Numerous other ch)
examples can be found, i.e., the New England
“saltbox” of the seventeenth century or Swiss Introduction
farmhouses of the eighteenth century. In the twen-
tieth century, the term “solar house” became pop- Concepts
ular, and following the first oil shock of 1973, the Buildings which consume less fossil fuel are “nice
term “passive solar buildings” was coined. In all to have” today but will be essential in the future.
these examples, the basic principles are the same; Since buildings are long-term investments, they
maximize the south exposure of a building to must be built or rebuilt looking to the future.
capture as much solar heat as possible and insulate Heating is a major use of energy in buildings,
the enclosure well to keep the heat in. and dependence on fossil fuels for heating can be
Passive solar building design is an important dramatically reduced through two strategies:
means for slowing climate change by reducing the reducing heat loses and increasing the use of
burning of fossil fuels. It is not, however, a least solar heat. Logically, a combination of these two
first-cost way to build. Larger, better insulating strategies is desirable.
windows or opaque collector constructions cost Solar energy can be used by passive or active
more than conventional constructions. Three means:
arguments justifying this investment are:
– Passive solar use does not rely on mechanical
– Long-term (>10 years) good return on the components to capture, store, and distribute the
investment heat; the building construction fulfills these
– Economy and security as future fossil fuel prices functions.
increase and supply subject to interruptions – Active solar use typically involves a remote
– Living qualities of passive solar buildings solar collector and a pump or fan to transfer the
flooded with light (Fig. 1) and natural warmth heat to storage and from storage to point of use.
Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment 353

A low-energy building must lose as little heat Indirect gain: The building envelope captures solar
as possible, hence the importance given to insula- heat, which is then conducted and/or convected to
tion, airtightness, and heat recovery. An example the building interior, possibly with a time delay of
of a performance standard promoting extreme up to 8 hours. Alternatively, the goal may be simply
energy conservation is the “Passive House Stan- to capture enough solar heat in the envelope con-
dard” [1]. To meet this standard in Europe, three struction to eliminate heat losses from the building
requirements must be fulfilled (please see the much of the time, i.e., a dynamic U-value over the
glossary at the beginning of this section). heating season approaching zero. Indirect gain sys-
A passive solar building is not defined to this tems nicely compliment direct gain systems.
extent; it simply describes a structure in which the
designer deliberately maximized using solar
energy passively. So, in fact, a passive house can
also be a passive solar house, and indeed, in the
planning recommendation for a passive house,
using passive solar energy is encouraged.
Three passive solar heating concepts were
defined after the first oil shock of 1973 and are
still useful today:

Isolated gain passive: Some form of solar collec-

tion outside the insulated building envelope and
then controlled heat delivery to the building inte-
rior or storage. This can be by gravity-driven con-
vection or with the help of a small fan (a “hybrid”
system). While not purely passive, hybrid systems
are reported here because the proportion of deliv-
ered heat to electrical energy is so small.

Direct gain: Windows capture the sun in a well-

insulated building; interior construction mass
stores the potentially excess daytime gains into
the night; and some form of shading provides
comfort during non-heating seasons. Direct gain
is the oldest and still most cost-effective concept,
given its potential to also enhancing the quality of
life in buildings.

A sunspace or attached greenhouse with con-

trolled opening to the building is also an isolated
gain system. Isolated gain systems are the most
complex and expensive but offer the most control
of when and how much solar heat is delivered into
the building.
354
It can be useful to consider passive solar
heating opportunities by building types and cli-
mates. Note that in this section, locations north of
the equator are assumed. South of the equator,
north orientations have priority.
Building Types
Buildings where heating loads dominates over
cooling loads are the obvious candidates for pas-
sive solar design, i.e., residential buildings and
small commercial or institutional buildings.
Three factors are decisive here:
– As the ratio of enclosing surface to enclosed
volume increases, heat loss increases, so a solar
heating can be more beneficial.
– As the density of heat production from people
or appliances increases, the usefulness of solar
heat decreases.
– Direct solar gains in the form of heat and light
are a combined asset, i.e., for hospitals, old-age
homes, and schools as well as residences.
(Examples and design insights for passive
solar use in commercial and institutional build-
ings were researched and documented in an
IEA project [2].)
The energy optimization of a building must
balance passive solar and daylight benefits against
mechanical cooling and electric lighting energy
demands, both of which have very high primary
energy factors.
Climates
Northern climates such as Scandinavia would
seem to pose a problem for passive solar use.
Winter days are short, the sun is weak, and the
sun path is at a very low angle. This means, how-
ever, that windows or vertical collection surfaces
intercept the sun at a more direct angle. Further-
more, the heating season is very long, extending
from early autumn to late spring. Before September
21 or after March 21, heating is still needed, when
days are longer than in southern latitudes. Passive
solar concepts must maximize the usefulness of
spring and autumn solar heating while minimizing
midwinter heat losses.
Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment
Temperate climates are the ideal situation for
passive solar buildings. Not just sunny temperate
but also overcast temperate climates. This has
become possible with the development of very
high-performance glass (U-value <1.0 W/m2 K).
Consider the example of diffuse solar radiation at
only 100 W/m2 for 6 hours and an ambient tem-
perature of 5
C. The solar gains through a glass
with a g-value of 0.5 (admitting 50% of the solar
radiation) will offset the 24 hours of heat losses of a
glass with a U glass of 0.8 W/m2 K. If the sun
shines with more intensity or more hours, it is a
passive solar winner. Because temperate climates
often have hot summers, the concept must also
include shading.
Mild climates offer a challenge: to achieve
zero heating energy buildings by combining pas-
sive solar design and conservation without
degrading summer comfort. This is at least as
challenging as achieving net-zero-energy build-
ings. The latter achieve a net zero balance by
taking a credit from the summer electrical output
of a large PV roof (multiplied by a high primary
energy factor) against the energy deficit in winter
which must somehow be met. Passive solar
heating of a highly insulated building can answer
part of the “somehow” question.
Strengths and Weaknesses
+ Living quality: daylight and naturally
warmth from the sun’s warmth.
+ Security: in the event of energy supply
interruptions.
+ Costs: only the marginal costs of added
aperture area, be it collector or window area
and mass, must be amortized by energy
savings.
+ Return on investment: as energy prices rise,
return on the investment in passive solar
measures increasingly attractive.
+ Low maintenance: there are no maintenance
costs for pumps or fans.
+ All of these factors can positively affect
resale value of the property.
 Operation: often passive solar use requires
active occupants adjusting sun shading or
opening windows or vents.
Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment 355

 Poorly designed or incorrectly used passive be “rediscovered.” Following is a short time

solar buildings may use more energy than journey through the evolution of passive solar
conventional buildings. Informed design, heating.
strict quality control, and intelligent
operation are essential.
Ancient Times
The most often cited example of awareness of
passive solar use is a concept house, the “Megaron
Road Map to This Section
House” (Fig. 2) described by Socrates
A historic review of passive solar design shows
(469–397 BC). He expressed the following
how this approach has developed in parallel with
thoughts: “Doesn’t the sun shine into houses fac-
technological developments of building compo-
ing south in winter, whereas in summer the sun
nents. It is instructive to examine which concepts
wanders over us and the roof so that we have
came into existence, evolved, flourished, or died
shade? Because this is comfortable, then south-
out. This may save re-inventing a broken wheel, or
oriented rooms should be built higher in order not
ideas might arise for new variations or concepts.
to shut out the sun, whereas the north rooms
Principles and applications review different
should be lower because of the cold north wind.”
approaches to passively capture, store, and use
This was the logic for this funnel-shaped house
solar energy to heat buildings.
concept, opening in plan and section to the south.
Direct, indirect, and isolated gain concepts
A roofed porch admitted sunlight into the main
are reported in detail.
room in winter but shaded it in summer. A room to
Finally, the past, present, and future of pas-
the north served both as a storage and as a buffer
sive solar heating are discussed in the context of
from the north exposure.
expected energy supply developments, demo-
graphics, and increasingly well-insulated and
automated buildings.

History

Concepts for passive solar heating date back

millennia. Materials and components were very
primitive by today’s standards, but comfort expec-
tations were also much lower. A net solar gain is
possible even with single glazing if the required
room temperature is only 16
C. The twentieth
century saw dramatic developments in material
science and production techniques, for example,
in glass production. The evolution in the last cen-
tury has been equally spectacular. Single glazing at
the beginning of the twentieth century (U = 5.8 W/
m2 K) evolved to fuse double glazing in the 1950s
(U = 2.8 W/m2 K). Insulating glazing (U = 1.2 W/
m2 K) in the 1990s is now available in triple
glazing (U = 0.5 W/m2 K) or more than a factor
ten better than window glazing a century ago.
As a result, some concepts, which earlier pro-
ved ineffective for a given climate or building Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment,
type, may indeed be effective today and should Fig. 2 The Megaron House concept described by Socrates
356
1600–1900
New England Saltbox A classic passive solar
house form appeared between 1650 and 1830 in
New England, the “saltbox” (Fig. 3). Its name is
derived from the shape of boxes used to store salt
at that time. Initially, the house form came about
when an addition was made to the rear and the
roof slope carried down from the two-story main
house. Typically the addition incorporated a
kitchen with its own fireplace, a pantry, and a
room for child birth or nursing the ill [3]. The
main chimney rose inside the house to keep its
heat inside. Also, very practical are the double-
hung windows. The sashes were hung on ropes
with counterweights of iron or bricks in a cavity of
the window frame. The upper sash could be
lowered and/or the lower sash raised indepen-
dently. The height difference between the upper
and lower openings induced air circulation.
Swiss Appenzell House The Swiss Appenzell
houses from the eighteenth to early nineteenth
century had facades with many window bands
protected by a projecting roof at each story
Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment,
Fig. 3 A New England saltbox house with large south
facade and long protecting roof to the north (Photo source:
robert.hastings@aeu.ch)
Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment
(Fig. 4). This afforded summer shading and
weather protection for the windows. The curved
white undersurfaces captured and deflected addi-
tional daylight down to the windows.
1900–1950s
The year 1927 saw a breakthrough in glass pro-
duction. Using the Penn Vernon Drawing
Machine, glass was pulled through rollers in a
new process implemented by PPG Industries.
For the first time, large sheets of glass could be
produced. This opened exciting new architectural
possibilities but with large heat losses and comfort
problems. With the introduction of insulating
glass by LOF, it was possible to have large win-
dow areas and net solar heat gains. Architects
played with the design opportunities this new
technology offered. Researchers quantified how
long a room could be kept warm by outside con-
ditions. The press publicized what was then pos-
sible with new solar houses. Solar buildings were
Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment,
Fig. 4 An Appenzell house with large window area pro-
tected by multiple roof projections (Photo: robert.
hastings@aeu.ch)
Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment
Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment,
Fig. 5 Direct gain maximized in the Duncan House
(Picture by permission of Pilkington, North America, Inc.)
a mainstream topic. An example of such architec-
ture is the work of the Architect George Fred Keck.
Figure 5 shows the living room with a stone floor
and fireplace to absorb the sunlight flooding in
from the full southwest front of windows
[4]. This house, built for Dr. and Mrs. Hugh Dun-
can of Flossmoor, Illinois, USA, was monitored by
two researchers. The performance was surprisingly
good. One winter day in 1941, when the ambient
temperature was 20
C, the heating system shut
off by 08:30 h and stayed off until 20:30 h [5].
1960s
Oil was plentiful and cheap, everyone was happy,
renewable energy was not a topic of any popular
importance, and very little happened.
1970–1980s
In 1973, an oil embargo imposed on the USA led
to a crisis of historic proportions. Americans can
react astonishingly effectively and quickly to a
crisis, and this was the case then: “overnight” a
national program to reduce foreign oil depen-
dency was initiated. The Energy Research and
Development Administration (ERDA) was acti-
vated on January 19, 1975, and the Solar Energy
Research Institute (SERI) in Golden CO was
founded. The Department of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD) held a national competition
with grants for building the solar houses. Many
built projects were monitored by national labora-
tories and published [6], for example, the
357
Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment,
Fig. 6 The Balcombe House in New Mexico (Photo
source: robert.hastings@aeu.ch)
Balcombe House shown in Fig. 6. In 1977 the
first National Passive Solar Conferences was
held [7], and in subsequent years each conference
drew over a thousand enthusiasts.
Passive solar use was a major topic of the
American Solar Energy Society (ASES), a
national organization linked with the International
Solar Energy Society (ISES). These were the
boom years for passive solar buildings. Research
and demonstration projects were well funded at
the federal and state levels. Atomic physicists
“saw the light” and became solar building physi-
cists at renowned national laboratories, including
Los Alamos, Lawrence Berkeley, Brookhaven,
and the National Bureau of Standards. Exemplary
demonstration projects were sponsored by the
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), an enormous
interstate electrical utility. Regional solar energy
centers oversaw the evaluation and publicizing of
countless solar buildings.
To help energy consultants, researchers, and
academics analyze concepts, complex computer
models were developed. These could quantify the
dynamics of solar and heating input, heat storage,
and building heat losses. Auxiliary heat demand
and comfort performance were reported on an
hourly basis. These tools were, however, difficult
to use. Input was cumbersome and errors easily
made. Computers in the 1970s still had to be
“spoken to” via punched cards. The input was in
rows of numbers, separated by spaces or commas
punched into cards. Examples of programs
include DEROB, NBSLD, and BLAST and later
358
DOE2. To provide design consultants (designers
couldn’t compute) with calculation tools, two
approaches were followed:
– Gigantic databases were computed using research
computer models for all thinkable design varia-
tions and then clever nomographs generated. The
Passive Solar Handbook by Doug Balcomb and
R. Jones is a classic example [8]
– Simplified calculation tools were programmed,
such as SERIRES (later called SUNREL) and
CALPAS. These were small enough to run on
the first versions of portable computers (“mini”
or “midi” computers).
The goal was to learn how sensitive perfor-
mance was to a given parameter. To demonstrate
how terrific a design was, it was useful to compare
it to a conventional builder house of the time. For
this purpose, three reference houses were defined,
based on statistics from the National Association
of Home Builders (NAHB). The reference designs
were published by the National Bureau of Stan-
dards (NBS, today NIST) [9].
To be sure the computer models were telling the
truth; measurement data from components and even
whole buildings were essential. Test cabins for mon-
itoring systems became a common sight at many
national research facilities. Figure 7 shows a test
house with an interchangeable modular south facade
and clerestory windows, sun lighting the north rooms.
Meanwhile at universities, architecture schools
continued to teach Le Corbusier as the model for
Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment,
Fig. 7 NBS (NIST) Test House 1980, Gaithersburg MD
(Architect and photo source: robert.hastings@aeu.ch)
Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment
good design. Energy and solar use were not sig-
nificant design issues, with the exceptions of a
small but growing number of architecture and
engineering professors. They were the authors of
some superb textbooks which clearly presented
passive solar design principles. Some examples
are a passive solar textbook for architects [10], a
guide for adapting solar concepts to regional cli-
mates and constructions across the whole conti-
nent [11], and guidelines for window design
strategies to conserve energy [12].
During this period, there were a few good
examples of passive solar innovation in Europe
as well. The Michelle Trombe Wall concept was a
notable example (Fig. 8). The original pilot build-
ing was constructed at the Centre National de la
Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in 1967 in the
south of France and further developed with a
vented version of the wall in 1974 [13].
1990s
Europeans began to take interest in the American
passive solar movement. Many architects and
building researchers travelled to the USA to
Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment,
Fig. 8 The Michel Trombe Wall House in Odeillo, FR
(Photo: robert.hastings@aeu.ch)
Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment
personally visit passive solar houses. Passive
houses began to appear across Europe, from Scan-
dinavia to Italy. National research programs
investigated how to optimize passive solar con-
cepts to local European climates and construc-
tions. This was essential. Several passive solar
buildings did not functioned as hoped. Europe
gets less sun than New Mexico!
During this time, windows were still mostly
double glazed or at best triple glazed
(Uglass = 3.0 or 2.2 W/m2 K). Glazing with selec-
tive coatings and noble gas fillings were just
beginning to enter the market. Accordingly, only
windows facing south achieved a net passive solar
gain. In northern climates, night insulation of
windows was needed for the long dark winters.
Several innovative, but expensive roll down insu-
lating blankets were developed for windows.
These largely disappeared from the market as
high-performance glazings appeared.
By the end of the 1990s, the growing pains of
adapting passive solar architecture to European
climates and constructions were over, and count-
less exemplary projects had been built and
published. An IEA SHC program searched out
and documented exemplary projects [14].
2000
During this period, many conventional passive
solar-heated houses were built across Europe.
Sunspaces were a favored architectural element.
Many houses included active solar systems to heat
domestic hot water, with Austria leading in the
number of such houses. European architects often
succeeded in adapting passive solar house designs
into good architecture. An example project from
1992 by a Norwegian architect practicing in Aus-
tria, Sture Larsen, is shown in Fig. 9 [15]. The
exterior of the house is in light, wooden framing,
while the interior is in massive construction.
Solar-heated air is circulated through the walls
and floors to radiate into the rooms. A sunspace
also helps heat the house.
By the year 2000, a new concept, the passive
house, had become well established and is on the
way to becoming the new mark of excellence in
low-energy design. It came out of the PHD work
of Wolfgang Feist under his professor, Bo
359
Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment,
Fig. 9 An Austrian passive solar house with solar air
radiant heating and a sunspace in Nüziders, Vorarlberg
(Architect and photo source: Sture Larsen, www.solarsen.
com)
Adamson, in Sweden. To reach this standard
requires a highly insulated, thermal bridge-free
and airtight building enclosure. Mechanical ven-
tilation is needed to assure good air quality by
such tight construction. Heat from exhaust air is
then recovered to preheat incoming air. The ven-
tilation air can be used to deliver the small amount
of heating needed (maximum 15 kWh/m2 heated
floor area). Obviously, passive solar heating of
such houses is also desired but challenging to
dimension because of the small heating load and
short heating season.
2010
Today, in the second decade of the new millen-
nium, the term “passive solar heating” is less
common. This is paradoxical because with new
window frame and glazing systems, highly insu-
lated building envelopes, and sophisticated
heating control systems, passive solar gains can
cover all heating needs for an extended part of the
year in temperate climates. However, the interac-
tion between passive solar gains, internal gains,
and envelope heat loss needs to be carefully stud-
ied to assure comfort and the hoped for energy
savings.
The former research computer models to study
passive solar building concepts, requiring several
hours on a mainframe computer, today can run in
seconds on a laptop. However, today’s tools do
not consider many of the phenomena the former
360
models did, such as when mass is directly sunlit or
only indirectly warmed by room air or how pas-
sive solar heat in south rooms convects to other
rooms. This can strongly affect passive solar
usability and comfort.
Principles, Applications, and Integration
Principles
Passive solar heating requires glass, frames, sea-
sonal sun shading, mass, and extra planning
effort. The economics are clear: energy won is
more expensive than the energy saved by adding
insulation or eliminating air leakage up to a cer-
tain point. However, as the insulation thickness is
increased, the marginal energy and economic ben-
efits of the next increment decrease. Further, when
conventional thicknesses are exceeded, the costs
of anchoring the insulation and detailing jump. In
contrast to this, the cost of a larger window is not
proportional to the window area increase. Larger
windows lose less heat per unit area. There is less
perimeter for the glass area so edge losses are
smaller. Also, there are increased benefits such
as more daylight, the view outside, and sense of
well-being from being sun-warmed (especially for
cats). The challenging questions are therefore,
which passive solar heating concept is most effec-
tive for a given building type and climate and how
big should the system be?
Applications by Building Types
Well-Suited Building Types
Residences are the most common passive solar
application. Detached single-family houses with
four outside walls, a roof, and earth contact can
best benefit from passive solar gains. Row houses
and apartment buildings have many units with
only two exposures. If they face east and west,
passive solar heating is difficult. One idea would
be to install an indirect gain system on the south-
facing end walls to compliment morning and
afternoon direct gains.
Large buildings suitable for passive solar
indirect heating include warehouses, gyms
(American), or athletic halls (i.e., tennis halls)
Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment
[2]. Because a lower air temperature is acceptable
or even desired, passive solar gains can make a
greater contribution to meeting the heating
demand. Heat losses of glazed areas decrease
proportionately with less inside to outside temper-
ature difference. Lower required space tempera-
tures increase system efficiency and number of
hours when useful passive solar heat can be
delivered.
Swimming pool halls are a potentially good
building type for passive solar heating because a
high air temperature is needed, so there is a very
long heating season, well into long day spring and
fall seasons. Also, there is a great appeal for the
space being sunlit. Direct gain, indirect gain for
radiant comfort, and isolated solar air systems for
humidity control are possibilities.
Limited Suitability
School classrooms have high internal gains and
high ventilation requirements. The benefit of pas-
sive solar heating occurs primarily during heating
season weekends and holidays. At that time, typ-
ically there is a temperature setback and tempera-
ture swings are tolerated, maximizing the
usability of passive solar gains. The obvious
choice is direct gain with daylighting within the
constraints of glare control, thermal comfort near
the windows, and the view out being more inter-
esting than the view to the front. Isolated passive
solar heating is another alternative. Figure 10
shows a Swiss school glazed in balconies off the
classrooms. Sunspace-heated air preheats
Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment,
Fig. 10 A Swiss school in Gumpenwiese, ZH, with
sunspaces tied into the ventilation concept [16] (Photo:
robert.hastings@aeu.ch)
Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment
incoming ventilation air over a heat exchanger for
the classrooms [16].
Old-age homes, nursing homes, and hospi-
tals can benefit especially from direct gain with
daylighting. Indirect gain systems to supply heat
at night or isolated gain systems to preheat venti-
lation supply air are further possibilities. The
occupancy tends to be “24/7” and demand some-
what higher room temperatures, extending the
heating season.
Hotels have a transient occupancy. Guest
rooms may be vacant with no internal loads for
heating but must be kept at room temperature or, if
the thermostat is set back, very quickly warmed
up. Accordingly, passive solar gains to maintain a
minimal room temperature can be very useful, but
mass can slow the heat up. Daylight and view out
may be assets, but overheating is totally unaccept-
able. Hotels in cities often may have to be isolated
from traffic or airport noise. This can be solved
with acoustical glazing or by using an indirect or
isolated passive solar concept.
New Construction Versus Renovation
New construction should have very low energy
demand as a result of very good insulation,
mechanical ventilation with heat recovery. They
likely will have a sophisticated heat production,
delivery, and control system. Therefore, internal
heat from occupancy and appliances will maintain
the desired room temperature later in autumn and
earlier in spring. The design of passive solar
heating must consider this shorter heating season.
Storing solar heat is very important because the
gains can quickly exceed demand and result in
overheating. Ideally, the thermal mass should be
sunlit directly. Indirect passive solar systems can
contribute to helping shorten the heating season.
Renovation is an excellent opportunity to
increase passive solar heating. Older buildings
have a greater and longer heating demand than
well-done new structures. The subject of renovat-
ing an existing house was studied in a 4-year
project of the Solar Heating and Cooling Program
(SHC) of the International Energy Agency (IEA).
As part of this work, 60 exemplary projects and an
overview with insights were documented in bro-
chures and are available on the internet (Fig. 11)
361
Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment,
Fig. 11 Renovation with solar and conservation, 60 exam-
ples of projects across Europe and Canada [17]
[17]. Included are apartment buildings, row
houses, and single family houses as well as the
special case of historic buildings. The examples
come from ten countries: AT, BE, CA, CH, DE,
DK, I, NL, NO, and SE.
Inappropriate Building Types
Since the sun shines during the daytime, all build-
ings which do not need heat during the day are not
good candidates. Large office buildings, shopping
centers, and airport terminals are examples of inap-
propriate building types. Such buildings must cope
with energy-intensive cooling problems.
Applications by Climate
The best climates for passive solar heating build-
ings are climates which are sunny (so there is
energy available) and cold (so there is heat
demand). Buildings located at high elevations
often have both sun and long heating seasons
which is ideal for passive solar heating. Not sur-
prisingly, there are many good examples of build-
ings in alpine regions in Europe or the Rocky
Mountains in the USA. The absolute best climate
for passive solar heating is the southwest of the
USA, which is why the passive solar renaissance
after the oil shock began there. A very good tool
for generating climate data to analyze systems is
Meteonorm [18].
362
Cold climates in northern regions have short
days in mid-winter. This disadvantage is some-
what offset by the heating season beginning
before the autumn equinox and extending past
the spring equinox. At those times, days are lon-
ger than in more southern latitudes. A further help
is that, due to the low sun path, windows or wall
collectors intercept sunrays more directly.
Temperate climates are well suited for all
types of passive solar heating, as is evidenced by
the many examples in temperate regions of North
America and Europe. In overcast, temperate cli-
mates, direct gain systems can profit from even
diffuse solar gains, given the highly insulating
glass available today.
Mild climates pose the challenge to achieve
zero heating energy performance through conser-
vation and passive solar measures. Paradoxically,
people in mild and sunny climates have the least
interest in passive solar design. This is perhaps
due to priority being given to passive cooling.
Dry climates generally have very good solar
availability and large day-night temperature
swings. Passive solar heating with mass for stor-
age can be very effective.
Humid climates are a problem for both pas-
sive solar heating and natural cooling. Humidity
reduces solar intensity and day-night ambient
temperature swings and blocks night sky radiation
for natural cooling. Humid climates are difficult.
Architectural Integration
Direct gain, indirect gain, and isolated gain are
simple concepts; the challenge is to translate a
diagram into architecture. The aesthetics of solar
design is interesting to observe historically.
Before the twentieth-century buildings, glass
was expensive. In some cities, windows were
even taxed. Because of their value, they were
carefully and artistically integrated into a facade
design. Baroque facades are a beautiful example
of the celebration of windows, in contrast to the
austere holes punched in “contemporary” build-
ings, as can be seen in a street photo taken in
Pilsen CR (Fig. 12).
Early twentieth-century architects could play
with large glass formats for the first time, but the
resulting architecture, while making history
Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment
Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment,
Fig. 12 Classical and modern fenestration of facades,
two contrasting buildings in Pilsen CR (Photo source:
robert.hastings@aeu.ch)
books, often resulted in buildings which were an
energy disaster.
After the oil shock of 1973 passive solar design
(post oil shock), an epoch of innovation and exper-
imentation, both technically and also aesthetically,
began. The aesthetics varied greatly, from “Cali-
fornia hippy” and New Mexico oil drum to devel-
oper colonial. Inventors developed movable
reflectors to concentrate sunlight on passive solar
elements and movable shading systems for over-
heat protection. Also, thermal mass became a
design opportunity, with glass blocks filled with
colored water, glazing filled with phase change
material, and rock bins as standing wall elements.
Many components were used before they were
technically mature. As a result, some components
disappeared as quickly as they had appeared, and a
design aesthetic never really matured.
By the end of the twentieth century, only tech-
nically and economically viable passive solar
heating concepts remained. In Europe the aes-
thetics of passive solar architecture profited from
the attention given to detailing and superb crafts-
manship. Design also suffered, however, from the
box form architecture which became a craze and
results in sterile, boring cubes. Name architects
began to apply such concepts, wanting to profit
from the growing environmental awareness.
North American architects shifted to green archi-
tecture, with an emphasis on the use of natural
material and renewable energy in environmentally
Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment
benign designs. The best examples are corporate
offices and local institutional buildings from
schools to park headquarters.
In the twenty-first century, the focus is on con-
servation. Manufacturers have responded to demand
from passive house planners, so there are now very
good components on the market. An example is the
windows, now available with a combined U-value
(frame and glazing) of 0.8 W/m2 K.
The aesthetic integration of passive solar,
active solar, and photovoltaic systems is still
evolving. Too often, the engineering may be
excellent but the resulting appearance not or vice
versa. First semester architectural design princi-
ples are also valid for solar systems integration.
The resulting “design” should please laymen and
not just editors of high-end architecture journals.
These concerns were discussed in a session of the
Passive House Conference in Krems, AT [19].
Following is a presentation of the three passive
solar heating concepts and their variations with
example built projects, hopefully which appeal
also as “designs.”
Direct Gain
Principles
Windows transmit sunlight into the building interior
where it is absorbed and becomes heat. The win-
dows trap the heat in the room, and interior con-
struction mass stores some of the heat for the night.
How well the glass transmits solar energy is
characterized by its g-value. A value of 100%
would mean all the solar energy gets through the
window, i.e., when the window is open. Other-
wise, the glass absorbs some of the radiation and
363
is warmed. The warmth is radiated to the ambient
and into the room. Since the ambient in winter is
colder than the room, it receives more of that heat.
Still, some of the heat absorbed in the glass is
radiated into the room. That heat plus solar energy
transmitted through the glass comprise the total
solar gain. This sum divided by the amount of
solar radiation striking the window is the
g-value. Multiple pane glazing systems with
selective coating drastically reduce heat loss but
also let less solar radiation into the room. How-
ever, the benefit of the lesser heat loss overweighs
the reduced solar transmission.
The usefulness of passive solar gains depends
strongly on the match or mismatch of solar inten-
sity, occupancy heat gains, and heating demand
over the course of a day. Table 1 summarizes
characteristics of different window orientations.
Advantages and disadvantages of direct gain:
+ Simplicity:
Window construction is highly developed
with a long history of passive solar heating
experience.
+ Efficiency:
Mid-winter solar usability can reach 100%.
+ Economy:
People need daylight; buildings need
windows, so only marginal cost for better,
larger windows must be amortized by energy
savings.
+ Aesthetics:
Light and warmth from the sun are assets.
Fenestration strongly defines the
“personality” of a building, hopefully linked
to functionality.
 Overheating:
Risk greater than a windowless,
mechanically cooled and ventilated,
insulated cube. This risk, however, can be
calculated and minimized and such a cube is
no alternative for providing living quality.
364 Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment

Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment, Table 1 Window orientations and characteristics
Orientation Characteristic
South Maximum usable winter solar gains
Easiest summer shading
West Poor solar usability (solar gains follow all day occupancy gains)
Overheating risk in summer
Shading more difficult (adjustable vertical elements)
East Limited solar gains in winter, especially by morning fog
Good solar usability (solar gains after night setback)
Less overheating risk (no direct sunlight after mid-morning)
North Least solar gains
Greater heat loss (colder microclimate of the north side of building)
Best, daylight orientation, least glare problem
Ideal for offices, school classrooms
Good insulation glass required for comfort near windows
Tilted Construction complicated, expensive
More difficult to keep weather and watertight
Greater summer overheating risk (except tilted north)
Mounting movable shading elements more difficult
Roof Maximal daylight by overcast skies
Highest overheating risk (max. solar gains in summer)
Difficult to shade
Greatest heat losses in winter
Sky radiation heat loss, minimal solar gains

 Glare: can be used. Their higher viscosity slows the

Sunlight on a work surface, computer
screen or poster from Klimt is highly
detrimental. Variable, occupant adjusted
shading is essential.
Components
Glazing: Table 2 compares daylight transmission
(t-value), solar transmission (g-value), and heat
loss (U-values) for a sample of glazings
[20]. Exact values are readily available from
glass manufacturers’ catalogs. The first three
glass types are seldom used today and serve here
a reference for comparing modern glass.
Vacuum glazing: In multiple pane glazings,
heat is transported by radiation between the panes
and convection of the gas in the cavity between
the glass panes. To improve performance, coat-
ings are applied to the cavity side of the glass. The
coating selectively lets more solar radiation
through than heat back out. To reduce the convec-
tion heat loss, a noble gas, like argon or krypton,
convection loop. If there is no gas in the cavity,
there can be no convection heat transfer. The only
problems are to keep the atmospheric pressure
from collapsing the glass panes together and to
maintain the vacuum. Small plastic pillars spaced
evenly across the glazing area can keep the panes
separated. Maintaining the vacuum is addressed in
several patented edge sealing technologies. An
important benefit of vacuum glazing is its slim-
ness, with a total thickness of 6.5–11 mm
depending on the needed glass strength. The gap
for the vacuum is only about 0.25 mm. A vacuum
between 4 and10 torr is used (a pressure unit equal
to 1/760 of an atmosphere). This is a relatively
weak vacuum; a thermos bottle has 6–10 torr [21].
Glazing spacers in multiple-pane glazing are
thermal bridges. Earlier insulating glazing used
aluminum spacers. Unfortunately, aluminum is a
good heat conductor, so edge losses were high.
A next generation used stainless steel spacers,
with a lower conductivity. Modern insulating
glass units use spacers with a plastic thermal
Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment 365

Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment, Table 2 Glass properties

t-value g-value
Glass type % % U-value W/m2K
Single 3 mm 90 85 5.8
Double* 82 75 2.9
Triple 73 65 2.2
Double, low e, argon* 80 60 1.1
Triple, low e, noble gas* 76 56 0.6
Double, low e, vacuum 68 50 1.2

Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment, Table 3 Uwindow value of different windows sizes including the
effect of the edge spacer
w  h (mm  mm) Awindow (m2) Perimeter (m) Awindow/perimeter Uw (W/(m2 K)
400  800 0.32 2400 0.133 1.8
1300  1300 1.69 5200 0.023 1.5
1230  1480 1.82 5420 0.024 1.4
2750  2500 6.88 10,500 0.014 1.3

Passive Solar Heating in Frame construction Uf frame (W/m2K)

the Built Environment,
Solid wooda 1.3
Table 4 Example window
frame constructions and Wood-aluminuma 1.2
thermal properties Wood with air cavitiesc 1.1
Plastica 1.1
Aluminumb 2.2
Aluminum with breakb 0.9
a
EgoKiefer, CH-9450, Altstätten, SG, www.egokiefer.ch
b
Schüco/Jansen AG, CH-9463, Oberriet, www.jansen.com
c
Sigg Tischlerei GmbH, AT-6912, Hörbranz, www.passivhausfenster.at/allgemein

break. The improvement is substantial. Alumi-
num spacers have linear heat loss (C) of 0.07 to
0.8 W/mK. The C of a thermally separated spacer
(i.e., stainless steel separated with plastic) can be
as low as 0.04 W/mK. Table 3 illustrates how
strongly the linear thermal bridging of the edge
spacer affects the overall U-value of the glazing,
depending on glass area [22].
Uframe ¼ 1:6 W=ðm2 KÞ
Assumptions: Uglass ¼ 1:1 W=ðm2 KÞ
C ¼ 0:070 W=ðmKÞ
Window frames are the weak thermal compo-
nent of windows with highly insulating glass. The
frame has a worse U-value, and of course it blocks
the sunlight. So frames with a small profile are
desirable. Frames with some form of thermal
break to interrupt the heat path are desirable.
Even the U-value of a solid wooden window
must today be judged as optimal for very low-
energy buildings, as can be compared in Table 4.
Note that, with the exception of the aluminum
frames, good U-values can be obtained for all
materials. Exact U-values should be obtained
from manufacturers because the values given
here can vary relative to specific products. Also,
of course, insulation value is only one selection
criteria among many, i.e., strength to resist wind
forces, life span, and maintenance costs.
Fixed shading by roof overhangs is promoted
as a solution for south facades. This must be
366 Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment

questioned for climates with overcast winters. By an
overcast sky, most daylight comes from the zenith.
Therefore, fixed overhangs block daylight during
long gray periods when daylight is most desired.
For such climates, moveable shading is superior.
To estimate the adequacy of a south-facing
overhang, the highest and lowest noon sun angles
(21 June and 21 Dec.) are calculated as follows:
21. June: 90
– latitude + 23.45

21. Dec.:90
– latitude  23.45

Taking Zurich (latitude approx. 47
N) as an
example, the highest and lowest sun angles are
66.45
and 19.55
.
While this is a good first estimation for design-
ing a shading geometry, the problem is that the sun
has a lower angle before and after solar noon. An
overhang should extend horizontally beyond
either side of the window to give diagonal shading
as the sun rises, falls, and moves laterally before
and after noon.
East- and west-facing windows need vertical
shading since at sunrise and sunset the sun will get
under any overhang. Vertical shading elements
which can be rotated away from the lateral move-
ment of the sun are best to allow shading and some
view concurrently.
Mass increases the effectiveness of passive
solar gains and is especially effective if directly
sunlit (primary mass). It is up to 150% more
effective than secondary mass heated indirectly
by the room air [10]. A recommendation for
middle European-like climates is to provide
2800 kg of mass per m2 of window area
[23]. Another recommendation is that for each
m2 of south-facing glass above 7% of the floor
area, there should be between 6 and 8 m2 of
exposed thermal mass. An example would be a
200 m2 house with 20 m2 of south-facing glazing.
About 6 m2 of that glazing will require 36–48 m2
of solar-exposed thermal mass [24]. Also, note
that for day-night heat storage, thickness greater
than approximately 10 cm will not increase the
sola usability.
If the primary mass, i.e., a stone floor or brick
wall, is a dark color, it will absorb the solar radi-
ation better, but the impact on daylight distribu-
tion must be considered. Light-colored sunlit
surfaces, especially floors or side walls, are essen-
tial to diffuse daylight deeper into a room. Such
surfaces should have a mat color to avoid glare.
How well a material stores heat is indicated by
its capacity. Table 5 gives the physical properties
of some construction materials to compare their
effectiveness as thermal storage [25].
An Example Building
A very impressive example of passive solar
heating with windows is a single family house
built at 900 m above sea level in Trin, CH. It has
no auxiliary heating, not even a wood stove. The
architect, Andrea G. Ruedi, matched a very large,
south-facing window area (46 m2), very plentiful

Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment, Table 5 Heat storage properties of common construction materials
[25]
Density Conductivity Thermal capacity Volumetric heat capacity
Material r (kg/m3) l (W/mK) c (Wh/kgK) Wh/m3
Metamorphic stone 2800 3.5 0.26 728
Sedimentary stone 2600 2.3 0.22 572
Clay 1700 0.9 0.24 408
Sand, gravel 1800–2000 0.7 0.22 418
Concrete reinforced 2400 1.8 0.3 720
Concrete aerated 1000 0.3–1.0 0.3 300
Interior plaster 1400 0.7 0.26 364
Gypsum board 900 0.21 0.22 198
Wood (pine, fir) 450–500 0.14 0.55–0.66 287
Wood (oak) 700–800 0.21 0.55–0.66 454
Wood (fiber board) 800 0.17 0.7 560
Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment 367

mass inside the insulated envelope (Fig. 13). The
envelope is wooden frame construction to
simplify achieving a high insulation value
(0.14 W/m2 K); the interior incorporates lime-
stone bricks and concrete (see Table 6). The
room temperatures were measured in a research
project over the heating season, with no auxiliary
heating. They varied between 18 and 23
C. Only
very rarely did the temperature fall below 19
C.
The theoretical annual heating energy, where
20
C maintained, was calculated to be less than
30 L of heating oil equivalent (1.1 kWh/m2a) [26].
Design Advice
Maximize solar gains:
• Orient direct gain window between + and
45
from south
• South window to facade ratio: 30:50, not more
• Large, uninterrupted glass areas (to minimize
frame and glass edge losses)
• Window Uwindow < 1.0 W/m2 K (including
frame) and a good g-value (>50%)
• Account for winter sun blockage by neighbor-
ing buildings, trees, terrain.
Maximize usefulness of passive solar gains:
• Interior construction with adequate sunlit
(primary) mass
• Room interior finishes light color to maximize
light distribution
• Open floor plan. Largest rooms on south side
(small rooms overheat faster)
• Auxiliary heat control responsive to passive
solar gains
• Shading elements: horizontal for south, verti-
cal for east/west
• Adjustable shading to allow concurrent view
and ventilation.
• Exterior sun shading to keep absorbed heat
outside
• Generous operable window area with max.
Height difference to induce natural ventilation
(diurnal cooling where possible)

Indirect Gain

Principles

Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment,

Fig. 13 Extreme example of a direct-gain house in Trin,
CH, with no auxiliary heating (Architect Andrea Ruedi,
CH-7000 Chur)

Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment, Table 6 Properties of the solar house in Trin, CH
Properties Trin solar house A reference house
South window area 48 m2 (8% frame) 28 m2 (20% frame)
South-facing window to facade proportion 56% 33%
Interior storage mass 277 t 190 t
Wall construction Exterior: Insulated wooden frame 15 cm limestone
Interior: Limestone masonry 30 cm cellulose insulation
368 Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment

Sun warms building walls and roofs but normally,
the heat is radiated and convected back to the
ambient. By protecting the surface behind the
glass, heat can be trapped within the construction,
stored or transported into the building to reduce
auxiliary heating demand.
Several variations of this concept have been
built including the mass wall, mass roofs, trans-
parent insulation, and solar insulation. Of the
many innovative concepts, only a few have sur-
vived into the present, but with rising energy
prices and availability of new high-performance
components, these concepts can be promising.
How much passive solar heat gains can reduce
purchased heat demand depends on the intensity
and timing of the sunlight, occupancy heat gains,
and room temperatures desired. Table 7 summa-
rizes characteristics of different window
orientations.
Advantages and Disadvantages:
+ Simplicity:
The concept is simple; some variations do
not have any moving parts.
+ Aesthetics:
Most systems include large glass areas
which can be integrated with window areas
into an attractive transparent facade concept.
 Inefficiency:
Heat losses from the solar energy
captured in the collector are radiated both to
the inside and the ambient, reducing system
efficiency.
+ Natural cooling:
The chimney effect of an indirect gain
system can draw cooler air from a ground
channel or the north facade through the
building for summer comfort.
 Complexity
Many systems need seasonal shading to
avoid summer overheating. Some require
dampers to regulate and direct air flows.
 Cost-benefit:
Complex systems proved in most cases to
be too expensive for the energy benefit.
Following are four variations of indirect gain
systems, mass walls, mass roofs, transparent insu-
lation, and solar insulation.
Mass Walls
A stone, concrete, brick, or adobe wall will absorb
and store solar heat, but the heat is rapidly radiated
and convected back to the ambient with little or no
benefit to the heated building space. If the wall is
protected behind glass, the heat is better retained.
With a time delay, much of the heat can then
penetrate and be radiated and convected to the
room behind the wall (Fig. 14). This is the

Passive Solar Heating in Orientation Characteristic

the Built Environment,
South Maximum usable winter solar gains
Table 7 Indirect gain
system orientations and Fixed overhang possible
characteristics West Less solar gains compared to south-facing facades
Heat delivered to space at time of day when least needed, so storage
important
Greatest risk of summer discomfort
East Limited solar gains compared to south-facing facade
Less overheating risk (no direct sunlight after mid-morning)
If storage included, heat delivered at midday when least needed
North Least solar gains, questionable cost-benefit
Roof Maximal night-sky cooling in summer, least benefit in winter
Steeper roofs intercept winter sun better
Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment
principle of the solar wall, patented in 1881 by
Edward Morse, an American botanist. In 1964
French engineer Felix Trombe and architect
Jacques Michel built such a wall to demonstrate
this principle. Since then the mass wall or Michel
Trombe Wall has become popularly known as the
Trombe Wall [27].
The wall has been built in two variations. In the
unvented version, the wall delivers heat to the
room only by conduction and then radiation
from the wall surface, with up to an 8–10-hour
time delay, depending on how massive the wall
is. In the vented version (Fig. 14), the vents open
when the air in the cavity is sun-warmed. The air
circulates into the room at the top of the wall and
returns to the cavity through slots at the bottom.
This variation delivers heat sooner so is better for
east-facing walls and would not be good for a
west-facing wall. To prevent back circulation of
cold air in the gap into the room at night, dampers
are needed. One solution was a Mylar film damper
which simply flapped open or was pressed closed
against a wire mesh by the air pressure. In summer
dampers could be opened at the top and bottom of
the air gap to vent it to the outside. Alternatively,
only the top damper could be opened and a north
window of the house opened. The chimney effect
of the mass wall draws cooler air from the north
side of the house, across the room and exhausted it
out the top of the mass wall to the ambient.
The first project in Odeillo France (Fig. 15)
was subsequently copied at Los Alamos, New
Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment,
Fig. 14 Concept of the Michel Trombe Mass Wall
369
Mexico, USA, where it was instrumented and a
computer model of its physics calibrated. Versions
were then built in the 1980s in middle Europe.
The performance during long, overcast winter
periods was disappointing, while in summer, the
rooms behind the wall were too warm. Another
solution was needed for this climate.
Mass Roof
An innovative alternative to a solar mass wall is to
a solar mass roof. It can provide both winter
heating and summer cooling. One innovative con-
cept uses a series of roof water bags (like a water
bed) and moveable insulation panels. During the
winter days, the insulation is slid back on its
tracks, so that the water is sun-warmed. At nights
the insulation is rolled back over the water bags,
which then conduct heat through the steel deck
ceiling to be radiated down to the rooms beneath.
In summer, the process is reversed. At nights the
cover is removed and the water is cooled by radi-
ation to the sky, and at days the insulation is slid in
place and the rooms below are cooled by the cold
water bags.
A prototype house was built in 1973 by the
inventor of the concept, Harold R. Hay (Fig. 16).
The three-bedroom, two-bath structure in Atasca-
dero California was constructed and monitored
with funding from the US Department of Housing
and Urban Development (HUD). It was the first
documented 100% passive solar-heated and
cooled building and the only instrumented passive
solar house in operation during the 1973 energy
Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment,
Fig. 15 The prototype Michel Trombe Wall house in
Odeillo, FR (Source. robert.hastings@aeu.ch)
370
Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment,
Fig. 16 A mass roof: the Skytherm House in Atascadero
California by Harold Hay (Photo source: Evelyn and Har-
old Hay Fund at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, USA)
crisis. To engineer the system, the then new gen-
eration of computer simulation tools was used
(simulations for this project done by Phil Niles)
[28]. It could be worthwhile to reexamine this
concept, given the materials and insulation sys-
tems available today.
Transparent Insulation
The transparent insulation wall (TWD) improved
the performance of the mass wall concept by
addressing one of its weaknesses. In the cavity
the air warmed by the black surface of the solar
wall rises, while cooler air against the surface of
the glass falls. The resulting circulation loop
transports heat from the wall to the glass where
it is then lost by conduction to the ambient. In the
transparent insulation system, the air gap is filled
with some form of transparent cellular structure,
inhibiting the convective loop (Fig. 17). The infill
material is typically a cylindrical, rectangular, or
honeycomb geometry which directs the light in
multiple reflections to the mass wall at the back.
A small vertical gap between the TWD and glass
should be maintained, to allow moisture to diffuse
and prevent the TWD from being in direct contact
with the hot absorber surface.
In non-heating months, vents to the ambient
can be opened at the top and bottom to cool the
wall. These proved to be difficult to keep airtight
in winter and added cost. Some form of shading
for the wall was needed. Window roller blinds are
Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment
Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment,
Fig. 17 Transparent insulated wall concept
effective but make the whole system prohibitively
expensive. An innovative solution was to use
fixed, metal microlouvers with the fins set at an
angle to block high summer sun angles. They,
unfortunately, also reduced winter solar perfor-
mance and were expensive. A third variation
uses fused transparent spheres 2–3 mm in diame-
ter as the glazing, applied like transparent stucco.
These let less solar energy through, but with the
benefit of much better summer comfort behind the
wall. The area of the glazing patches is for phys-
ical reasons limited [29].
Several transparent materials and geometries
have been used to fill the air gap, including
extruded PMMA-capillaries or polymethy-
lmetacrylat (Plexiglas), extruded PC polycarbon-
ate (Makrolon) capillaries or honeycomb forms
and extruded polycarbonate multicell panels. Crit-
ical for the selection are the upper temperature
tolerance and UV stability. Some materials are
stable up to 120
C, other to only 90
C. A good
overview of products and properties is available
from the association of TWD manufacturers [29].
A well-publicized example of a TWD building
under extreme conditions is a Swiss alpine hostel
at Hundwiler Höhe at an elevation of 10 306 m
above sea level (Fig. 18). It was built in 1995
and incorporates 42 m2 of prefab TWD modules
130  90  18.5 cm (h  w  d) were used. No
summer solar protection was needed at this alti-
tude. The 185 cm thick TWD wall construction
Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment 371

Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment,

Fig. 18 Swiss TWD house at Hundwiler Höhe, CH
(Architect and photo source. P. Dransfeld, www.
dransfeld.ch)
Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment,
Fig. 19 Wall section of a cellulose solar wall insulation
(outside to inside) is as follows: 8 mm framing system
projection beyond the glass, 4 mm glass, 30 mm
gap, 120 mm transparent insulation, 8 mm
absorber, and 15 mm air gap between the absorber
and wall. This air gap was needed to provide the
needed tolerance for mounting the prefab TWD
modules. The gap was estimated to cause a 10%
reduction in efficiency, which was considered
acceptable. Simulations indicated that the temper-
ature in the TWD construction should not exceed
80
C to 90
C, well within the110
C tolerance of
the TWD material used [30].

Solar Insulation
The solar wall concept is the simplest of the indi-
rect gain systems and perhaps, therefore, most
economical.
The goal of this concept is to provide dynamic
wall insulation. During the day, air chambers in
the cavity protected by glass are warmed by the
sun. At nights, the cavity slowly cools down. The
air chambers together with the glazing to the out-
side and insulation to the inside help reduce heat
loss from the building.
Two construction variations exist for creating
the insulating air chambers: a type of treated,
corrugated cardboard and wood routed with hor-
izontal slits.
The cellulose system (GAP), shown in Fig. 19,
achieves on south facades a dynamic U-value of
0.08 W/m2 K in middle Europe [31].
Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment,
Fig. 20 Apartment building with the GAP solar insulation
on Makartstraße, Linz, AT (Photo source: S. Grünewald
and S. Rottensteiner)
A well-publicized example project using this
concept is an Austrian apartment building on
Makartstraße, Linz, AT (Fig. 20). To minimize
disturbing the tenants, prefabricated wall panels
including the solar walls, windows, sun-shading
systems, and ventilation channels were mounted.
The south facades achieve a dynamic U-value of
0.08 W/m2 K averaged over the heating season.
372
Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment,
Fig. 21 A solar-insulated wall detail of the routed wooden
Lucido system (Source: Lucido Solar AG Solares Bauen,
www.lucido-solar.com/nc/home/)
As a result of a combination of this wall system
and other measures, the heating demand could be
reduced by 92% to 13.4 kWh/m2K [31, 32].
The routed wooden system (Lucido) entraps
air in inward-sloping slots (Fig. 21). Important in
this and also the cellulose board system is that the
wall behind the solar wall be well insulated.
A benefit of the wooden absorber is that, being
weather protected, it can be left natural and hence
conveys the character of a wooden façade.
Design Advice
Following is design advice for temperate cli-
mates. In mild climates, these systems might
make it possible reduce auxiliary heating
demand to zero, but summer comfort strategies
must be well done. In a humid, hot climate, this
system makes no sense, nor is performance likely
to be good in northern, very cold and weak-sun
winter climates. Many projects were built in tem-
perate climates, but a market breakthrough has
not yet occurred. The energy they save for the
investment is high compared to energy from
cheap fossil fuel:
• Because indirect solar gain is less efficient than
direct gain, a large collection area is needed.
South-facing orientations are most sensible.
Depending on the desired timing of heat
release, east- or west-facing solar mass walls
are possible, but the absolute amount of deliv-
ered heat will be smaller.
Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment
• Overheating is a risk in mass wall systems, so
summer sun shading and venting are impor-
tant. The solar insulation concept has the com-
fort advantage of having an insulated wall
separating it from the building interior.
• Durability was a problem for early prototypes,
including leaky vent dampers and degradation
of sun-exposed wooden framing. A typical
greenhouse construction with a metal cap to
protect exterior wood is one solution. Trans-
parent insulation can deform at high tempera-
tures, so the right material must be chosen for
the design or reliable shading provided. Freeze
protection UV-durable materials are obvious
requirement for the roof mass system using
water.
• The thickness and density of a mass wall and
hourly solar radiation should be calculated to
dimension a mass wall to deliver its heat to the
room when desired.
• System performance might be improved by
very good insulating glass. This is a trade-off
of g-value and U-value in the context of the
economics. Single glazing in low-iron glass
could still be the best solution (maximizing
the g-value).
• The mass roof system is only plausible in clear-
sky climates with both a heating and cooling
demand.
• The room side of the mass wall or transparent
insulation wall should not be blocked by fur-
niture. For the solar insulation system, this is
not an issue. The room surface of all the wall
concepts can be any color desired.
• Prefabrication can provide cost savings for a
second project, not necessarily the first pro-
ject. The benefits are shorter on-site erection
time, less disturbance of occupants, and better
quality control which can lead to better
durability.
• Indirect gain systems are well suited for build-
ing renovations.
• These systems have gone through develop-
ment pains; valuable experience is available
from the project designers, research institutes,
and the manufacturers of system solutions.
Homework to assure a new project starts from
the state-of-the-art is essential!
Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment 373

Isolated Gain/Hybrid + Overheating:

Isolated solar gains systems, because they
Principles are outside the insulated building, are
advantageous regarding summer comfort.
Sunspaces need large, low, and high
ventilation openings and effective shading
and glare protection.
+ Natural cooling:
The chimney effect of an isolated solar
collector or sunspace can draw cooler air
from a ground channel or the north facade
through the building.

Solar energy is collected outside the insulated Solar Air Systems

envelope of the building and then transport as heat
by convection into the building or into storage.
Two variations are considered here: solar air sys-
tems (with or without mass) and sunspaces.
The orientation of a sunspace, like any room,
depends on view and when sunlight is wanted.
For solar air systems, design issues are similar to
those of indirect gain systems. Buildings
uninhabited and kept at a minimum temperature
much of the year (i.e., vacation homes) are an
ideal application.
Advantages and disadvantages:
A solar air system is in effect a sunspace with the
depth reduced to a few centimeters. The principle is
+ Simplicity: the same as an active solar water system, except that
These systems are simple and reliable. heat is transported from the collector to the point of
need or storage by air. Two variations are reviewed
+ Dependability: here: systems which are directly coupled to the
The gravity-driven solar air systems work building and systems in which the sun-warmed air
without moving parts. However, a small fan passes through mass before entering the building.
would improve the efficiency and can easily Altogether, six system types were researched in a
be PV powered, making the system immune project of the International Energy Agency. Out of
to grid power interruptions. this work, a design handbook for solar air systems
[33] and a book of example built projects [34] were
+ Economy: published. The other four system types typically
Reduced purchased energy costs and require an electrical fan, dampers, and more com-
reduced wear from less running time of the plex control systems to function so are not included
auxiliary heating system, extending its lifetime. here under passive systems.

+ Function: No-Mass Solar Air Systems

Sunspaces are built for the space they These systems operate on the principle that sun-
provide, energy savings are only a fringe warmed air in a vertical or upward sloped volume
benefit, so in effect a bonus. behind glass will rise. This warm air can then be
374
Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment,
Fig. 22 Diagram of a free convecting facade solar air
collector
channeled through the insulated wall of a building
to provide solar heating (Fig. 22). Two variations
are possible for the air supply at the bottom of the
collector:
– If the opening is to the ambient, the collector can
deliver sun-warmed fresh air to the building.
– If the opening is to the building, the collector
delivers recirculated, higher temperature air
than the first variation. In either configuration,
in summer an outlet at the top can be opened to
the ambient to exhaust the hot air.
Example
Figure 23 shows a solar air system to keep a vaca-
tion home in Koroni, GR, heated to a low level,
ventilated and dry during periods of vacancy. Two
collectors each 6 m2 circulate up to 200 m3/h of
fresh air into the house. A small PV panel (50 Wp)
integrated into a corner of the air collector powers a
small fan to increase the efficiency of the system,
which has been in operation since 2004.
Mass Solar Air Systems
This concept is like the no-mass solar air system
described above, except that the solar-heated air
circulates through the building structural mass
Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment
Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment,
Fig. 23 A solar air heater for a vacation home on a
Greek island (Photo and system information: www.
grammer-solar-bau.de/de/)
before entering the room (Fig. 24). In this way,
the air enters the room at not as high a temper-
ature, and the mass continues to radiate the
stored heat after sunset. The mass may be a
concrete ceiling or floor (hypocaust) or walls
(murocaust) with air channels. The system can
function with only free convection of air
movement [33].
Example
Figure 25 shows an apartment building in
Marostica, Italy (20 km from Vicenza), with a
facade integrated passive solar air system. The
sun-warmed air in the collector rises naturally
and circulates though channels in the concrete
ceiling/floor structure before entering the apart-
ments in the north-facing rooms. The concept
was developed by Barra-Costantini. Each 84 m2
apartment is heated by 16 m2 of collector. Each
m2 of collector is estimated to contribute about
100 kWh/a [34].
Design Advice
• The collector can be mounted below floor level,
i.e., in the case of a building with an above-grade
basement. The height difference strengthens the
free convection.
• No-mass solar air systems are well suited for
buildings often vacant which need to be tem-
pered and supplied fresh air. In permanently
Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment
Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment,
Fig. 24 A solar air collector linked to air channels in the
building structure
Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment,
Fig. 25 Solar apartment buildings in Marostica by
Barra-Costantini (Photo Gianni Scudo)
occupied buildings, mass is essential to max-
imize the usefulness of the collector gains and
avoid overheating.
• Dampers are essential to prevent reverse-flow
and cooling of room air into the collector at night.
• A small fan can increase system efficiency.
Commercial solar air systems with
PV-powered fans are available.
• The collector and solar-heated air channel-
ing require good engineering. Consult the
literature to not have to re-invent the wheel
[33, 34].
375
Sunspaces
Sunspaces became popular element of passive
solar architecture. They were designed as an
architectural feature which, in addition, reduced
purchased energy consumption in several ways:
• Passively by creating a warm buffer zone on
the south side of the house, reducing wall and
window heat losses.
• Passively by occupants simply opening house
windows and doors into the sunspace when its
temperature exceeded the house temperature.
Alternatively, a small thermostat could open a
damper and switch on a fan to automate this.
• Actively, when sunspace supplied sun-warmed
air to a mechanically ventilated building. Alter-
natively, the sunspace air could be ducted to a
heat exchanger to warm incoming ventilation
air for the building.
Today, in highly insulated buildings, a
sunspace’s buffering effect is no longer a signifi-
cant energy saving. In mechanically ventilated
buildings with heat recovery, the benefit of
heating the incoming air is also less significant
but still a benefit. Sunspace-heated air can exceed
room temperature, thus supplying useful heat.
A sunspace can increase purchased energy con-
sumption if occupants heat it to near room tem-
peratures. Comfort expectations of a sunspace
must be less than for rooms.
Example
The Wydacker row houses in Zollikofen (Bern),
CH, are earth sheltered to the north and protected
behind a sunspace to the south (Fig. 26). This
376
Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment,
Fig. 26 Attached sunspaces as part of the concept of
low energy row housing in Bern (Architects, AARPLAN;
Bern, CH)
construction provides energy benefits and protec-
tion from nearby street noise.
Each house has a 108 m2 sunspace with a
57 m2 of insulated glass (U = 2.9 W/m2 K) at a
60
slope oriented 20
west of south. Being
slightly west of south is beneficial. Frequent
morning fog reduces solar radiation mornings
compared to afternoons. Sun shading is provided
by a roller shade beneath the glazing. The con-
crete block wall of the house and concrete pavers
over gravel provide thermal mass for the
sunspace. The measured heating energy consump-
tion of the houses was 37 kWh/m2a, which for the
year 1995 was excellent performance [35].
Design Advice
• Insulating glazing for both the sunspace
(minimize freeze risk for plants).
• Insulating glazing for the house to minimize
heat loss to the sunspace.
• Sunspace frame out of laminated wood to be
dimensionally stable and metal exterior cap to
reduce weathering.
• Alternatively aluminum framing with a ther-
mal break.
• Two or more story sunspaces offered more
collection area for the enclosed volume. Com-
fort is better because stack effect ventilation
improves with stack height.
• Large operable sash at base of the sunspace and at
its top, ideally with rain sensor activated closers.
Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment
• Rule of thumb: Minimum 1/6 glass area
operable.
• Sun shading on exterior is most effective; on
interior it is less subject to wind damage and
weathering. Interior sunshade installed min.
10 cm below glass so gap acts as thermal
chimney between operable low inlet and high
outlet sashes.
• As in direct gain systems, thermal mass helps
reduce temperature swings (i.e., minimize
hours below freezing).
• A freeze-protecting heater with thermostat
activation when the sunspace temperature
falls below 4
C can help protect plants. If the
sunspace is designed, the purchased energy for
this is well worth the plants.
Passive Solar Use in Passive or Energy-
Plus Buildings
Achieving a net solar heat gain relative to window
heat losses is far easier today than it was in the
historic examples cited at the beginning of this
section. Historically, single glazing and leaky
frames made it difficult to achieve a net gain and
designs relied on south-facing exposures. The
high rate of heat loss through the glass resulted
in discomfort near windows, not to mention the
problem of draughts. The technical advances in
window construction today have greatly simpli-
fied achieving net gains, but there are new con-
straints as well as opportunities to consider.
The Opportunities
Because passive or energy-plus buildings are so
highly insulated and airtight, their demand for
heating is greatly reduced but still exists. Passive
houses, like these shown in Fig. 27, may need
low-powered backup heating integrated into the
ventilation supply system. Energy-plus houses are
net plus because the heating energy demand is
more than offset by their renewable energy sup-
ply, usually from photovoltaic panels, but they
indeed also have a heating demand. In both
instances, passive solar gain is an essential strat-
egy. The challenge is how to optimize usefulness
of solar gains to offset auxiliary heating demand.
Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment
Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment,
Fig. 27 A passive house apartment block in
Ludwigshafen, DE (Photo source: robert.hastings@aeu.
ch)
Since the benefit of the highly insulated enve-
lope would be drastically offset by outside air
leaking into the house, or open windows for
fresh air, mechanical ventilation with heat recov-
ery is a must in passive houses! The controlled,
mechanical supply and exhaust of air throughout
the house also help distribute passive solar heat
from sunlit rooms to rooms with a heating need.
While the ability of air to transport heat is limited
by its low heat capacity (0.33 Wh/(m3 K) and the
comfort limit of air exchange of a room of 0.4/h to
1.0/ air changes per hour, the ventilation system is
still a help in solar heat distribution. Given an
efficiency of ventilation heat exchangers between
80 and 90%, the heat, otherwise lost by opening
windows in a sunlit room, can be recovered and
distributed throughout the house.
Both passive and energy-plus homes incorpo-
rate super windows, with frames and glazing spec-
ified to achieve a high insulation level. Modern
coated and gas-filled double-glazing assemblies
377
have U-value below 1.1 W/m2 K or in the case
of triple glazing as low as 0.5 W/m2 K. This
greatly reduces heat loss to support a net passive
gain also for windows not facing south. Indeed in
temperate climates, even north-facing windows
can achieve a net gain. Last, but not least, in
highly insulated buildings, as in all buildings,
daylight and a visual link to the outside are
major assets to the quality of life in such tight
enclosures.
Some limitations in passive and energy-plus
designs:
– High-end super glazings have a lower solar
transmittance. In the worst case, less than half
the solar energy incident on the glass pene-
trates into the room.
– Internal gains meet the minimized heat losses
for longer periods, reducing the necessary
period of solar usability to mid-winter when
the days are shortest and the sun is weakest.
What must be remembered, however, is that
the internal gains which offset the very small
heating demand in the shoulder seasons are also
comprised of passive solar gains. Then, in win-
ter the low sun angles allow deeper penetration
of sunlight into the depth of the building.
– Overheating is more pronounced since the
building envelope loses heat very slowly.
This problem is not unique to highly insulated
buildings. The rapid temperature rise from a
fully sunlit room exceeds the heat loss rate
even of conventional buildings. The solution,
however, is simple: open the windows and
accept diminished useable solar gains.
The levels of superinsulation influence the
effectiveness of direct gain, indirect gain, and
isolated gain passive solar concepts in different
ways, as discussed in the following paragraphs.
Direct Gain in Passive and Energy-Plus Houses
Interior thermal mass to store heat is especially
valuable in highly insulated buildings. A room’s
thermal storage effectiveness can be enhanced if
incoming sunlight is distributed over more sur-
faces than just the directly adjacent floor area. By
378 Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment

Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment, Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment,
Fig. 28 Venetian blinds: a simple and effective light- Fig. 29 The deep window section of a passive house in
directing measure (Photo source: robert.hastings@aeu.ch) Portland, OR, USA (Photo source: robert.hastings@aeu.
ch)
tilting the blades of a louver/lamella window,
treatment can direct sunlight onto the ceiling or a
side wall. Conventional wisdom suggests that
horizontal lamella (i.e., the venetian blinds
shown in Fig. 28) is best to redirect the high sun
to the south; vertical blinds are best for the low
east- and west-facing sun. Draperies and roller
shades are less effective because if they are dark
colored, the fabric heats up and indirectly heats
the room. If the draperies or shades are light
colored, they reflect sunlight back onto the glaz-
ing. Moreover, with closed draperies or shades,
electric lighting must be turned on because the
room then feels dim.
Solar distribution is also affected by the framing
of windows in the wall. High insulation levels Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment,
invariably results in a deep wall section, as seen in Fig. 30 A bay window in San Francisco (Photo source:
robert.hastings@aeu.ch)
Fig. 29. To minimize thermal bridges, the window
frame is often set toward the outside. The resulting
deep window opening offers the opportunity to flare achieving a more uniform light distribution into
the opening to the interior. This has two benefits: the room depth.
As in historic buildings, windows should be a
– The angle accepts a wider range of sun angles, playful element in the building form and facade,
allowing sunlight to penetrate into the room even if it may challenge thermal performance. The
more hours of the day. historic “bay window” featured in houses from
– The flared wall surface, if painted a light color Boston to San Francisco (Fig. 30), and favored
or white, provides an intermediary light level, as the “Erker” in Europe since the Middle Ages, is
reducing contrast glare. hardly energy efficient. For a given wall opening
area, there is an outward, heat losing projection.
The geometry does not admit more sunlight into
The window sill should ideally be a light color the room, since the wall opening is the critical
because it deflects light up to the ceiling, aperture area. However, such a window brings
Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment 379

depth relief to a facade, can provide a wonderful

window seat, and allows a better street view for
observation. Every building should have some fun
element to make it special!

Indirect Gain in Passive and Energy-Plus

Houses
High insulation levels, with the exception of vac-
uum insulation, require thickness in the building
facade. However, adding thickness to the indirect
gain solar elements is unacceptable, and moving
the glass inward leads to frame heat loss. The
diurnal heat delivery of a mass wall is also incon-
sistent with the otherwise nearly constant room
temperature of a superinsulated house.
Isolated Gain in Passive and Energy-Plus
Houses
Adding some means of solar collection outside the
insulated building envelope can make sense
because heat delivery to the house or thermal
storage can be timed and controlled.
Solar air systems might seem sensible for a
passive house, since the house already has an air
distribution system. However, in these high-
performance houses, heating outside supply ven-
tilation air is largely accomplished by a heat
exchanger, extracting up to 90% of the exhaust
air heat. A solar air system must, therefore, pri-
marily address fulfilling the backup heating
demand. It must, however, compete economically
with a heat pump. When the electricity for the heat
pump is generated by coal, gas, or nuclear energy,
there is an argument for using solar heated air.
A solar air system does make a great deal of
sense for buildings only intermittently occupied.
The solar air system can maintain a minimum
temperature for frost protection and a faster
heating up for occupancy. Since the room temper-
ature can be very low, the collector works very
efficiently. Solar water heating makes more sense
for the delivery of domestic hot water than home
heating, given that this demand can exceed the
greatly reduced space heating demand and is a
year-round demand.
Attached sunspaces have to be considered an
amenity in high-performance buildings. The
glazed and tempered space is a welcome addition
Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment,
Fig. 31 A sunspace with glare control (Photo source:
robert.hastings@aeu.ch)
to the expensive, thickly insulated, airtight build-
ing enclosure. The sunspace offers a wonderful
contrast – a sense of openness intimately linked to
the outdoors, as evident in Fig. 31. The justifica-
tion must be quality of life, not energy savings.
Future Directions
The future for passive solar energy design can best
be forecast by reviewing technical and political
events in the past. In the early twentieth century,
when production of glass in large formats became
possible, architects began experimenting with
large glazed areas. The resulting buildings were
uncomfortable by today’s standards and expen-
sive to heat. First, with the introduction of insu-
lating glass, a net passive solar heat gain in winter
became possible for south-facing homes. After
World War II, oil became plentiful and cheap
and interest in solar dwindled. Then, the oil crisis
of 1973 renewed interest in finding alternatives to
fossil fuels. New solar building concepts evolved
under the collective term “passive solar heating.”
The first of annual “National Passive Solar Con-
ference” was held in 1977 in Santa Fe, NM
(USA). A US federal department (HUD) held a
landmark national competition for innovative pas-
sive and active solar building concepts. Interest
and built projects spread from the sunny
380
Southwestern United States across the entire con-
tinent. By the next decade, passive solar heating
concepts were being applied by architects in
Europe as well. Passive solar concepts, originat-
ing from inventive individuals, became a topic for
national research institutions. Test cells and build-
ings were monitored, computer models devel-
oped, and engineering handbooks written.
Today, the term “passive solar buildings” is
less commonly heard. The similar sounding con-
cept “passive house” now enjoys international
attention, though it is more focused on energy
efficiency than passive solar contributions. The
new, future-oriented trend in sustainable buildings
[36, 37] is net-zero-energy buildings, carbon-
neutral buildings, and even energy-plus buildings.
Well-designed new buildings constructed to such
high standards need very little heat, and so passive
solar gains are less critical. However, passive solar
heat is still an asset, especially in heating-
dominated climates. Passive solar gains are also
a major heat source when a building is unoccupied
during the day or for extended periods. The day-
lighting aspect of direct solar gain will continue to
be a critical contribution to low-energy buildings
worldwide, with solar heat management achieved
through dynamic shading solutions.
Given the concern for “climate destruction” in
all but three countries in the world, future build-
ings must achieve a smaller carbon footprint and
fulfill unmet and emerging requirements as well:
– Longer periods of warm temperatures and
higher temperatures
– Emerging economies with populations
demanding greater comfort
– More elderly people with greater comfort needs
– High energy prices, regardless of whether the
energy comes from diminishing fossil fuel sup-
plies or renewable energy
– Less disposable income because salary
increases will not match the inflation of energy
costs affecting prices of all goods and services
Innovative developments in passive technolo-
gies will offer new possibilities for meeting these
requirements, including:
Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment
– Nanotechnology selective coatings for glazing
to allow larger passive solar collection areas in
winter and no overheating in summer, perhaps
by means of switchable attributes. Similarly,
material science will deliver high-performance
coatings for absorber surfaces.
– Vacuum technologies for both window glazing
and very compact insulation for the building
envelope and solar systems.
– Intelligent, self-learning control systems for
dynamic shading devices and for components
with switchable properties responding to solar
intensity, ambient temperatures, and program-
mable occupant profiles.
– Chemical thermal storage for natural heat or
“cold” to provide very compact and high den-
sity, compact storage with no losses during
storage.
– Building skins that produce both electricity
and low temperature heat, transmitting elec-
tricity or incorporating capillaries to supply
low temperature heat to heat pumps for space
and water heating.
As world-known reserves diminish, prices may
steadily and gradually increase, and price swings
will be amplified by speculation. Public concern
over local health epidemics near fracking sites
could reduce this source of fuel and eliminate the
oil glut that is causing depressed prices. Finally, in
the future as in the past, political developments
may result in supply interruptions.
These changing demographic requirements,
technical developments, and possible political
and oil market events will alter how new build-
ings are constructed and existing buildings reno-
vated. Buildings will be deeply efficient and
more effectively draw energy from the environ-
ment, providing heat, light, and “cool” with less
external energy input. Buildings and climates
will no longer be combatants, but allies working
together. Passive solar heating is and will be an
important strategy for achieving affordable, low-
energy buildings – offering free heat and daylight
into the hearts of buildings and hearts of the
occupants.
Passive Solar Heating in the Built Environment
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 Education of a Systems Integrator
Daylighting Controls, Future Research in Daylight Technology
Performance, and Global Bibliography
Impacts
Glossary
Helmut Köster
Köster Lichtplanung, Frankfurt am Main, Daylight autonomy Daylight autonomous areas
Germany require a daylight coefficient > 5%.
Daylight transmission The daylight transmis-
sion on the mirror systems can be characterized
Article Outline by bidirectional scattering distribution func-
tions (BSDF).
Glossary Heat reflective shading Heat reflective shading
Definition of the Subject means the reduction of the SHGC value by
Introduction reflecting the overheating sun.
What Is Daylight? Light distribution curves Light distribution
Optimization of Light Transmission in a Building curves (LDC) are characterized by the bidirec-
Energy Savings Potentials tional scattering functions (BSDF).
Traditional Strategies of Sun Protection Light shelf The redirecting part of the louvers
Undermine Daylighting reflecting light to the inside is described as a
Requirements to Be Met in Future Sun Protection light shelf.
Strategies Solar heat gain transmission Solar heat gain
Methods of Daylight Control transmission is characterized by the SHGC
Control Strategies of Solar Irradiation Through value in % of the solar irradiation and includes
the Louver Geometry the light transmission.
Optical Energy Management by Engineered Thermal transmission Thermal transmission
Louver Systems describes the secondary heat transmission.
Maintaining Views with Heat and Light View clarity View clarity explains the open view
Management between the louvers and is given in %.
Light Redirection System: Quality Assurance
Full Spectrum Daylight and Health in the
Workplace
General Requirements for Louver Control Definition of the Subject
Modifying Daylight and Thermal Energies
Through Geometries and Specifications The possibilities of saving energy by means of an
Energy Savings Potential of Controlled Daylight increased use of a natural resource, namely day-
Systems light, are extensive. New daylighting technologies
Control of Electric Lighting in Combination with that incorporate light guiding systems to bathe
Daylight Technology interior rooms with more daylight while avoiding
Design to Integrate Daylight and Electric Lighting glare and overheating are critical design goals for
The Daylight Facade as a Focal Point of New the future.
Energy Concepts Apart from the winter months when there is
Integrated Design Is Critical to Environmental less sunshine, direct sun is mainly considered as a
Outcomes source of discomfort in most countries today. That

© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020 383

V. Loftness (ed.), Sustainable Built Environments,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-0684-1_198
Originally published in
R. A. Meyers (ed.), Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology, © Springer Science+Business Media LLC 2018
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2493-6_198-4
384
is why façades are unilaterally formed as protec-
tive shields against overheating but not as sources
of renewable light. This is particularly true for all
glass façades where the use of color and reflective
effects negate the use of daylight as an energy
resource to save artificial illumination.
This entry demonstrates design approaches
and technologies which serve to guide daylight
into buildings, while protecting the building from
direct overheating and glare.
Introduction
Worldwide, efforts are made to introduce energy
conservation regulations and laws requiring the use
of regenerative energies. While the focus on regen-
erative energies has been on energy conversion
systems to obtain power and heat, it seems obvious
that the highest priority should be to use the sun
for natural illumination without overheating.
Improving the supply of natural daylight in
workplaces rather than using electric lighting is
as yet a barely appreciated, yet highly sustainable
and economic resource which saves both energy
and power. Thirty percent of the total energy
consumption of average office buildings are cur-
rently used merely for electric lighting during the
daytime. Simply by redirecting daylight into the
occupied space, the use of electric lighting can be
reduced by at least 50%. Daylight control systems
must be designed in combination with glass coat-
ings and facade designs to ensure these critical
energy and CO2 savings.
In order to allow for a quantitative assessment
of the economic efficiency of energy savings in
light for the wide range of facade and sun protec-
tion concepts, it is necessary to examine the
geometries of mirror louvers and the optical char-
acteristics of the daylight systems. The various
façade systems’ energy transmission and light
distribution into the interior are discussed along
with the impacts on lighting, heating, and cooling.
The correct manipulation and exploitation of
the sun and daylight is vital as an energy savings
resource and must mature into a key element in the
development of energy concepts. Daylight plan-
ning must engage many disciplines including
Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts
lighting technology, facade technology, energy
technology and architecture, and ultimately calls
for a new integral lighting course of studies to
provide training in planning and coordinating
between the various disciplines. The entry ends
with an overview of the requirements relating to
such a course.
What Is Daylight?
Common parlance and building physicists agree
on the meaning of the term “daylight,” rendering
it as follows:
Daylight is perceived as brightness outdoors
and includes all variants, from twilight to the
brightest time of day when the sun is highest,
from diffuse light in shaded areas or under cloudy
skies to direct sunlight. The sun is the primary
source of all variants of daylight (Fig. 1).
The solar radiation received on the earth’s sur-
face is approximately 1 kW/m2. The illuminance
from direct sunlight is approximately 100,000 lux.
A blue sky has approximately 10,000 cd/m2 and a
cloudy sky – depending on the time of year –
between 5,000 and 15,000–20,000 cd/m2
[2]. Depending on the location, solar radiation
received is in the wavelength range from 350 to
750 nm – i.e., the proportional light radiation in
the sensitivity range of our eyes is 40–50%
(Fig. 2).
Whereas the term “daylight” more likely con-
jures up an image of diffuse light without direc-
tional reference – i.e., uniform light distribution
from all directions – the sun itself has clear direc-
tional reference, which indicates to us the exact
times of day and year (Fig. 3).
The number of sunlight hours varies depending
on the climate zone. Germany gets between 1,200
and 1,500 h of sunlight [4], while in California,
the sun shines up to 3,000 h [5] of the approximate
4,300 h of potential a year.
The term “daylight technology” includes
methods to manage both the light transmission
and the energy transmission of light-transmissive
building elements through the selection of the
sun’s angles of incidence. The aim of daylight
technology is to achieve specific lighting effects
Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts 385

Daylighting Controls,
Performance, and Global
Impacts, Fig. 1 The
cloudy sky can deliver
dramatic colors [1]

Daylighting Controls,
Performance, and Global 2,0
Impacts, Fig. 2 Spectral
energy distribution of solar
irradiation [3]
1,5
E [kWm −2μm−1]

1,0

0,5

300 700 1100 1500 1900 2300

Daylight Wavelength [nm]
spectrum

using a defined reflection and/or transmission and Optimization of Light Transmission in a

absorption characteristic. Its further purpose is to
gain more heat in winter and ensure shading for
heat reduction by reflection in summer.
Effective lighting design in a room using day-
light can only be produced as a result of careful
design and specification of the sizes of windows,
the arrangement of windows in the room to support
indirect lighting and side lighting, the type of glaz-
ing from transparent to translucent and colored, the
room cavity and reflectivity, and the exterior, inte-
gral, or interior layers added for daylight manage-
ment. The photos in Figs. 4 and 5 illustrate
traditional and modern designs for daylighting.
Building
Current research and development in daylight-
optimized glazing concentrates on optimizing the
thermal energy transmission proportional to light
transmission. Standard glazing is typically specified
on the basis of three physical reference parameters:
– Light transmission tL or Tvis (Fig. 6d)
– Total solar energy transmission or solar heat
gain factor (SHGC) or g (Fig. 6a)
– Heat transmission coefficient U in W/m2K
(Fig. 6a)
386 Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts

The equinoxes occur on

21 June 21 March and 21
Summer solstice September. The sun rises
Zenith
at exactly 6 a.m. in the
21 March, 21
east and sets at 6 p.m. in the
Sep Equinox
west. This is true for
62,5° all latitudes.

1200
39°
West
1200
21 Dec
Winter solstice 900

15,5° 1200
900

South Position North

900
835 420
600 Azimut

East

Sunset
21 March, 21 Sep
Sunset
Sunset
21 Dec
270° 21 June

1800
Equinox

2100
1500
ice r
lst e
W lsti

so mm
int ce
so

er

Su

South Day 2400 Night North

180° 00 0°
12
Su lstic
so
m e
lst r
so inte

m
ice

er
W

Equinox

300
900

600

Sunrise 90° Sunrise

21 Dec 21 June

Sunrise
21 March, 21 Sep

Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts, Fig. 3 Illustration of the daily and annual paths of the sun
at 51
latitude [1]

Whereas tL and g are parameters for the radi-
ation transmission of light and heat from the
outside to the inside, the U-value is primarily
used to calculate the heat losses from the inside
to the outside. Relative to daylighting and
cooling loads in summer, the tL and g-values
(SHGC) have been set in a ratio tL/g or tvis/
SHGC with higher numbers indicating greater
summer performance through more light and
less heat (Fig. 6).
Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts 387

Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts, Fig. 4 Historic examples from daylighting. Romanesque:
interplay of wall relief and opening [1], Gothic: colored window [1], Baroque: Indirect daylighting [1]

Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts, Fig. 5 Modern examples of daylighting

New developments in functional coatings for
glass surfaces, using the sputtering method,
allow a ratio of tL/g ~ = 2 for insulation glass.
Efforts are made to develop glazing which
ensures a high level of light transmission tL
while keeping the total heat transmission g
(SHGC) to a minimum. The competition among
glazing producers often has been reduced to the
following formula:
More light, less heat
However, this optimization formula primarily
applies to the construction of office buildings in
cooler countries with fewer hours of sunlight and
lower light intensity due to cloudy skies and lower
angles of incident sunlight. In hotter countries closer
to the equator, or in countries with significant
ground reflectivity (desert regions), more light can
be an excessive goal due to contrast glare between
inside and outside (Fig. 6d). In addition, in colder
climates and buildings with no internal heat gain
such as housing construction, it is best to use glazing
with a high light and a high solar energy transmis-
sion to realize additional solar gains in winter. In
addition, the third glazing performance variable –
heat transmission coefficient U – has greater impor-
tance especially in smaller or articulated buildings
without high internal loads from people or
equipment – known as “skin load dominated” build-
ings (Fig. 7). Large “internal load dominated” build-
ings, even all glass buildings in colder climates, are
often best served by the formula – more light, less
heat – designed for maximizing daylighting year
round and reducing the cooling load in summer.
388 Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts

b 1,0

0,8
Transmission

t(l) and r(l)

0,6

0,4

0,2
a Pos. 1 Pos. 2 Pos. 3 Pos. 4 Absorption

0, 0
250 500 750 1000 1250 1500 1750 2000 2250 2500
l / nm
So Spectral coefficients of uncoated glass (outside)
lar
irra outside inside
dia c 1,0
tio
n Convection
0,8
Reflection

t(l) and r(l)

Low-e coating 0,6

0,4
Heat radiation Absorption
Transmission
Lig 0,2
ht
τo tra
nce ns
mi 0,0
e cta tta
nc 250 500 750 1000 1250 1500 1750 2000 2250 2500
fl e
Re τ l / nm
e
Convection Spectral coefficients of low-e glass (inside)

1,0
d
Heat emission Heat emission Reflection
to outside qa to inside qi 0,8
t(l) and r(l)

q = τ + qi 0,6 Absorption

Typical design of insulation glazing in housing construction 0,4

with low-e coating in pos. 3. (SHGC = 0.60)
The low-e coating of administrative buildings is found on 0,2
pos. 2 (SHGC = 0.50) Transmission
0,0
250 500 750 1000 1250 1500 1750 2000 2250 2500
U-value with double insulation glazing based on DIN 1.0 W/m2K l / nm
U-value with triple insulation glazing based on DIN 0.6 W/m2K Spectral coefficients of colour neutral sun protection glass (aussen)

Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global
Impacts, Fig. 6 (a–d) Low emission coatings reduce
the emission of the glass surfaces in order to suppress the
heat conduction. Solar protective coatings are reducing the
irradiation of light by reflection and absorption. Optimized
glasses achieve a selectivity (S) of almost 2. The light
transmission (t) is then twice as much as the total energy
transmission (SHGC). The photometric radiation
equivalent lm/W can be larger than 200%

Energy Savings Potentials daylighting to reduce the total energy consump-

In Washington State, the total energy consump-
tion of average high-rise office buildings for elec-
tric lighting alone is approximately 33% of the
total load – primarily during the daytime
[6]. Moreover, since the electricity used in light-
ing is predominantly converted into heat in the
room, the additional load on the cooling system
through the lighting is approximately 16%
(Fig. 8). This example illustrates the potential for
tion in commercial buildings by 25–30%!
Traditional Strategies of Sun Protection
Undermine Daylighting
The most common strategies for sun protection
reduce the energy transmission through glazed
building components using dark solar films
and/or mirror glass. The aim here is to reduce the
Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts 389

So
lar
en Lig
erg ht
y

He
at

Solar energy
Daylight

Window, facade

Supply function Winter Summer Protective function

Heat protection in summer
Heat protection in winter
Reduced cooling load
Reduced heat load
Optimised SHGC value
Optimised U-value
Light low SHGC value 0.05 – 0.1

Heat
Heat Light
Solar energy gain
Glare protection
Heat load factor
Solar energy gain in winter Illumination into depth of room Requirements in summer:
SHGC value optimisation
Optimised τ-value “Light in, heat out”
high SHGC value 0.5 – 0.7
Retro

Target:
Energy savings through
- improved daylighting
Light redirection - less irradiation
and
- increased comfort at
Illumination to the depth of the room healthy workplace Retro reflection (protective
(supply function) - thermal and visual comfort function)
- good visual transmission

Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts, Fig. 7 Tasks and functions of light-transmitting compo-
nents in the conflict between required solar energy and low SHGC values [1]

State of the art Best practice with multiple

Low-e glazing glazing and integrated light
+ interior blind redirection system

Energy Energy
, ener
irradiation irradiation 27% gy
AC co
onto onto HV g ys avin gs po ns
south-facing south-facing o n ne
r te u
E nt
i

ia
m
pt

facade facade
pti
um

on
ons

13% 16%
ligh
E nergy c

ting 33%

Diminution
En e

savings
in
rgy

cooling
e tc
co
ns

um
g,

Total solar Heat approx. in

Diminution pt i at
energy 37–45% on he
for e g,
transmission xterior lig htin
approx. Heat approx. Total energy
2–3% transmission Energy savings potential in open-plan offices
40–50% Light approx. Gain Light approx. approx. up to 30% of total energy consumption through
3–5% 4–8% 5–10% best practice.
Optimisation potential

Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts, Fig. 8 Energy savings potential of a new, intelligent
facade and daylight system in comparison to the state of the art
390 Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts

Illumination of the room with a c

light transmission of the glazing of 80%
and light deflection

300
lx 1 ,5 m
0m lx 7
a 500
τ L 80%
Illuminance E [Lux]

1000 Light transmission glazing 80%

500 Best practice facades ensure simultaneity of the

300 following quality aspects
0
- visual transmission > 70%, simultaneously
- diminution of energy irradiation
7,5 m 10 m to SHGC< 5 – 15%, simultaneously
Illuminance levels using a daylight system during sunshine - illumination into depth of room

b Daylighting is also a function of the light transmission

factor of the glazing.

Potential annual savings in cooling and electric

Illuminance E [Lux]

lighting of up to €14.00/sqm of glass facade at

1000 Light transmission glazing 40% €0.15/kW for electricity.

Daylight technology reduces the need for cooling

500
by up to 60% compared to coloured interior
300
blinds. At the same time, the light transmission
0 improves by up to 100%.

4,5 m 6,5 m

Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts, Fig. 9 (a–c) Comparison of illumination into the depth of
room using a daylight redirection system for glazing with a light transmission of 40% and 80%, respectively

external heat load resulting from solar irradiation
into the building through reflection and/or absorp-
tion in the outer skin. This fails to provide the
buildings with sufficient natural daylight. The
result is an increased use of energy for electric
lighting, so that in terms of total energy consump-
tion in these buildings, the mirror glazing often
results in a negative energy balance (Fig. 9).
Other common sun protection strategies include
interior shades that cut heat and light, often darken-
ing the room to the point of requiring additional
electric lighting even while the sun is shining, a
priori, energetically highly counterproductive
(Fig. 10). This applies, in general, to all interior
roller blind systems, vertical louvers, and colored
blinds. This is true all the more where these methods
are used in combination with sun protection glazing.
Each of these sun protection measures – which do
not include specific light redirection or light trans-
mission systems to improve the illumination in the
room – are a waste of the natural, free resource of
daylight and of valuable electricity for lighting.
Moreover, most interior sun protection devices are
completely unsuitable for protecting the window
zone from overheating, as they merely convert the
transmitted sun into heat through absorption on
surfaces, especially if they are dark.
Some 40% of the nation’s total energy con-
sumption in developed economic systems is used
for heating, cooling, air conditioning, lighting,
and other power requirements in buildings
[7]. The economic impact of these outdated build-
ing strategies on the use of primary energy and
CO2 emissions is well known: 1 kW of power
from the socket uses approximately 4 kW of pri-
mary energy since only 30–40% of primary
energy is converted into power in conventional
coal- or oil-fired power plants. A further 6% of the
energy produced at the power plant is lost in
transit to the grids [8]. In developed economies
Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts
Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global
Impacts, Fig. 10 Mirror facades darken the interior, mak-
ing it necessary to switch on the lights during the day.
(Photo: Helmut Köster)
such as the USA, Japan, and Germany, power
plants are to blame for approximately 50% of all
CO2 emissions!
Requirements to Be Met in Future Sun
Protection Strategies
These challenges are the call to develop new strat-
egies of ecological and sustainable building con-
struction. Given the significance of lighting
energy demands, there is a critical need for
improving and optimizing the use of daylight
without overheating the buildings through solar
radiation.
The state of the art for high-rise buildings in
Europe includes low-e glass with a light transmis-
sion of approximately 75% and an SHGC, or
g-value, of approximately 0.55 to be combined
with internal sun protection reducing solar gain
by a further 50–80% to 0.08–0.15. With the right
internal blinds for daylight redirection, the light
391
transmission can be increased by 100% compared
to other shading systems. Technically, it is possi-
ble to lower the SHGC values for the high, over-
heating sun to <0.05 while maintaining daylight
contributions. These energetic advantages are pri-
marily achieved through light redirection using
reflective surfaces or through dynamic double
skin facades.
Methods of Daylight Control
The challenges for current daylight redirection
technologies are to answer three questions:
• How can the total solar heat transmission
through a facade be lowered while at the
same time increasing the light transmission?
• Up to which room depth is daylight autonomy
largely possible without overheating the win-
dow zone?
• Why does a building heat up less in summer as
a result of improved daylighting compared to
electric lighting?
The last question is quickly answered: The sun
produces a photometric contribution equivalent to
100–120 lumens of light per watt of heat. Low-e
glass can transmit light while reflecting heat to
enable daylight to produce 200–240 lm/W. The
luminous efficacy of fluorescent luminaires, how-
ever, is only 60–70 lm/W. In order to achieve the
same illuminance with electric lighting the heat
generated is three times higher compared to day-
light [9]. Even recent advances in LEDs have only
been able to achieve 100–160 lm/W, resulting in
double the heat load indoors to achieve the same
level of light.
The following light redirection methods are
known and can be integrated in daylighting of
buildings: prisms, holograms, mirrors, and hybrid
systems.
Prisms redirect light through refraction in an
optically dense medium, such as acrylic or poly-
carbonate. Through total internal reflection, it is
possible to prevent the light from passing through
altogether with retroreflective properties. Prismatic
and holographic systems are designed to be
392 Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts

Daylighting Controls,
Performance, and Global
Impacts, Fig. 11 Prisms
breakup of light into its
spectral colors through
refraction [1]

Daylighting Controls,
Performance, and Global
Impacts, Fig. 12 Looking
orthogonal against the laser
cut panel the outside
becomes visible. From
other view angles the vision
through the panels becomes
unclear due to mirror effects
within the panel [1]

transparent to light but not views. When daylight

passes through the prisms and holographs, it is
broken up into its spectral colors to form colored
spots and striations on walls and ceilings (Fig. 11).
Prismatic louver systems incorporate laser-cut
panels for parallel light entry and exit on the inside,
positioned above the window area outside to ensure
excellent view clarity in the perpendicular viewing
direction. These laser-cut panels do not, however,
protect from overheating (Figs. 12, 13, and 14) [10].
Holograms are useful for redirecting light into the
depth of the room (Fig. 15). The foils on which the
holograms are patterned, however, are expensive,
which make it difficult to use them for large areas
[11]. Holograms also partially obscure the view out.
Mirror blind systems provide for a wide range
of light redirection effects, depending on their mir-
ror geometry, and can be used inside as blinds, in
double skin facades, or outside on the façe of the
building. They can also be installed in miniaturized
form in the gap between the double glazing.
Control Strategies of Solar Irradiation
Through the Louver Geometry
Control strategies for solar radiation take advan-
tage of the varying angles of elevation of the sun,
Redirected daylight
Solar irradiance
Glare
Direct transmission
Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global
Impacts, Fig. 13 Light deflection using laser-cut panels,
advantage: good daylight transmission, disadvantage: risk
of overheating [1]
by season and time of day, to differentiate the
heat and light transmission. The sun in winter
shines at a lower angle, while in summer, it is
higher. Daylight controls redirect the low winter
sun to a greater degree into the building, while
reflecting outside the high summer sun – in order
to achieve a homoeostatic balance of the building
given the heating and cooling periods or seasons
(Fig. 16).
The development of light redirection systems
is always about defining the friend/foe relation-
ship to the sun in different climates and cultures:
How much of the solar irradiation should be
reflected back into the sky to protect from
Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts 393

Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts, Fig. 14 Prisms are transparent for daylight. The view
through the prisms is not clear. The environment appears completely diffuse [1]

Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts, Fig. 15 Holograms for light deflection produce excellent
design effects using artificial lighting [1]

overheating and to improve the SHGC value Optical Energy Management by

and how much should be redirected inside for
daylighting of the interior? When and how
much of the sun should be used to add heating?
(Fig. 17).
The complex demands on solar heat and light
transmission require precise, defined mirror
geometries. Horizontal louvers or blinds in the
down and open position are useful for controlling
the solar heat transmission without adjusting the
louvers and are also suited to ensure illumination
into the depth of the room. Vertical louvers or
blinds only intercept the azimuth position of the
sun without redirecting light toward the ceiling
and hence only suited to provide shade.
Engineered Louver Systems
Engineering louvers to respond to varying heat
and light demands given orientation, season, and
time of day variations is not trivial. Traditional
louvers mirrored on their concave upper side
either to redirect or reflect back the sun can create
glare inside the room, which makes it necessary to
close at least the lower section of the blind
(Fig. 18).
As a result, visual contact with the outside is
lost. Even partially perforating the louvers does
not improve the view clarity of the closed blinds,
as the louvers overlap by 50%. If the upper section
394
20°
65°
Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global
Impacts, Fig. 16 Light deflection panels in a fixed posi-
tion inside the insulation glazing with light redirection and
retroreflection functions exploit the high summer sun
of the blinds can be controlled independently, they
can be left open to redirect the light into the
interior. However, even this strategy creates the
risk of glare in landscape offices due to the low
angle of the sun penetrating through the upper
louvers.
With mirrored louvers, there is a risk that some
of the light will be reflected onto the bottom side
of the upper louvers creating a direct glare source.
This can be addressed by ensuring the bottom
sides are colored gray to prevent glare. The gray
color, however, absorbs light and thus heats up the
window zone, even in summer (Fig. 19).
With each of these innovations, new chal-
lenges emerge, leading to the development of
more optimized light-redirecting louvers.
Depending on the distance of the louvers from
each other, the sun only falls onto the section of
the louver oriented toward the outside. It therefore
seems obvious to fold each louver to create two
sections with different optical characteristics. The
window-facing half of the louver can then be
Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts
Photo 15
Winter
Photo 16
Summer
differently than the low winter sun. A next step in the
development of this system involves monoreflective light
deflection to drastically improve the SHGC value by the
heat reflection capacity of the RetroLux technology [1]
designed to reflect the high, direct sun to shade
the building, while the room-facing half of the
louver is designed to redirect the low-angled sun
inside to maximize illumination of the interior
(Fig. 20).
Each louver in the blind assembly thus
ensures control based on the sun’s angle of inci-
dence, without the need for continuous
readjustment of the louvers in line with the inci-
dent sunlight. In the window-facing section of
the louver, the high summer sun is mono-
reflectively redirected back into the sky (solar
heat protective function). On the macro-
structured room-facing section of the louver, a
fraction of the low incident sun is redirected
inside (daylight supply function). The blinds
only need to be closed when the sun is very low
and grazing light between the louvers causes
glare. The blinds may need to be opened when
solar heat is desired in addition to light.
To optimize the illumination into the depth of
the room, it is also crucial to consider the direction
Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts 395

γ Summer

a Outside Inside Outside Inside

Pa
ss
ive
γ Winter

co
oli
n
ht + gai ligh
t

ng
aylig nergy Day
D
ar e
Sol

Winter performance Summer performance

of
b d Ro
ade
ç
Fa
f
Roo
dea
Faç

γ Winter = 20° γ Summer = 60°

e
55%

50%

45% SHGC-value low-e glass without daylight reflector

Typical SHGC-function of low-e glass

Reduced cooling load

40% with RETRO-system

SHGC-value

35%

30%
SOLAR GAIN PASSIVE COOLING
25%

20% Winter performance Summer performance

15%

10% SHGCtot SHGCGlass

5%
0° 5° 10° 15° 20° 25° 30° 35° 40° 45° 50° 55° 60° 65° 70° 75°
Angle of incidence γ

Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global
Impacts, Fig. 17 (a–d) Managing thermal loads for
roofs and façades. Generally, roofs are subject to much
higher thermal loads in summer than façades. East and
west façades are subject to higher loads in summer than
the south façades. The largest thermal loads in spring and
autumn are on the southeast and southwest façades, while
the south façades are easier to control thermally due to the
steep incident sunlight in summer. South façades are also
most suitable in winter for solar heating since the low angle
sun falls almost exclusively on the vertical surfaces. (e)
There are more and more distinctive heating and especially
cooling periods in the European climate. The goal of an
intelligent daylight technology should be to achieve solar
energy gain in winter and to achieve shading by reflecting
the overheating sun in summer as well as other seasons as
needed. These two conflicting goals can be achieved by
mirror blind technologies that respond to the sun’s chang-
ing angle of incidence, even without tilting of the blinds as
shown [18]
396
Upper side mirroring
Lower side
Su stone grey
n angles of incidence
α1 α α2α2 Light and
1
Visual transmission
Sun
α3 α α4 α 4
3
Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts, Fig. 18 Mirror blinds open
of the irradiated or redirected daylight. The light
needs to be redirected into the depth of the room
but must not cause glare. This requirement makes
it necessary to split the facade into different zones.
Above eye level, the daylight through the upper
section of the window needs to be redirected
inside at a low angle; in the lower section, a
sharper angle is required to redirect the light
toward the ceiling to ensure that workplaces
close to the window remain glare-free (Fig. 21).
In the lower section, the folded louvers in
Fig. 20 are tilted at a steeper angle to prevent
glare to the user. Sunlight on the lower section of
the blind is deflected toward the ceiling at a
steeper angle, while sunlight through the upper
section of the blind is redirected into the depth of
the room (Fig. 21b). The upper and lower sections
of the blind thus have different optical properties
with a different energetic performance, as can be
seen in Fig. 22. The lower section of the blind
Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts
Light redirection using mirror louvers
Functional principle:
Mirror to redirect daylight
as supply function
Law of reflection:
= angles of reflection
er
e to the us
iance, glar α1 = α2
energy irrad
Problem:
Risk of overheating and glare
daylight
redirected
Glare from
Direc
t glar
e to th
e use
r
should be designed with a lower heat transmis-
sion, even with low angles of incidence, to protect
workplaces close to the window from over-
heating. The upper section of the blind should be
designed with a higher solar factor to improve the
daylighting toward the depth of the room. The
architecture that incorporates engineered light
redirecting blinds has excellent daylight and the
lowest solar heat gain (Fig. 23).
Maintaining Views with Heat and Light
Management
From the viewpoint of the user, visual contact
with the outside is as important as good lighting
and reduced heat radiation from the facade. Build-
ing occupants both desire and benefit from the
ability to look out of the window, especially with
views of landscape and community. This requires
Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts
Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts, Fig. 19 Mirror blinds closed
the design of blinds with appropriate gaps (down
but in the open horizontal position) and the elim-
ination of direct and reflected glare that typically
cause occupants to close shades or blinds – some-
times for weeks at a time.
To this end, a slimmer profile louver that can be
left down but open is even more effective. If the
window-facing reflecting louver section is
designed in the shape of a W (Fig. 24a–c) the
macrostructured louver becomes slimmer. The
open view between those louvers is 74% in an
open position, while the high summer sun is
simultaneously reflected back outside. The hori-
zontal louver position simultaneously increases
397
the direct and diffuse light transmission on the
room-facing section of the louver. The engineered
blinds system would craft different W-profiles for
each section of the window. In the lower and
upper sections of the blind, the room-facing lou-
ver sections, used as light shelves, are positioned
differently. In the lower section, they are angled
more steeply than in the upper section, where they
are more horizontal. As a result, the light from the
upper section improves the illumination in the
depth of the room, while the lower section redi-
rects the light up toward the ceiling. Despite inci-
dent sunlight, this leaves the workplace entirely
glare-free.
398
Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global
Impacts, Fig. 20 Folded mirror louvers as blinds inte-
grate solar protection and light supply functions through
The reflection of the sun back into the sky can
create unwanted glare in the interior due to reflec-
tion from the glass. The skill in developing retro
reflective systems is to guide the light in such a
way that the sun rays are not mirrored in the glass
(Fig. 24a–c). The reflections must not be visible
from any workplace position. The light redirec-
tion system must be designed such that the sun
reflected in the glass hits the bottom side of an
upper louver instead of entering the space. The
design of louvers following this design rule can
ensure glare-free daylighting without overheating.
At high sun angles, the visual clarity through such
blinds is between 70% and 80% (Figs. 25 and 26).
Macrostructured louvers can also be used for
installation within the double glazed unit at
20 mm in width (Figs. 27 and 28 [12]). In this
case, the section is designed in the shape of a V to
stabilize the louver and keeps it from bending
(Fig. 29a–g).
Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts
two functional mirrors, a retroreflector toward the outside
and a light shelf toward the inside
For optimum performance, complex macro-
structured geometries should be complemented
by microstructured louvers (Fig. 30a–c). When a
Fresnel mirror is embossed into a concave/convex
louver, the mirror louvers will reflect the sun back
to the outside even when in an open, horizontal
position, to prevent overheating inside. As a result
of the open blinds, diffuse light can enter to
improve the illumination in the room and simul-
taneously ensure a visual transmission of >80%.
In order to redirect even more daylight into the
depth of the room, individual louvers in the upper
section of the blinds can be inserted inversely, so
that light falling onto their reflecting upper side is
redirected to a greater degree into the depth of the
room (Fig. 31a–f).
Generally, a few louvers inserted inversely
above 1.8 m from floor level are enough to provide
a blind which, while primarily protecting work-
places near the window from overheating and
Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts 399

a Zenith radiation

Retroreflection of
the overheating
summer sun

Upper window zone

Illumination to depth of room
through upper window zone
γ >1.9m
Daylighting
α

γ
Lower window zone

Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts, Fig. 21 (a, b) Lighting requirements of a daylight facade
for glare-free workplaces [1]

excessive light, also ensures targeted daylighting
without loss of a clear view to outside. Since all
louvers are positioned the same depending on the
sun’s angle of incidence, they are easy to operate.
These louvers can have a width between
25 and 80 mm and be positioned inside the win-
dow, within the insulated glass unit, or in-between
a double skin facade. The microstructure has a
total thickness of <0.4 mm. When installed
between the glazings of double windows, a
width of 15–20 mm is preferred (Fig. 32a–c).
A full range of light redirecting louvers can
also be installed in glazed roofs and set at different
angles. Here, the louvers should preferably be
installed in a fixed, pre-calculated position in
between the insulation glass. Versions which can
be tilted and tracked like blinds are, however, also
possible (Fig. 33a–b).
400 Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts

Upper window zone > 2.0 Window >1.0 Brüstung

γ γ
γ

Intro
Re
tro

Retr
o

Intro
o
Retr

tro
In

1 2 3
Louver position
Daylight passive passive
cooling cooling

Light distribution
Light Retro- Light Light curves (LDC)
redirected reflection redirected to Retro- redirected to
to depth the ceiling reflection the ceiling
of room

Outside Inside Outside Inside Outside Inside

60%
Tilt angle β 1 = 17°
55% SHGC value low-e glass
2 = 36°
50% 3 = 52°
45%
40% 1
SHGC value

35%
2
30%
25%
20%
15% 3
10%
5% SHGC value
0% analysis
0° 5° 10° 15° 20° 25° 30° 35° 40° 45° 50° 55° 60° 65° 70°
Angle of incidence γ

Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts, Fig. 22 (a–g) Varying louver positions of folded blinds in
floor-to-ceiling installations; analysis of the SHGC values of blind sections 1–3 for all angles of incidence
Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts
Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global
Impacts, Fig. 23 Examples of folded horizontal blinds
for shading and daylighting (RetroLux A louvers) on the
Light Redirection System: Quality
Assurance
To establish the quantitative effectiveness under
thermal and lighting variations, it is important to
consider the light redirection devices in combina-
tion with the glazing assembly. Depending on the
position of the light redirection system – outside,
inside, or within the glass assembly – there are
complex physical processes taking place between
the light redirection system and the glazing, includ-
ing echo reflections in the glass, heat and light
absorption resulting in a temperature increase of
the glazing. In case of light redirecting, systems
basing on mirrors calculations according with DIN
[13] may provide incorrect results, as they fail to
consider the specific mirror contours and the light
redirection performance of the louvers. In practice,
it is indispensable to physically measure the overall
glazing/light redirection assembly.
The quantitative light and heat transmission
can be determined using calorimetric and radio-
metric measuring methods. Calorimetric methods
measure the electric energy required to keep a heat
sink installed behind the test piece at a constant
temperature and translate this into the heat radi-
ated by the system. It involves a combined mea-
suring and calculation process in which tolerances
401
mail distribution center, Wädenswil, CH Architects:
HZDS, Heinz Zimmermann, Zurich [18]
need to be accepted, which is why measurements
using the same test piece in different institutes
result in different SHGC values.
Radiometric measurements are taken under an
artificial sun. These measurements are highly accu-
rate and easy to perform. Parameters measured
include the wavelengths of the transmitted radia-
tion, from which the SHGC or g-value is calculated
(Figs. 34 and 35). Radiometric measurements also
determine the light distribution into the interior
(LDC) of the glazing/light redirection assembly
for different elevation and azimuth angles.
According to DIN 4108-2, the effectiveness of
a sun protection system is described using the
diminution factor FC. The total solar energy trans-
mission of a glazed facade is thus calculated using
the following equation:
gtot ¼ FC  gglass
gtot – total solar energy transmission through
glazing including sun protection
gglass – g-value of the glazing
FC – diminution factor of the sun protection
system
These data, however, are not yet sufficient for a
quality assurance of the facade assembly. So far, it
402
1 2
Su
n
slim louver
a
Visual transmission optimised (76%)
Visual transmission excellent depth illumination
Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global
Impacts, Fig. 24 (a–c) Functions of the macrostructured
louver “RetroLux” in the upper and lower parts of the blind
has been common practice to consider sun protec-
tion merely under thermal aspects. Since a win-
dow, however, primarily serves to let daylight in,
the light transmission also needs to be considered.
This is taken into account in DIN EN 13363 [14,
15] – although still without consideration of the
specific light-redirecting contours of advanced
louver systems. Windows are also provided to
support visual contact with the outside and ensure
visual comfort. While good (low) solar heat gain
coefficients are easy to achieve when the sun
protection system is completely closed, views
are often lost. This is especially true for mesh
shades or common louvers with a reflecting, con-
vex form. The user, however, wants to be able to
look out the window and appreciates more
Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts
Development goals:
- improved visual transmission
simultaneously:
- protection from overheating high sun
- excellent SHGC value
due to reflective section 1
simultaneously:
- improved daylighting due to light shelf 2
Light redirection > 2.0m and < 2.0m
b top edge of finished floor (see also
fig. 27)
for glare-free redirection of daylight into the depth of the
room and toward the ceiling [18]
daylight in the occupied space (Fig. 36a–e and
Figs. 37, 38, and 39). When the blind is opened
for views and light, solar heat gain reductions are
often lost.
The gtot value, therefore, must be differentiated
by simultaneously identifying parameters of light
transmission, secondary heat irradiation and view
clarity. Despite similar numerical values for g,
different shade and glazing assemblies can, in
practice, have entirely different properties, espe-
cially if the total energy in summer is redirected
into the interior merely to become heat rather than
light. For overheated climates, assemblies which
primarily add light rather than heat inside are the
goal. The g-value factors, therefore, must be
complemented by light transmission factors, or
Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts
Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global
Impacts, Fig. 25 (a–c) Engineered louvers can accom-
modate shading, daylight redirection, and glare-free views
(a) Light irradiation as a false-color rendering – without
the g-value must be differentiated as a cumulative
value of energy transmission for short-wave light
radiation and long-wave heat radiation compo-
nents. Another recommendation would be to
introduce a coefficient which specifies the ratio
of light to total solar heat transmission, such as the
LSGR value of glazing in the USA (LSGR = light
to solar gain ratio).
In addition to light and heat factors, a third
factor that of visual clarity or views out between
horizontal louvers must be taken into consider-
ation in rating daylight systems. Indeed, views or
light transmission is a primary factor for building
occupants.
Finally, the ability of a glazing plus blind assem-
bly to provide views, daylight, and seasonal solar
heat control will be highly dependent on glare
control so that the building occupants rarely close
403
redirected light: excessive overexposure (b) With
redirected light: indirect daylighting (dimmed to comfort-
able level) (c) Light redirected through upper section of the
window [1]
the blinds. Engineered horizontal louvers can
achieve these four goals when designed for climate
and orientation (Fig. 40). Vertical louvers and roller
blinds, however, cannot meet all four challenges –
maximum daylight, minimum solar heat, minimum
glare, and excellent views of the outdoors.
Full Spectrum Daylight and Health in the
Workplace
Humans have evolved in natural daylight, and
both the spectrum and the circadian cycles of
daylight are critical for our vitamin production
and many other hormonal processes. Overall
well-being may also be associated with the
color richness of daylight – captured in the
color rendering index (CRI). Many sun
404 Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts

Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global

Impacts, Fig. 26 Daylight facade with RetroLux Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global
(Fig. 24 (ab-c)), municipal works, Bochum, Germany, Impacts, Fig. 27 Daylight façade with louvers in the
Architects: Gattermann + Schossig, Cologne [18] insulation glass seen from outside [1]

sufficient full spectrum daylight is supplied.

protection glazing materials, colored louver
These findings call for “healthy” building
blinds, and metallized fabrics change the color
designers to change the spectral, diurnal, and ren-
composition of natural daylight (Fig. 41).
dering qualities of daylight as little as possible.
Research on the impact of daylight color and
Quality assurance and assessment of louver
volumetric rendering, on selected daylight spec-
and glazing assemblies must also take into
trum entering the human eye, and daylight illu-
account: solar heat transmission, daylight trans-
minating the skin is still fragmented. It is,
mission, views, glare management, and the color
however, known that both lethargy in winter
rendering index of the daylight transmitted
and certain eating and sexual disorders are due
through the window and the blinds (Fig. 42a, b).
to a physiological lack of daylight. These defi-
ciency syndromes can be counteracted by using
electric lighting that mimics the full-spectrum
and cycles of daylight in order to “rebalance” General Requirements for Louver
patients and workers. Yet daylight itself is avail- Control
able in abundance.
It is not enough simply to provide sufficient The level of energy savings in electric lighting
lighting for a visual task. The responsibility of and air conditioning depends significantly on
lighting and daylighting designers is to ensure the quality of controls for both the blinds and
that people get the necessary light nutrition the electric lighting. A well-designed blind-
indoors. At the workplace, the nutrients required glazing assembly should require only minimal
for the metabolism are absorbed only when controls. Indeed, the constant opening and
Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts
Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts, Fig. 28 (a, b) Daylighting by daylight louvers in the
insulation glass. In areas without shading effect movable blinds are installed [1]
closing of blinds in response to variations in sun
and clouds will soon annoy the user. With con-
ventional blinds or roller shades, the daylight-
ing conditions and the solar heat gain through
the window change quite drastically over time,
and also cause significant glare. Often, the light
inside is switched on to avoid “contrast” glare
between the room’s surfaces and the brightness of
a cloudy sky. Closing the blind against the glare
often darkens the interior to the point that the light
needs to be switched on at a time when it is very
bright outside – an avoidable waste of energy. This
is especially true with colored blinds or shades, as
these additionally darken the window areas. In order
to avoid such negative effects, the control of glare
and brightness contrast should be accomplished
through effective assembly geometries and specifi-
cations by orientation and climate.
Modifying Daylight and Thermal
Energies Through Geometries and
Specifications
Using engineered mirror louvers, excessive solar
heat can be reflected back outside to achieve a
reduction in heat transmission as needed. The
selective, monoreflective redirection of the light
wavelengths toward the ceiling and into the depth
of the room ensures quality illumination of the
interior during the daytime.
Precise mirror geometries can prevent the bottom
sides of the louvers from direct exposure to sunlight
405
that produces glare and turns the blind into a surface
emitter or even a heat radiator, since reflection
always involves absorption. Monoreflective struc-
tures ensure that incident sunlight is redirected either
into the depth of the room and/or back outside,
without a ping-pong effect between the louvers.
Monoreflective systems are easier to optimize in
terms of their lighting and thermal performance
and can be precisely calculated in the building sim-
ulation (Figs. 43, 44, and 45).
Energy effective control that reduces the need
for cooling and keeping the illuminance at a com-
fortable level should primarily be achieved
through the louver contour and the optical char-
acteristics of the mirror system.
On the east and west facing sides of the build-
ing, all louvers will need to be adjusted when the
sun rises and sets. Adjusting the louvers makes it
possible to achieve a largely constant degree of
energy transmission of the systems throughout the
day. It is recommended to limit the control to only
two or three adjustment positions for constant,
gradual readjustments to match the changes in
the sun’s angle (Fig. 45a–c). High-voltage motors
with analog technology are well suited for two to
three adjustment positions, or digital technology
with low-voltage motors once the pricing
becomes more competitive (Fig. 46).
The blind can be manually controlled or man-
aged electrically either by an Astro controller into
which the sun’s positions throughout the year are
programmed and/or by a light sensor which iden-
tifies the position of the sun.
406 Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts

RetroLuxTherm O

b c
Visual transmission 56% O

Horizontal Vertical
light distribution light distribution

RetroLuxTherm U

Visual transmission 56% U

e f

Horizontal Vertical g
light distribution light distribution

Spatial distribution of the luminance coefficient for α = 30° γ = 30° Radiometrically measured values TU Berlin,
Institute of Lighting Technology, Prof. Dr. Kaase / Dr. Aydinli

Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global distribution to the inside to determine illumination into the
Impacts, Fig. 29 (a–g) Macrostructured louver depth of the room (type O) (a) and toward the ceiling in the
“RetroLuxTherm” in insulation glazing. Analysis of light lower window section (type U) (d)

Energy Savings Potential of Controlled
Daylight Systems
Adjusting the light redirection louvers into a
closed position when the sun is low as it rises
or sets on the east and west facing sides of the
building can significantly reduce solar over-
heating. Therefore, it is recommended to close
the blinds at the end of the day, after work, and
to open them again in the morning as the work-
ing day begins, when the sun is generally higher
in the sky.
Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts 407

a α Angle of incidence = angle of reflection

α
Key design principles of the RetroFlex
optical system:
Projection of a closed louver onto an
Upper side of microstructured open louver.
louver for retroreflection. Mirror
A microprism mirror with fresnel optics
is created on the surface of the open
louver.
The sun is retroreflected as if the louver
was closed, but it remains open for
daylighting and visual transmission.
Advantages:
Lower side matt white, redirection of the direct sun
diffuse light reflection excellent SHGC value
good visual transmission
Parabola improved daylighting

Microprism mirror created by

fragmenting a parabola shaped louver.

fragmented parabola b

t
ligh
day
3%
2-
Re
tro
ref
lec
tio
n

Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts, Fig. 30 (a–c) Microprism-structured mirror louvers with
Fresnel optics (RetroFlex)

It is, however, important to open the blinds Control of Electric Lighting in

during the day when the sun is high in order
to gain sufficient daylight and save electric
lighting. Experience has shown that properly
controlled blinds, as opposed to sun protec-
tion systems fixed in a certain position, can
save 50% in air conditioning and electric
lighting.
Combination with Daylight Technology
Electric lighting is usually controlled based on
the illumination levels in a room. This is effected
either through dimming of individual lamps or
through cascade switching, where lights near the
window are off, with cascading levels deeper
 408

a b d e

Retroflex
1.90 m 1.90 m inverse
for daylighting
Retroflex
for cooling

c f
Microstructured louvers arranged
Microstructured louvers reduce the inversely vastly improve the
energy transmission daylighting

5˚

60˚ 17/34/
60˚
56 mm
variable

Visual transmission 88%

Visual transmission 80%

RetroFlex Standard RetroFlex Invers

Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts, Fig. 31 (a–f) Louvers with microstructured, concave upper sides. The blind is opened in summer and reflects the
solar energy back outside for maximum views and daylighting. In the upper part of the blind, the louvers are fitted inversely to redirect daylight into the depth of the room
Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts
Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts 409

1 3 2

39 mm 130 mm 10

Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global the façade is 0.65 W/m2K, while the SHGC value of the
Impacts, Fig. 32 (a–c) Non-ventilated double skin ele- assembly is 0.05–0.1 with open louvers for optimum
ment facade of the head office of Energie AG, Linz, Aus- views, depending on the solar angle of incidence [18]
tria, Architects: Weber Hofer Partner, Zurich. U-value of

Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts, Fig. 33 (a, b) Light deflection in roof glazing either in
insulation glazing or under the glass roof, e.g., with RetroLux louvers [18]

into the room. These types of control today are Lately, “integral” controls have become avail-
minimum requirements in energy-optimized able which switch on the electric lighting when-
building. ever the blinds are closed. These types of control
410 Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts

Daylighting Controls,
Performance, and Global
0,80 - 0,90
Impacts,
1,0 0,70 - 0,80
Fig. 34 Example to
0,60 - 0,70
illustrate the light 0,9
0,50 - 0,60
transmittance t for 0,8
RetroLuxTherm O with 0,40 - 0,50
type 63/32 solar protection 0,7 0,30 - 0,40
glazing [19] 0,20 - 0,30
0,6
0,10 - 0,20
τ 0,5 0,00 - 0,10
0,4

0,3
60
0,2
45
0,1
30
0,0
α /°
0 15
15
30 α = azimuth
45 0 γ = elevation angle
γ /° 60 τ = light transmission

Daylighting Controls,
Performance, and Global
0,80 - 0,90
Impacts,
1,0 0,70 - 0,80
Fig. 35 Example to
illustrate the total solar 0,60 - 0,70
0,9
energy transmittance SHGC 0,50 - 0,60
for RetroLux Therm O with 0,8 0,40 - 0,50
type 63/32 solar protection 0,7 0,30 - 0,40
glazing (measurements: TU 0,20 - 0,30
Berlin, Institute of Lighting 0,6
0,10 - 0,20
Technology) [19] τ 0,5 0,00 - 0,1
0,4

0,3

0,2
45
0,1
30
0,0 α /°
0 15
15 α = azimuth
30
45 0 γ = elevation angle
γ /° 60 τ = light transmission

recognize that conventional interior or exterior
blinds darken buildings even when the sun shines
outside! The promise of daylight technology can-
not be fulfilled with such cross-purposes. Electric
light should remain switched off whenever the sun
shines to make use of the natural, free resource of
daylight. Dimming lights with daylight harvesting
controls will extend the use of daylight by
matching electric light levels to the desired lux as
the sunshine begins to fade at the end of the day.
Design to Integrate Daylight and Electric
Lighting
Workplace regulations [17] must stipulate access to
daylight and visual contact with the outside in the
same standards that stipulate shading requirements.
In many countries, less than 40% of the workplaces
are found near windows, although the emergence of
low panel, open-plan offices are increasing seated
access to views.
Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts 411

40 % Diminution factor Fc
All SHGC values are established based on gglass 0.31
for α = 0°, γ = 60°

Measuring point for gglass 0.32

Sun protection glass without louvers

gglass 4
Total solar energy transmittance SHGC

30 %
4 4 mirror louver
Mirror louver β 11° Fc = gtot /gglass,
0.71 = 0.22/0.31

2 gtot 2
White special louver β 0° White louver
20 % 1 Fc = gtot /gglass,
3
gtot 0.52 = 0.16/0.31
3
RetroLux (measuring values) β 0° RetroFlex
RetroFlex β 11° Fc = gtot /gglass,
10 % 0.32 = 0.10/0.31
1
RetroLux
SHGC value percentage of the RetroLux louver due to improved light redirection into the depth of the room, Fc = gtot /gglass,
daylight optimisation on the light shelf 0.31 = 0.10/0.32
0% (gglass for RetroLux 0.32)
0° 10° 20° 30° 40° 50° 60°
a Angle of incidence γ
For comparability of the systems, the SHGC values were calculated for an identical visual transmission of 72 % in
a horizontal viewing position. The louver widths vary.

Daylight optimisation
on the light shelf
58° Free visual transmission
75°

Visual transmission Visual transmission

No visual transmission No visual transmission

1. 3.
β 11°

RetroLux RetroFlex
b d

Visual transmission Visual transmission

No visual transmission No visual transmission

53° 75° 4.
Mirror louver

2.
β 11°

White special louver

c e

Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global shows better thermal properties. The reflective
Impacts, Fig. 36 (a–e) This illustration shows the (RetroLux) louvers with light shelves in the second section
dynamic SHGC values of different types of louvers based produce a good light output with an excellent heat reflec-
on the same view clarity (visual transmission) for different tive shading capacity in the high summer sun. Even in the
angles of incidence. The mirror louver (e) performs poorly, open position, the RetroFlex louvers actively provide shad-
as the sun is reflected onto the gray lower side where it is ing even when the sun is low (d)
absorbed and converted into heat. The white louver (c)

Potential sources of error to be avoided in – Inappropriate reflection characteristics of the

effective daylight design include: surfaces of the louvers with excessive absorp-
tion (e.g., dark colors)
– Inappropriate louver geometry with light reflected – Inappropriate louver control
back and forth between the louvers, ultimately – Inappropriate electric lighting control
resulting in a rise in temperature due to absorption – Excessively dark glazing
412 Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts

Requirement: simultaneity of RetroLux Therm blinds, RetroLux blinds,

visual transmission + daylighting + passive cooling 20mm 50mm

Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts, Fig. 37 View clarity

approx. 2.0 m approx. 5.0 m

36° Viewing
56°
horizon

Principle of visual transmission: Closed blind for beamer presentations

The greater the distance, the better the view

Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts, Fig. 38 Analysis of view clarity for RetroLux and
RetroLux Therm during active protection from the high summer sun, as compared to a closed blind

The aim of intelligent daylight technology As a minimum requirement, the daylight

must be:
– To shade workplaces while simultan-
eously providing sufficient daylight without
glare
– To reflect back out excessive solar energy
through mirroring while simultaneously
redirecting some of the diffuse sky into the
interior
– To reduce the luminance of the window to a
comfortable level while simultaneously ensur-
ing good quality views
autonomy should be approximately 80% to at
least 6 m into the depth of the room, without
exceeding a maximum total solar heat transmis-
sion of 10–12% (SHGC). Even a 5% total solar
heat transmission with optimized daylight condi-
tions in the interior and good views is possible,
indeed state of the art for many double skin
facades.
To date, the dogma of uniform interior illumi-
nation has largely been taken as a quality feature
of good lighting design. While this is easily
achievable by electric lighting at night, the
Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts 413

Retro
cooling Visual transmission
a + daylight
Focus

Visual transmission 74% + daylight

e
angle of workplac

28°
close to window

56° Viewing
horizon Microstructure with
fresnel optics
28°
wing
Vie

Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts, Fig. 39 (a, b) Visual clarity through RetroLux louvers
74–80%

Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts, Fig. 40 View out of RetroFlex blinds in active sun
protection position for b = 13

window zone will always be brighter than sections must cope with higher illuminances near the win-
of the room deeper inside. Moreover, most work- dow and lower illuminances deeper in the room.
station layouts are naturally oriented toward the Well-designed daylighting can improve the uni-
light and the window. As a result, the workstations formity of illumination by redirecting the light
414
Daylighting Controls,
Performance, and Global
Impacts, Fig. 41 Spectral
distribution of daylight [16]
a b
100 % 95 %
Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts, Fig. 42 (a) Color rendering of low-e glass 95–96%,
Color rendering of Retro louvers >99%. (b) Color shift through sun protection, glass and electrochrome glazing
from the window via the white ceiling into the
depth of the room. It is precisely the variability of
light between perimeter and core workstation that
makes a change in paradigm necessary when plan-
ning the electric lighting. To take advantage of the
louver reflectors, electric lighting should be
sourced at the window for night or low light
work. The electric lighting and the daylight need
to be integrated so that diminishing daylight is
complemented by electric lighting. This is per-
fectly possible by integrating the luminous flux
and arranging an asymmetrical luminaire with
indirect lighting at the height of the facade cross-
bar (Figs. 47 and 48a–d). This ensures that the
bottom sides of the daylight redirection louvers
are also used to redirect the electric lighting.
An additional component for the effective inte-
gration of daylighting and electric lighting is the
Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts
Telectric light = 2856° K
Tcorrelated = 6774° K
Tdaylight = 6504° K
95 %
design of the ceiling as a light reflector. Daylight
deflected from the window toward the ceiling can
be redirected onto the worksurface to provide spec-
tral rich and shadow-free task lighting (Fig. 49a–c).
Since ceilings can be the source of glare, par-
ticularly toward the deeper areas of the room,
ceiling surfaces and their reflector geometry
need to be carefully planned. Indeed, the require-
ments of a light redirection ceiling match the
glare restricting specifications for parabolic lou-
ver luminaires. The light redirection and the cut-
off angles of the ceiling must be precisely defined
and are subject to the requirements of DIN EN
12 464.
Micro-prism structures can be designed to redi-
rect the light from the window upward or down-
ward in precise angles due to their angled prism
edges. When prism-structured, convex-shaped
Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts 415

louvers are arranged parallel to the façade, they
can provide direct daylight as well as redirected
daylight integrated with ceilings designed for
redirecting the daylight (Fig. 50).
The symbiotic result of integrating glazing,
louvers and ceilings for maximizing daylight
and augmenting with electric light is the provi-
sion of visual and thermal performance while
ensuring critical views to the outdoors.

The Daylight Facade as a Focal Point of

New Energy Concepts

Around 80% of all high-rise buildings worldwide

Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global
Impacts, Fig. 43 Optical systems can be enlarged or
minimized proportionally. The figure shows RetroLux lou-
vers in different sizes with the same optical properties as to
be seen from the reflections. It shows a 200 mm wide glass
louver underlaid with a large RetroLux mirror system. The
50 mm wide louver for inside use in blinds as well as the
20 mm wide louvers to be installed within insulation glass
(see Figs. 27 and 28), all showing the same optics: The
overheating summer sun is reflected back outside while a
light shelf reflects daylight to the inside [1]
are fully air conditioned, often with air distribu-
tion rates of 10 and 15 times an hour. This high air
distribution rate results from the minimal heat
absorption capacity of air and from the high exter-
nal heat loads in the rapidly expanding regions
near the equator. In European countries with less
solar overheating, water-based methods of
heating or cooling the inside of a building are
increasingly being adopted in combination with
good daylight technology. These methods involve
the provision of cold surfaces, e.g., water-chilled
ceilings, beams, and walls for temperature control
which, depending on the design and size of the
surface, discharge between 40 and 120 W/m2 for
high-efficiency ceilings. Water-based cooling
allows the quantities of conditioned air to be

Daylighting Controls,
Performance, and Global
Impacts, Fig. 44 The
overheating summer sun is
reflected back on the
Hi

horizontal, open RetroLux

gh
su

louvers. Daylight from

n

diffuse sky and a low sun is

supplied via the light
“shelf” [1]
RE
TR
O

Low
sun

RE RO
TR
O INT
416
a b
M no
on
Visual transmission 60% or
ef
le
ct
M
on
or
ef
le
c
tio
n
Visual transmission 74%
RetroLux A exterior
Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global
Impacts, Fig. 45 (a–c) Engineered louver systems
ensure simultaneity of reflecting outside the overheating
reduced to less than 1.5 times the amount other-
wise required – just enough for the fresh breathing
air supply for the occupants of these buildings.
The separation of cooling and ventilation and the
use of water-based cooling are less expensive. It is
also applicable in hotter climates, especially drier hot
climates. The external solar load through the facades
and the internal heat loads must not, however,
exceed the cooling capacity of the components.
This is where daylighting technology is invalu-
able. It not only reduces the solar load through the
facade of fully glazed buildings to less than 10%,
but it also eliminates or reduces heat generating
electric lighting during the day – at least during
periods of intensive solar irradiation and maxi-
mum cooling loads. The economic advantages of
facades designed for shading and daylight, in
combination with HVAC systems that separate
cooling from ventilation needs, are in both first
costs and operating costs.
1. Savings in Building Costs
HVAC building costs are reduced by the costs of
ducts, dampers, and controllers as well as the spatial
investment in ceiling plenum required for air-based
Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts
c
Mo
ref
lec
tio
n
io
n
Visual transmission 56%
RetroLux interior RetroLux Therm in insulation glazing
summer sun on the “Retro reflector,” redirecting diffuse
daylight on the light “shelf,” and achieving good view
clarity
HVAC systems with large volumes of air required
for cooling. In most commercial buildings plenum
depth is 1 m or more, the equivalent of on additional
floor every three floors. In addition to a greater
density of workplaces in the city, the façade areas
are and corresponding investments in interior fin-
ishes are needed. In some buildings, the concrete
ceilings become the cooling distribution system
and/or floating chilled ceiling panels are suspended
above the workplaces. Each of these integral solu-
tions is more economical than cooling with air, both
in terms of chiller and air handler production and
operating costs (Fig. 51). Two limitations to be
addressed by the mechanical designer are very hot
climates where the cooling loads exceed the heat
exchange capabilities of radiant cooling, and the
potential for s condensation on the cooling ceilings
at times or in regions subject to more humid condi-
tions. To prevent this, the ventilation or breathing air
supply is conditioned and the temperature variation
in the cooling ceilings is reduced.
2. Savings in Operating Costs
Daylighting ensures a significant lighting energy
savings and should be combined with seasonal
Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts
Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global
Impacts, Fig. 46 (a–g) SHGC value analysis of a Retro-
Flex-type blind (e–g) with microstructured louvers
shading for significant cooling energy savings. The
addition of innovative mechanical systems that sep-
arate cooling from ventilation will make these
energy savings even more substantial. The heat
carrying capacity of water is approximately 7545
417
(Fresnel optics) adjusted to two positions. (d) Shows the
resulting SHGC value of the adjusted blind for all angles of
incidence
times higher than that of the same volume of air.
Only a minimal amount of water is required for the
transport of heating or cooling energy to control
the temperature of radiant surfaces, and the
pumping energy needed for transporting water
418
Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global
Impacts, Fig. 47 Integration of daylight and electric
lighting has been accomplished in the municipal building
is low. Radiant cooling requires a surface tem-
perature of only 4–5 K under room temperature
conditions, which allows chillers to operate with
good cooling efficiency ratios. It may even be
possible to dispense with the chillers altogether if
heat exchange with the cool ground is possible
through deep wells or flowing surface water.
The savings in building and operating costs far
exceed the investment costs for new daylight tech-
nologies with built-in solar protection, especially
with integrated low energy mechanical systems
(Fig. 52).
Integrated Design Is Critical to
Environmental Outcomes
The previous sections illustrate the importance of
integrated design processes to achieve the highest
indoor environmental quality at the lowest costs.
The systems that must be integrated include: glaz-
ing and louver assemblies for daylighting/shad-
ing/glare protection as well as integral electric
lighting solutions; ceilings for daylight and elec-
tric light distribution, acoustics, and mechanical
conditioning; and the separation of thermal
Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts
in Bochum. This lighting concept allows very clear lan-
guage in night architecture
conditioning from ventilation air to complement
the use of daylight and natural ventilation for
natural conditioning.
To date, it has been common practice in
German-speaking countries to use a sun shade
outside and provide glare protection inside the
building. Breaking the building components into
individual functional elements (“sun shade”
against overheating and “glare protection”) fre-
quently led to excessive efforts and significant
cost increases in the construction. Integrated solu-
tions allow for synergies that result in cost sav-
ings. Integrating electric lighting with the
daylighting systems also ensures that louver
investments are cost effective since at night, they
are used as light redirection systems for the elec-
tric lighting. Then, the ceiling designed for day-
light distribution can simultaneously address the
acoustics and the radiant cooling. In some pro-
jects, the louvers in the facade transom can act as
support to hold the electric luminaire, provide
power, and incorporate sensors and controllers.
Integrated design places particularly high
demands on the facade design; the window
arrangement; the exterior, integral, or interior
louvers; and mechanical and electrical system
Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts
a b
Electric lighting via
the lower side of the
RetroLux louvers
c d
Workplace illumination with RetroLight through the
upper window zone
Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts, Fig. 48 (a–d) Electric lighting and daylight system
optically integrated [1]
integration. The direction in which the windows
open must be planned in connection with the
design of the light redirection system itself. Par-
ticularly for inside louvers, it is recommended
to ensure that windows open to the outside.
Where windows open to the inside, the blinds
can be fixed to the side of the window so they tilt
with the window, or blinds can be integrated
within the insulated glass unit.
Integrated design processes allow the type of
HVAC and the percentage and type of glazing of
the facade to be defined at the earliest stage in the
design process. While the internal heat loads often
depend on the use of the building, the external
heat loads are decided by early design decisions
including orientation, the percentage of glazing in
the façade, and the type of sun protection or light
redirection.
419
Redirection of the electric lighting
via RetroLux Therm in the glazing
Light emission
glare-free area
cut-off angle α > 35°
light emission γ < 65°
In order to support the integrated design pro-
cess, software is available for early determination
of the percentage of glazing in the facade. This
can establish the external solar heat load, the
percent of daylight autonomy where electric lights
can be off, and the potential for radiant cooling, or
whether cooling is required at all (Fig. 53).
Education of a Systems Integrator
The curricula at most universities worldwide con-
centrate on individual fields of study. The ability
to introduce and lead an integrated design process
requires special knowledge and coordinated
strengths to be able to assess and design across
related disciplines. A continuing course of study
as “systems integrator” for existing architects is
420 Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts

RetroTop louvers have a microprism-structured surface. Used as a light ceiling parallel to the facade, they redirect
both the electric light and daylight. The light deflected from the facade to the ceiling is redirected in a conical shape
onto the workplace through the concave design of the louvers. This ensures excellent illumination of the workplaces
with glare-free top and side light. The microstructuring of the RetroTop ceiling also provides for superior acoustic
baffling boosted by louvers mounted in a freely oscillating system. By providing the louvers with water-filled tubes,
the ceiling becomes a highly effective cooling system whose surface, enlarged through microstructuring, has a
cooling effect as it absorbs heat.

b c

Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts, Fig. 49 (a–c) RetroTop, light redirection via the ceiling
[1]

absolutely necessary, allowing them to coordinate of a “systems integrator” should at a minimum

an interdisciplinary design process.
Presently, project managers often hinder the
integrated process, acting as intermediaries
between architects and expert consultants and
the investors who administer the cost controls
and deadline management. Only a trained sys-
tems integrator leads a synergistic process engag-
ing all the experts in an integrated planning
process.
The architect is suitable for this task as “Pontifex
Maximus” if they have undertaken a comprehensive
course of study as a systems integrator. The training
include the following disciplines:
– Building physics – heat, light, sound, air
– Façade materials and assemblies and their rela-
tionship to climate
– Daylighting and electric lighting technologies,
addressing illuminance for the tasks, spectral
and circadian variability, brightness, contrast,
and glare
– Mechanical cooling, heating and ventilation
technologies and their relationship to climate
– Energy management and controls
Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts
a b
gh
t α
yli
Da
the RetroTop ceiling
Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global
Impacts, Fig. 50 Light redirected by ceiling elements.
Ceiling louvers with microprism-structured mirrors deflect
The integrated design process requires combining
this knowledge in one individual capable of lead-
ing the early design stages of complex planning
projects. It is not the task of the systems integrator
to design the heating, cooling, and ventilation
system in detail, for example, but rather to stretch
and synthesize the expertise of multiple disci-
plines. Conceptual decisions basing on prelimi-
nary calculations result in the pre-design.
Performance specifications and the decisions for
the proper technologies are the core competencies
of the systems integrator (Fig. 53). Integrated
design processes must not become empty words.
They should be central to preliminary design,
design development, and project management.
They can also be central to an outstanding client
representative to formulate the requirements for
an integrated, high-performance building and to
supervise their fulfillment (Fig. 54).
Future Research in Daylight Technology
Daylighting occupies an interdisciplinary field of
research between lighting design, façade design,
building physics, and the energy design of build-
ings. There is substantial need for research into
the best technologies for human centric and
421
α α α
Using RetroTop as secondary
reflectors improves the illuminance
by up to 100lx a, workplace
Light redirected at Light redirected
at the RetroTop ceiling
the indirect daylight redirected toward the ceiling vertically
onto the workplace [1]
climate responsive daylighting for occupied
spaces. Further innovations can provide invalu-
able contributions to daylighting, shading,
views, and glare control including: glazing/lou-
ver geometries and combinations internal, exter-
nal, and between glass installations. The effects
of interaction between glass coatings and lou-
vered mirror systems need further research,
including different types of mirrors including
semi-specular surfaces, lacquered or anodized
surfaces, and reflective enhancing coatings
(PVD). The potential for dynamic louvers that
rotate around a vertical axis is to fulfill different
functions. Advances in micro light shelves/shad-
ing devices embedded in the glass assembly
could make windows appear to be clear for excel-
lent views (Figs. 55, 56, 57 and 58).
Relative to daylighting design tools, algo-
rithms are needed to calculate the bidirectional
heat and light transmission values for relevant
tilt positions of mirror contours in relation to the
positions of the sun. More detailed algorithms will
be needed to describe optical behaviors and
human responses to brightness, glare, and spectral
variations. Finally, regional algorithms are needed
to capture the design and operational benefits of
daylighting and dynamic shading for reducing
equipment, energy, and CO2.
422 Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts

Solar irradiation e.g. non-ventilated

700 W/m² max. double skin facade

Light
Solar energy
External heat load 30 W/m² of floor area
transmission max. up to 6m into the room with 90% glazing
in summer
60–70 W/m2 max.

8 W/m2 8 W/m2
5–10 W/m2

The Retro technique ensures daylight autonomy of up to 6–7m into the room.

a External and internal heat loads in summer

e.g. non-ventilated double Cold water circulation in summer,

skin facade warm water circulation in winter

Ventilation shafts in
t 1~ 17° C t 2 ~ 21° C floor, improved
ventilation
Suspended cooling ceiling Element-activated ceiling, Water pipes in
Cooling capacity 50 W/m² cooling capacity ~ 20–30 W/m² concrete ceiling

Fresh air circulation Summer:

t = 22° 2x/h t 1~ 17°C,
Room temperature t 2 ~ 21°C
26°C max.
Winter:
t 1~ 30°C,
Heating / t 2 ~ 28°C
cooling

Ventilation shafts in floor, improved ventilation

b Heating and AC system concept

Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts, Fig. 51 (a, b) Well-engineered louvers dramatically
reduce solar heat loads, making possible new concepts in air conditioning such as chilled ceilings
Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts 423

Daylighting Controls, a
Performance, and Global Consumption Consumption
Impacts, Fig. 52 Main
Standard Best practice
source of savings result
from reduced interior Interior lighting 25.2% 10.1%
lighting (daylight
autonomy) and space Space cooling 12.5% 5.5%
cooling/ heating. The Space heating 12.2% 8.5%
consumption of best
practice has been measured Ventilation (HVAC) 6.2% 4.7%
in the buildings of Fig. 54 Water heating 6.0% 6.0%
(Dipl.-Phys. Kiril
Velkovsky, Sofia) Electronics 7.6% 7.6%
Computers 3.9% 3.9%
Refrigeration 4.2% 4.2%
Cooking 1.9% 1.9%
Other (4) 12.6% 12.6%
Adjust to SEDS 7.7% 7.7%
Savings in energy consumption: 27.3 %

b Adjust to
SEDS Interior
lighting
Other (4)

Cooking

Refrigeration

Computers

Electronics Space
cooling
Water
heating Space
Ventilation
(HVAC) heating
424 Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts

3-layer glazing,
SHGC = 0.51,  = 72 %
SHGC-value with glass, low-e on pos. 3 and 5

80%

Light transmission glass (glass only)

70%

60%

SHGC-glass
50% 12 mm
46 %
Light transmission  daylight system incl. glass
40%
35 %
35 % 31 %
30% 26 %
29 % 30 %
20%
Diffuse transmission dif 22 %
SHGC-value daylight system incl. glass
10% R = 94 %

O-Position
10° 15° 20° 30° 40 ° 45° 50° 60° 70°
Angle of incidence 

O-Position
 
 
15 30 45 60 15 30 45 60
0 0,46 0,26 0,31 0,35 0 0,35 0,22 0,29 0,30
low-e
15 0,44 0,25 0,32 0,34 g 15 0,34 0,22 0,29 0,30

30 0,41 0,24 0,32 0,34 30 0,32 0,21 0,29 0,30
45 0,33 0,25 0,33 0,32 45 0,28 0,23 0,29 0,28
O-Position
60 0,23 0,27 0,31 0,15 60 0,21 0,26 0,28 0,18
Radiometric measured values
TU Berlin, Institut für Lichttechnik, Prof. Dr. Kaase, Dr. Aydinli

SHGC-value with glass, low-e on pos. 3 and 5

80%

Light transmission glass (glass only)

70%

60%

SHGC-glass
Diminution 86 %, Fc = 0,14

50% 12 mm
Light transmission  daylight system incl. glass
40%
36 %

30% Diffuse transmission dif

28 % 24 %
20%
20 % 16 %

10%
14 %
SHGC-value daylight system incl. glass 7%
R = 94 % 5% U-Position
10° 15° 20° 30° 40° 45° 50° 60° 70°
Angle of incidence 

U-Position
 
 
15 30 45 60 15 30 45 60
0 0,36 0,24 0,16 0,05 0 0,28 0,20 0,14 0,07 low-e
15 0,36 0,23 0,15 0,05 g 15 0,28 0,20 0,14 0,07

30 0,37 0,21 0,13 0,05 30 0,28 0,19 0,12 0,07
45 0,31 0,18 0,06 0,04 45 0,25 0,17 0,08 0,06
60 0,19 0,11 0,05 0,03 60 0,19 0,12 0,07 0,06 U-Position

Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts, Fig. 53 Software for early determination of the percent-
age of glazing in the facade [19]

Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts, Fig. 54 For the triple
towers in Sofia, RetroFlex louvers with a Fresnel mirror optic have been chosen. The
louvers are integrated in a close cavity façade in front of an insolation glass and behind a
single glazing which protects the louvers from wind, dust, and rain. The heat up on the
Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts
inner glazing is not more than 5
C above room temperature ensuring the thermal
comfort of the façade. Special care has to be taken to keep the façade condense free in
cold climates. After a measuring period of 2 years, the buildings have been certified with
gold by DGNB (Dimitri Paskalev, Architect, Sofia)
425
426 Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts

Type O + + 1,80 m
Type U
Daylight illumination by the Zenith

Type O
Ze 11 10
ni
th
lig
h
epth
t
om d 60°
of ro
in ation
Illum

low
11 10
R
an eflect
gle ion
so
f in of
cid
e nce
40°

Type O + 1,80 m
Type U
Protection from the high summer sun
Type U
Sou assi 0,1
m ve 2
p <

m Kc

10 11
g

er oüoh
sSuo liun
nnn ngg
e

60°
> 45°
> 45° 90%
30°

> 50%
Pro 10 11
oWveärm
tec
t
rheesion f
atichu rom
ng tz
45°
onr g

Illu
ertiu

Im
nnin
inutch

eant 30°
riaoun
thsele

< 45° mo-f

au

Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global light in any room depths. In the lower part of a blind the
Impacts, Fig. 55 The latest development in daylighting light shelf is turned to inside and the retroreflector to
by the author are microstructured louvers with a clear view outside protecting the building from the overheating sum-
between the louvers up to 96%. The louvers in the upper mer sun and harvesting the lower winter sun and the
part are turned around a vertical axis and collect the zenith diffuse sky
Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts 427

Cavity with daylight insert

Outer glazing Inner glazing

Visual transmission
> 80%

1,3 mm

RETRO reflector Light shelf

Low -e on pos. 3
Outside Widts of louver 12 mm
toughened glass SZR Spacer 18 mm

80 % view through the blinds will be standard in future. From a distance of two meters the
louvers with a high of 1.3 mm only are hardly visible.

Louver position O in the upper part of Louver position U in the lower part
the window of the window

Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global 2 m room height the louvers are turned with their lightshelf
Impacts, Fig. 56 A 12 mm louver is on the market to to outside to harvest zenith light
be mounted between glass panes of insulation glass. Above
428
Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global
Impacts, Fig. 57 Photon mapping: A small part of the
flat sun irradiance is deflected by the louver type U in the
lower window area steeply to the ceiling. A larger part is
retro reflected back to the sky. An overheating of the
interior is avoided. The room lighting with daylight is
secured even during overcast sky
Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global
Impacts, Fig. 58 Photon mapping: High summer sun is
reflected back into the sky in the lower window area
(protection against overheating). To ensure an optimized
illumination the louver type O primarily redirects the
zenith light horizontally into the interior (supply function
with daylight)
Daylighting technologies that bathe interior
rooms with more daylight and clear views,
while avoiding glare and overheating, are critical
design goals for a healthy and sustainable future.
Bibliography
Primary Literature
1. Köster H (2004) Tageslichtdynamische Architektur –
Grundlagen, Systeme, Projekte, 1st edn. Birkhäuser-
Verlag, Basel. (Ausgabe in German, English, Manda-
rin, Czech)
Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts
2. VDI Richtlinien (2002) VDI 6011 Blatt 1: Optimierung
von Tageslichtnutzung und künstlicher Beleuchtung –
Grundlagen. Beuth Verlag GmbH, Berlin
3. Franke H (ed) (2003) Handbuch für Beleuchtung.
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4. Deutscher Wetterdienst, Offenbach. http://www.dwd.
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5. http://www.rssweather.com/climate/California/San%
Francisco%20County/#sunshine. Stand 09.04.2010
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Profile, Commercial Sector. http://www.commerce.
wa.gov/energy/archive/FILES/PRFL/docs/aboutweb.
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7. Hartkopf V (2009) Transnational endowment for sustain-
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8. Umweltbundesamt. Daten zur Umwelt. http://www.
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ublic/theme.do?nodeIdent=3437. Stand 09.04.2010
9. Arasteh D, Johnson R, Selkowitz S (1986) Definition
and use of a daylight “coolness” index. In: International
daylighting conference, Long Beach, 5–7 Nov 1986
10. http://www.solartran.com.au/lasercutpanel.htm
11. Klammt S, Müller H, Neyer A (2009) Advanced day-
lighting using micro-structured components. TU Dort-
mund. In: Proceedings of PLDC, Berlin, 27–31 Oct
2009
12. ASR 7/1 Sichtverbindung nach außen; ASR 7/3
Künstliche Beleuchtung; ASR 7/4 Sicherheitsbeleuchtung
13. DIN 4108-2: Wärmeschutz und Energie-Einsparung
in Gebäuden. Teil 2: Mindestanforderungen an den
Wärmeschutz. Ausgabe: Juli 2003. DIN EN 13363:
Sonnenschutzeinrichtungen in Kombination mit
Verglasungen – Berechnung der Solarstrahlung und
des Lichttransmissionsgrades. Ausgabe September
2007
14. DIN EN 13363-1: 2003+A1:2007. Solar protection
devices combined with glazing – calculation of solar
and light transmittance. Part 1: Simplified method
15. DIN EN 13363-2:2005. Solar protection devices com-
bined with glazing – calculation of total energy trans-
mittance and light transmittance. Part 2: Detailed
calculation method
16. Ruhstorfer W. Computergrafik und Bildverarbeitung.
http://www.uni-regensburg.de/EDV/Misc/CompGrafik/
Script_5.html
17. 2008: Verordnung über Arbeitsstätten (Arbeitsst-
ättenverordnung – ArbStättV), BGBl. I S. 2768
18. Köster H (2015) Tageslicht modulieren, Strategien
adaptiver Fassaden – Daylight modulation, strategies
for adaptive facades. Frankfurt am Main, WITAG-
Verlag. ISBN 978-3-00-048400-1
19. Kaase H (2001) Ga-Nr.: HK-KÖ2-01, Gutachten über
die Bestimmung der lichttechnischen und strahlungsphy-
sikalischen Kennzahlen von zwei Retro-Lamellen als
Innenjalousie. Institut für Elektronik und Lichttechnik
der Technischen Universität Berlin
Daylighting Controls, Performance, and Global Impacts
Patents and Industrial Designs
Sources for daylight redirection-systems, light directing
ceilings and integrated electric and daylight lighting
fixtures:
Applicant and inventor: Dr-Ing. Helmut Köster
Below the patents and industrial designs are named indi-
cated by their patent number and their names:
EP 0793 761, Stepped Lamella for guiding Light Radiation
DE P 69514 005.1-08, Stepped Lamella for guiding Light
Radiation
CH EP 0 793 761, Stepped Lamella for guiding Light
Radiation
IT (EP) 0 793 761, Stepped Lamella for guiding Light
Radiation
Fr (EP) 0 793 761, Stepped Lamella for guiding Light
Radiation
GB EP 0 793 761, Stepped Lamella for guiding Light
Radiation
NL (EP) 0 793 761, Lamelles en Gradins Destinees au
Guidage de Rayonnement Lumineux
AT EP E 187 800, Stepped Lamella for guiding Light
Radiation
AU P 704 884, Stepped Lamella for guiding Light Radiation
CA P 2 205 560, Stepped Lamella for guiding Light Radiation
US 6,240,999, Stepped Lamella for guiding Light Radiation
EP 0461 137 B1, Lichtlenksystem für die Beleuchtung
eines Innenraumes
DE P 590 09 101.8-08, Lichtlenksystem
US P 5 293 305, Light Guidance systems for the illumina-
tion of an interior area
USA 6,367,937, Sun Protection Installation. . .
AT 411613, Sonnenschutzanlage mit Sonnenschutzlamellen. . .
CH 694,947, Sonnenschutzanlage mit Sonnenschutzlamellen. . .
NL 1010766, Zonwering met zonweringlamellen. . .
GB 2332229, Sun Protection Installation. . .
FR 9815482, Sun Protection Installation. . .
IT – 1303650, Impianto di Protezione contra. . .
CA 2,255,302, Sun Protection Installation. . .
AU 756628, Sun Protection Installation. . .
AU 643429, Light deflecting system. . .
DE 100 2006 006 855.6, Bewegliche Fixierung
leiterartiger Bauelemente
DE 10 2005 028 6550, Medienfassade
DE 102 60 711, Blendfreie Jalousien
DE 100 18 451, Herstellung von linearen, prismatischen
Strukturen auf einem lamellenartigen Festkörper
DE 198 28 543, Sonnenschutzanlage für Sonnenschut-
zlamellen, die eine gezahnte Oberseite aufweisen
DE 196 36 817, Sonnenschutzanlage mit Sonnen-
schutzlamellen, die eine gezahnte Oberseite aufweisen
DE 44 42 870, Jalousielamelle zur präzisen Steuerung der
direkten Sonneneinstrahlung
DE 000 331 483 -0001, Oberfläche für Jalousielamellen _
Oberfläche mirkostrukturiert, gezahnt
429
M9502488.3, Jalousie zur Tageslichtumlenkung
000 334 483 Alicante, selbst gefertigtes Lamellenprofil
Retroflex
DE 401 04 706.7, Fassadenpfostenausbildung
vorzugsweise für Glasfassaden mit und ohne Leuchte
DE 401 06 175.2, Lichtlenkdecken (1 Muster)
DE 401 09 455.3, Asymmetrisch strahlendes
Leuchtenmodul
DE 401 10 472.9, Oberlichtleuchte von Trennwänden
DE 402 02 313.7, Leuchten
DE 402 02 431.1, Trennwandleuchte II
DE 402 03 978, Lichtlenkjalousien bzw.
Lichtlenkvorrichtung
DE 402 04 146
DE 402 10 688, Jalousiebehang
DE 403 04 242, Lamellenvorhänge
DE 404 04 133.7, Lamellenvorhänge
M 9502488.3, Jalousie zur Tageslichtumlenkung
DM/052988 (15), Blinds for reflecting sun and diffuse
daylight as well as artificial light (2  Retroluxtherm)
EP 00951306.0 erteilt als EP 1212 08, gezahnte
Tageslichtlamelle
PCT/EP00/05929 Intern. Application No., gezahnte
Tageslichtlamelle, toothed daylight blinds
CA 2,377,711, Toothed Daylight Blinds
USA 6,845,805, Toothed Daylight Blinds
AU 758 794, Toothed Daylight Blinds
EP 2006 005909, Medienfassade
PCT/EP2006/005909 International Application No.,
Medienfassade, s. auch, EP Anmeldenummer
06015154.5
PCT/IB 2013 /060877, Wind up light directing slat,
method of production application and sun protection
system
DE 10 2015 007 599.3, Sonnenschutz und
Lichtlenklamellen zur Einlenkung von Zenitstrahlen
in einen Innenraum
Books and Reviews
Goldmann M (2010) Gelenkte Lichtblicke, Deutsches
Architektenblatt, Ausgabe Hessen/Rheinland-Pfalz/
Saarland 06/10, pp 38–40
Köster H (2010a) Energiesparressource Tageslicht,
Lichtlenkung. industrieBAU 56(2):36–41
Köster H (2010b) So sind Sie Ihrer Konkurrenz einen
Schritt voraus, Diese Tipps von Köster Lichtplanung
machen Sie zum Tageslichtexperten, Sicht +
Sonnenschutz, Heft 9/2010, pp 16–19
Köster H (2010c) Energiesparressource Tageslicht
lenkende Fassaden, Innovative Fassadentechnik Ernst
& Sohn-Special, Sept 2010, A 61029, pp 51–56
www.koester-lichtplanung.de
www.koester-lighting-design.com

Natural Ventilation in Built
Environment
Tong Yang1 and Derek J. Clements-Croome2,3
1
Department of Design Engineering and
Mathematics, Faculty of Science and Technology,
Middlesex University, London, UK
2
School of Construction Management and
Engineering, University of Reading, Reading, UK
3
School of Engineering and Materials Science,
Queen Mary University of London, London, UK
Article Outline
Glossary
Definition of the Subject
Introduction
Vernacular Architecture
Natural Ventilation Principles
Natural Ventilation Design Requirements
Design Guidelines for Natural Ventilation
Mixed Mode: The Selection of Ventilation
Strategies
Natural Ventilation and Mixed-Mode Case
Studies
Future Directions
References
Glossary
Advanced natural ventilation system (ANV)
Integration of basic natural ventilation strate-
gies such as cross ventilation and stack effect
with smart controls.
Air changes per hour (ACH) The volumetric
flow rate of supply air, divided by the volume
of the ventilated space.
BEMS Building energy management system.
BREEAM Building research establishment envi-
ronmental assessment method – UK origin.
Exfiltration/infiltration Air flows through
unintended leakages out/into buildings.
© Crown 2018
V. Loftness (ed.), Sustainable Built Environments,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-0684-1_488
Originally published in
R. A. Meyers (ed.), Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology, © Crown 2018
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2493-6_488-3
Hybrid ventilation Combined natural and
mechanical ventilation (also called mixed-mode
ventilation).
Indoor air quality (IAQ) Broadly defined by
the purity of the air but often CO2 is used as
an indicator.
Mixed-mode ventilation See hybrid ventilation.
Natural ventilation Use of natural forces, i.e.,
pressure differences generated by wind or air
temperature, to introduce and distribute out-
door air into or out of buildings.
Night cooling The use of night air to cool the
building using wind towers or a fan to circulate
the air.
Thermal comfort The state of mind that expresses
satisfaction with the surrounding thermal
environment.
Ventilation Provides fresh air into a building to
ensure good air quality for occupant health and
well-being.
Ventilation effectiveness The ability of a ventila-
tion system to exchange the air in the room and
also the ability to remove airborne contaminants.
Ventilation flow rate The amount of air per unit
time into the ventilated space (liter per second
or l/s, cubic meters per hour or m3/h).
Well-being Healthy mind and body.
Definition of the Subject
Natural ventilation uses the natural forces of wind
and buoyancy to introduce fresh air and distribute
it effectively in buildings for the benefit of the
occupants. Fresh air is required to achieve a
healthy, fresh, and comfortable indoor environ-
ment for people to work and live in. Natural ven-
tilation can ensure or support the supply of
adequate breathing air, adequate ventilation of
contaminants, and adequate thermal conditioning
and moisture dissipation and contribute to well-
being through a connection to the dynamics of
nature. For natural ventilation to be effective,
there has to be a close relationship between the
431
432
architecture and the air circulation system. This
includes the relationship between the built form,
the site environment in a particular location, and
the layout within the building.
The Natural History Museum in London,
designed by Alfred Waterhouse in the Victorian
age, is an excellent example of design for natural
ventilation. The architect designed the built form to
encourage the flow of air through each space in the
building by the use of two ventilation towers at the
back of the building to induce airflow through
stack ventilation [1]. Buildings should be designed
to take full advantage of the prevailing natural
forces such as wind, outdoor temperature, and sun-
light, incorporating building elements such as
towers, atria, and thermal mass to ventilate and
cool occupied spaces. In many climates there is a
growing proportion of naturally ventilated build-
ings using natural features and forces to reduce a
building’s environmental or carbon footprint.
Introduction
The reasons for ventilating a space with air are as
follows:
1. Ventilation air provides oxygen that is needed
for human life processes; it takes about 4 s for
inhaled air to pass through the respiratory sys-
tem and transfer oxygen to the blood and then
to the brain; poor-quality air that is deficient in
oxygen with consequent high CO2 levels
impedes clear thinking and concentration.
2. Ventilation air dilutes; the contaminants may
be CO2 from respiration, odors secreted
through the human skin, cigarette smoke, or
emissions from other processes such as dust,
allergens, aerosols, toxic gases, and particu-
lates in general.
3. Ventilation promotes and directs air movement
in the space, removing excessive heat and/or
moisture essential for comfort and well-being.
Traditional vernacular architecture has taught us
the best of sustainable architecture and ecologically
sensitive adaptation, using passive features ranging
from building orientation and form to appropriately
sized and oriented openings that are linked with
Natural Ventilation in Built Environment
vertical spaces, to ensure the benefits of natural
ventilation, including the use of local materials
and mass for night cooling, and the siting of build-
ings in context to ensure effective airflows.
Vernacular Architecture
Vernacular architecture blends buildings into their
specific settings, so that there is a natural harmony
between the climate, architecture, and people. Ver-
nacular architecture learned from the environmen-
tal variations of place relating to local variations in
temperature, humidity, sun, wind, rain, earth-
quakes, and storms. In climates where the diurnal
range may be 17
C, vernacular buildings reduce
the variation in indoor temperature to 4
C through
time lag and night cooling. In climates where
humidity may be 90%, vernacular buildings sup-
port human comfort by allowing air to flow over
the many thermoreceptors on the human body.
Vernacular architecture is also adapted to ensure
indoor air quality through natural ventilation with
the careful design and placement of indoor pollut-
ant generators from stoves to commodes. Four
vernacular solutions are further described: wind
towers, courtyards, termite mounds, and igloos,
each integrating the conditioning power of natural
ventilation in unique responses to local climate.
Wind Towers
The wind towers or bagdirs are a distinctive and
ancient feature of Islamic architecture. It has been
used for centuries to create natural ventilation in
buildings. Examples of wind towers (Fig. 1) can
be found throughout the Middle East, Pakistan,
and Afghanistan and now are sometimes incorpo-
rated into Western architecture.
Wind flowing around a building causes a sep-
aration of flows which creates a positive pressure
on the windward side and a negative pressure on
the leeward side of the building. Due to its height,
the wind tower enhances the positive pressure on
the windward side; it is then directed through the
tower into the building. Airflow follows the pres-
sure gradients within the structure and exits
through purposely designed openings and through
the leeward side of the tower. The size and loca-
tion of openings (e.g., windows, doors, etc.) and
Natural Ventilation in Built Environment
Air Flow(Day)
Roof
Hall
5
Ground
Level
6 Air
Flow
(Night:No Wind)
Basement
Natural Ventilation in Built Environment, Fig. 1 Bagdir in Dubai, in United Arab Emirates [2]
distribution of internal party walls have a great
impact on encouraging cross flow and mixing of
the indoor air.
In addition to the pressure-induced flows, the
principal factor in wind towers is buoyancy which
depends on the temperature difference and the
height. During the day the sun heats up the struc-
ture warming the internal air which then rises
through the wind tower, as illustrated in Fig. 1.
At night the cool night air lowers the temperature
of the structure and the internal air and the heavier
air then flows downward, cooling the internal
spaces after the heat of the day. Figure 2 shows
how wind towers can also provide natural cooling
for underground water cisterns.
Courtyards
Courtyards are one of the oldest plan forms for
dwellings going back thousands of years and
appearing as a distinctive form in many regions
433
in the world. Examples exist in Latin America,
China, the Middle East, Mediterranean, and in
Europe. Preserving the basic typology of the
courtyard, local climate, and culture has created
a unique style for each region.
The courtyard house called siheyuan is a typi-
cal form in ancient Chinese architecture, espe-
cially in Northern China. It offers space,
comfort, quiet, and privacy. A siheyuan consists
of a rectangle with a row of houses bordering each
side around a courtyard, normally with a southern
orientation and having the only gate usually situ-
ated in the southeast side. Walls protect the houses
from the harsh winter winds and from the spring
dust storms that frequently occur in Northern
China from the Gobi Desert in Mongolia. The
house’s deep eaves provide cooling shade and
protection from the summer rains while allowing
the winter sun’s warmth to be captured in the
rooms. Their design reflects the traditions of
434 Natural Ventilation in Built Environment

Wind

Wind Door
Ground

Wind
Tunnel Foundation basement

Combination of sensible and evaporative cooling

Natural Ventilation in Built Environment, Fig. 2 Wind towers in Yazd, Iran, to ventilate houses, are also constructed
to cool underground cisterns (water reservoir) [3]

China, following the rules of feng shui and Con-

fucian tenets of order and hierarchy.
All the rooms around the courtyard have doors
and large windows facing onto the yard and small
windows high up on the back wall facing out onto
the street. Ridged roof tops provide shade in the
summer and retain warmth in the winter. The
verandah divides the courtyard into several big
and small spaces that are closely connected, pro-
viding a common place for people to relax what-
ever the weather. The courtyard is an open-air
living room and garden with plants, rocks, and
flowers, for family members to chat and gather.
In cold Northern China, courtyards are built
broad and large to increase the exposure to sun-
light, and there are more open areas inside the
courtyard walls for daylight, fresh air, and rain-
water capture for plants and gardens. In hot South-
ern China, the courtyard houses (Fig. 3) are built Natural Ventilation in Built Environment, Fig. 3 A
typical courtyard house in Southern China (Image credit:
with multiple stories to encourage cross ventila-
Beifan Yang, Tianjin Weland Landscape Architecture
tion flow incorporating natural cooling effects. Design Co., Ltd.)
The orientation of houses is not strictly north-
south aligned, but follows the local topology of Termites build their nest so as to achieve auto-
hills and easy access to water sources. matic ventilation to regulate the internal tempera-
ture, as well as constantly managing control of gas
Lessons from Nature: Termite Mounds or exchange and moisture level. They do not keep a
Termitaries set temperature, but allow a gradual change
Termites are an outstanding example in the animal between the seasons determined by the external
kingdom of ingenious animal architects as master environmental temperature.
builders. Over 2000 species of termites live in In Australia, compass termites build large-
tropical and subtropical regions and have shown sized mounds in the form of huge, flat chisel-
us by analogy the art of designing for living in a shaped blades, with their long axis pointing
variety of dwelling styles with natural ventilation. north-south. This arrangement exposes the
Natural Ventilation in Built Environment 435

minimum possible area to the midday sun but
allows the mounds to catch the rays of the early
morning and late evening sun, when the termites
need warmth, especially in the cold season; peak
temperatures can be lowered by about 7
C with
N-S orientation and thus maintain a preferred
temperature of 30–32
C [4].
There are two main types of termite mounds:
(1) the open ventilation mounds which let air flow
into or out through chimneys or holes built into
the mounds and (2) the completely enclosed
mounds in which gases are exchanged through
the porous thin-walled tunnels.
The nest of a termite species Apicotermes
gurgulifex is shown in Fig. 4a. It is embedded in
the soil but clothed by a mantle of air. The nest is
constructed from the excrement of the termites so
is well insulated. Its outer wall has a pattern of
raised, ring-shaped configurations which sur-
round an array of precisely spaced and shaped
ventilation slits. These slits link the external and
the internal spaces.
The termitary of the fungus-cultivating ter-
mites, Macrotermes bellicosus in Fig. 4b, may
reach a height of 3 or 4 m and contain more than
two million termites. The fungus chambers are
built into complex spongelike structures with
numerous supporting ridges with air ducts. The
air in the fungus chamber is heated by fermenta-
tion processes and the metabolic heat generated
by the termites. The hot air rises and enters the
duct systems in the ridges, the walls of which are
porous, allowing carbon dioxide to escape from
the dwelling and oxygen to enter. The cooler air
flows down to the cellar and replaces the rising
warmer air.
Igloos
The Inuit people build igloos as shelters from the
extreme weather conditions in the Arctic. The
igloo (Fig. 5) has excellent thermal performance
without mechanical equipment. The hemispheri-
cal shape of the igloo provides the maximum
resistance to winter gales from all directions,
while simultaneously exposing the minimum sur-
face area to heat loss. The dome uses packed snow
blocks, some 500 mm thick, 1000 mm long, and
150 mm wide, which are laid in a continuously
sloping pile. Effectively, the shape encloses the
largest volume with the least material, so it can be
heated by a blubber lamp. Coated by a glaze of ice
on the interior surface, the finished dome is made
stronger and windproof. The interior surface is
also draped with animal skins and furs to prevent
radiant and convective heat loss to the cold floor
and the walls. Measurements have shown that
with no heat source apart from the small blubber
lamp, internal air temperatures are held at levels of
6 to 4
C with external temperatures of 24 and
40
C [5]. At the same time, the combination of

a b

Air space
2. Supporting ridge
above nest 3.
with air ducts

Royal cell 4.
CO2
O2
10 cm

Air

6.
Brood chambers 5. Fungus chambers
1. Cellar

Natural Ventilation in Built Environment, section through the nest of Macrotermes bellicosus from
Fig. 4 Ventilation of termite molds. (a) Nest of a termite Ivory Coast showing the air being circulated by buoyancy
species Apicotermes gurgulifex [4]. (b) Longitudinal [4]
436
Natural Ventilation in Built Environment, Fig. 5 Illustration of an igloo (Image credit: Bin Zhang, Tianjin Weland
Landscape Architecture Design Co., Ltd.)
a cold sink inlet and airhole outlets provides crit-
ically needed breathing air.
These four illustrations show that traditional
building technologies have evolved and been
adapted over time by people and animals in all
climates to meet thermal comfort and ventilation
needs, accommodating the values, economies,
and the culture-inspired ways of life. However
versatile, they all reflect the basic principles
described in the next section.
Natural Ventilation Principles
The natural forces that drive ventilation can be
wind pressure driven or buoyancy driven where
pressure is generated by the density differences
between indoor and outdoor air.
Wind-Driven Ventilation
Wind is caused by pressure differences in the
atmosphere. The general flow of wind close to
the Earth’s surface is subjected to boundary layer
effects, called the atmospheric boundary layer, in
which wind speed is influenced by the surface
friction of the ground. The variation of wind
speed at different heights and in different terrains
is illustrated in Fig. 6. Wind speed correction
coefficients for different terrain conditions in the
UK are listed in the British Standards Institute
document BS 5925 [6].
When the path of the wind is impeded by
obstacles, such as trees and buildings, then an
energy conversion takes place. Velocity pressure
Natural Ventilation in Built Environment
Airholes
Sleeping
Cold sink platform
is converted to static pressure, so that on the
windward side, an overpressure is produced
(about 0.5–0.8 times the wind velocity), whereas
on the leeward side, an under-pressure results
(about 0.3–0.4 times the wind velocity). The pres-
sure distribution on the roof varies according to
pitch. Figure 7 shows areas of positive and nega-
tive pressures generated by wind normal to build-
ing front: wind-driven flow through inlets on
positive pressure faces and outlets on negative
pressure faces [8]. The pressure differentials aris-
ing across a building cause infiltration of air
through window cracks and other openings.
Relative to the static pressure of the free wind,
the pressure on any point on the surface of a
building façade pw can be approximated by the
equation:
pw ¼ 0:5rCp vz 2 ðPa Þ (1)
where
• Cp = wind pressure coefficient
(dimensionless)
• nz = local wind speed at a specific reference
height z (m/s)
• r = air density (kg/m3)
In order to calculate the ventilation rate due to
the wind, a knowledge of the wind speed and
direction is necessary as well as information
about the nature of wind-stream patterns devel-
oped around the building. A summary of the
façade-averaged wind pressure coefficient data
for simple rectangular-plan low-rise buildings in
Natural Ventilation in Built Environment 437

Height Height
(m) (ft)

600 2000

500 GRADIENT WIND

1500

400
GRADIENT WIND

300 1000
GRADIENT WIND

200

500

100 v

0 0

Natural Ventilation in Built Environment, Fig. 6 Wind speed variation with height and terrain conditions [7] (Image
credit: Jin Zhang, JINT Design Consultants Ltd.)

a Direction of wind b
Direction of wind
– Roof pitch >30°
–
–
Roof pitch <30°
–
+ – – +
–
Plan + Section –

Section Section
–

Natural Ventilation in Built Environment, Fig. 7 Wind pressure distribution on buildings. (a) Wind pressure on
building. (b) Wind pressure on roof [8]

varying degrees of shelter and wind directions is • A is the total ventilation area (m2) – assuming
given in the AIVC Application Guide: A Guide to the four openings are identical
Energy Efficient Ventilation [9]. • Cd is the discharge coefficient (typical value
For buildings with a simple layout, the natural 0.6)
ventilation airflow rate by wind effect can be • DCp is the difference between wind pressure
determined as in the following case, with more coefficient (C p1 and C p2)
examples given in CIBSE Applications Manual
AM 10 [10]:
Buoyancy-Driven (Stack) Ventilation
(a) Wind effect alone for a zone with multicross Warm air in a room tends to rise because of its low
flow openings (Fig. 8): density. It is replaced by cooler, denser air from

 outside. There is a neutral pressure plane where
DCp 0:5 the pressure difference is zero as shown in Fig. 9.
q ¼ A  Cd  U  (2)
2 Since the pressure at the outlet or inlet can be
where affected by the wind, the extent to which the stack
effect operates is governed partly by the wind
• U is the wind speed measured at the same pressure and partly by the design of the openings
height as the building (m/s) and the internal layout.
438 Natural Ventilation in Built Environment

For buildings with a simple layout, the natural Buoyancy effect alone for a single-opening
ventilation airflow rate by buoyancy effect can be zone (Fig. 10):
determined as illustrated in the following example
A  Cd
[10]: q¼h i0:5 (3)
ðT i þ273Þ
DTgh
U

where
A /2 A/2
q/2 q/2
• q is the ventilation flow rate (m3/s)
• Ti is the internal temperature (
C)
Cp1 Cp2 • DT is the difference between the internal and
external air temperature (K)
• A is the opening area (m2)
• h is the opening height (m)
• Cd is the discharge coefficient (0.25 for
single-opening)
Natural Ventilation in Built Environment, • g is acceleration due to gravity (m/s2)
Fig. 8 Cross ventilation driven by wind effect alone

Natural Ventilation in
Built Environment,
Fig. 9 Stack pressure
distribution between two
vertically placed openings A
[9, p. 214]
Text
H2 Tint

Neutral pressure
plane

B
H1

Pressure
External Internal
pressure pressure
gradient gradient

Natural Ventilation in
Built Environment,
Fig. 10 Single-sided
q ΔT
ventilation, single-opening,
driven by buoyancy alone
A h

q
Natural Ventilation in Built Environment
In spaces where cross ventilation is not feasi-
ble, stack ventilation works best with high ceil-
ings, atria, or chimneys (Fig. 11).
An atrium is a variant of stack ventilation prin-
ciple (Fig. 12). It draws air from both sides of the
building toward a central extract point, doubling
the natural ventilation effective width in the
building.
A well-designed double-skin façade provides
buildings with additional protective layers from
the outdoor environment, improves thermal and
visual comfort for occupants, and reduces
Natural Ventilation in Built Environment,
Fig. 11 Stack ventilation from vertical chimneys [11]
Natural Ventilation in Built Environment,
Fig. 12 Stack ventilation from atrium [11]
439
intrusive noise. The double skin can also enclose
the circulation, integrating the internal and exter-
nal spaces in the building and providing views to
outside to achieve the harmonious integration of
people and nature.
The Gherkin building (see Fig. 13), 30 St Mary
Axe in the city of London, is naturally ventilated
most of the year through its exterior cladding
consisting of triangular- and diamond-shaped
glass panels. The glazing system contains a
double-glazed outer layer and a single-glazed
inner layer with solar control blinds in the central
ventilated cavity. Fresh air is drawn up through
spiraling light wells enclosed by the openable
double-glazed panels, which also effectively
reduce the need for additional heating and
cooling. The circular tapering shape of the build-
ing and the light wells maximize the amount of
natural light throughout the building and provide
views out across the city from deep inside.
When natural forces cannot provide the
required indoor environment conditions, mechan-
ical systems – e.g., fans for increasing ventilation
rate and/or heat exchangers for cooling
(or heating) at peak summer (or winter) times –
can be used to enhance the thermal conditioning
and natural ventilation through purposely
installed openings in the building envelope. This
is known as a mixed-mode or hybrid ventilation
system with pressure sensors and motor-driven
dampers used to give control. Careful consider-
ations in the design and operation as well as end-
user education are needed to deliver effective
environmental control with ventilation in hybrid
systems.
Natural Ventilation Design
Requirements
Fresh Air
Indoor CO2 source is primarily generated
through human metabolism. Human respiration
requires a fresh air rate of 0.1–0.9 l/s per person
depending on the activities (metabolic rate)
and clothing insulation of the occupants
[14]. Seppänen et al. [15] and Wargocki et al.
[16] have made a comprehensive review of over
440 Natural Ventilation in Built Environment

Natural Ventilation

Blinds intelligently automatically

controlled by BMS

40.0
49.0
38.0 30 1/s/m
37.0 Extract Rate
36.0
35.0
34.0
33.0 Temp°C Predicted performance:
32.0 45
31.0
30.0 40 85% solar protection
29.0
28.0 35 50% light transmission
27.0
26.0 30 0.8 W/m2K thermal insulation
25.0
24.0 25
23.0
22.0 20 Fresh air
60 1/s/m
21.0 left over
20.0 Extract Rate

Natural Ventilation in Built Environment, natural ventilation concept [13]. (b) Gherkin double-skin
Fig. 13 Gherkin, London, and ventilation through light façade design [13] (Source: Matt Kitson, Hilson Moran)
wells and double-skin façade. (a) Gherkin façade [12] and

20 studies with over 30,000 persons and found
that ventilation rates below 10 l/s per person
result in lower air quality and increased health
problems. Ventilation rates for acceptable indoor
air quality are currently assessed by using the
ASHRAE Standard 62.1 [17]. In this standard
there are two procedures for estimating the
amount of fresh air required. The first is referred
to as the ventilation rate and is a prescriptive
approach stating a requirement of 10 l/s per per-
son of fresh air in nonsmoking office environ-
ments. The second is a performance approach,
with more detail available given in the ASHRAE
Handbook of Fundamentals [18].
Natural Ventilation in Built Environment
Natural Ventilation for Indoor Air Quality
To obtain breathing air and remove pollutants
from internal spaces, adequate outdoor air
exchange rates are critical. To establish these
rates, a range of pollutants must be addressed
including odors, tobacco smoke, metabolic car-
bon dioxide, and VOCs.
Body Odors
A human being’s sense of smell permits very low
concentrations of odors. The sensitivity varies
between individuals. In a typical indoor environ-
ment, around 500 out of 6000 compounds of
concern are human bioeffluents [19]. Poor-quality
air is usually referred to as being stuffy, stale,
close, heavy, or lacking in freshness. Inhaled air
comes into contact with the nasal passages and
then the respiratory tissue; in each case the motion
of the olfactory hairs, and of the cilia on the
respiratory membrane, is affected by temperature,
humidity, dirt, odors, and also ions [20]. Body
odors are often the indication of poor ventilation
to building occupants.
Environmental Tobacco Smoke
Environmental tobacco smoke contains more than
4000 chemicals, and at least 50 of these chemicals
are known to be cancer-causing substances [21]. It
generates about 2 ppm CO, leads to irritation and
discomfort among 20% of those exposed, and is
also suspected to increase the risk of lung cancer
[22]. Based on a study on the rates of hospital
admissions for heart attacks before and after the
smoking ban was introduced in England on July
01, 2007, there was a clear association between
the smoking ban and a 2.4% reduction (or 1200
fewer admissions due to a heart attack) in the
12 months following the ban [23].
Metabolic Carbon Dioxide
An average sedentary adult (metabolic rate
M = 70 W/m2 and body area A = 1.8 m2) pro-
duces approximately 0.0051 l/s (18 l/h) of CO2 by
respiration when performing light office duties
[6]. Younger people such as infants and primary
school children have lower emission rates, but
they are likely to be more active and may well
have CO2 production at similar levels
441
[22]. Normally, in buildings, CO2 concentrations
below 0.1% (1000 ppm) are required to avoid
discomfort and headaches [24]. According to the
Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and
Safety [25] and ASHRAE standards [17], health
effects can become acute at higher exposure
levels.
Increased CO2 content of the external atmo-
sphere causes the decreased pH value of the blood
[26]. Metabolism is very sensitive to body fluid
pH value. The health concerns of CO2 is another
reason besides global warming, for why the atmo-
sphere CO2 concentration should be limited to
<426 ppm [20].
Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs)
Thousands of chemical compounds have been
identified in the indoor environment. The most
common pollutants are given in ASHRAE Stan-
dard 62.1-2010 and Health and Safety Directives
[17, 27]. Contaminants such as formaldehyde,
toluene, volatile organic compounds (VOCs),
allergens, and radon can accumulate in poorly
ventilated buildings, causing health problems.
Complex mixtures of organic chemicals in indoor
air also have the potential to invoke subtle effects
on the central and peripheral nervous system,
leading to changes in behavior and performance
[28]. The latest overview on knowledge and
research outcomes concerning the relationships
between indoor air pollutants and health effects
by Brown, Holmes, and Harrison highlights crit-
ically needed research directions [29]:
• Development of validated measuring methods
• Establishment of dose-response relationships
• Development of risk indicators for multiple
exposures
Ventilation Effectiveness
Ventilation effectiveness is an indicator of how
efficiently supplied fresh air is mixed and distrib-
uted in the occupied space, related to both the
dilution and removal of indoor airborne contami-
nants [30]. Gan [31] used airflow pattern, air tem-
perature, and local mean age of air (i.e., the
average time for air to travel from an inlet to any
point in a room set equal to the room volume
442
divided by the air supply rate) to determine the
effective depth of fresh air distribution in a natu-
rally ventilated space. CFD predictions show that
the width and height of window openings, room
heat gains, and outdoor air temperature have com-
bined effects in determining the maximum room
depth for effective fresh air distribution in single-
sided natural ventilation. For summer cooling
requirements, thermal comfort may displace
indoor air quality as the determining factor in
design. Instead of contaminant concentrations
for effectiveness measures [32], Coffey and Hunt
[33] proposed to measure the active buoyancy
(e.g., the heat or coolth) removal in natural dis-
placement and natural mixing flows within a
space for evaluating the ventilation effectiveness.
Practical design guidance for naturally ventilat-
ing performing arts buildings in an urban context
has been outlined by Short and Cook [34]. Specific
space features and operating requirements in
designing auditoria were addressed and demon-
strated through the presentation of three case stud-
ies. The technical guidelines beyond typical natural
ventilation space design include:
• Sizing larger inlet and outlet areas
• Managing acoustic attenuation
• Configuring building management system to
cater for all levels of occupancy density
• Ensuring the stratification of warm, stale air
remains above the breathing zone in theaters
with raked seating
• Avoiding airflow imbalance generated by wind
pressure
For hospital environments, natural ventilation
system design needs to pay special attention to elim-
inate the spread of biological (i.e., fungi, bacteria,
and virus), chemical, and other contaminants [35].
Natural Ventilation for Cooling
In addition to natural ventilation for breathing air,
there is significant benefit for natural ventilation
for convective cooling of the human body and
thermal cooling of the air. Design of the natural
cooling system can be optimized considering
parameters involved, such as thermal mass,
Natural Ventilation in Built Environment
window size, and local environmental conditions.
Convective cooling is achieved whenever airflow
can effectively lift heat and moisture from the
skin. To obtain thermal cooling of the air and
remove heat from internal spaces, the incoming
air from the surroundings must be cooler than
indoor temperature. Water, earth, and concrete
have high capacity to store heat; providing inertia
against temperature fluctuations, they are referred
to as high thermal mass materials. The potential
sources for the cool air may be from a shaded or
landscaped space or from over a body of water, a
labyrinth with high thermal mass, underground
channels, or other sources of cooling.
In cold climates and locations with high diur-
nal temperature range, nighttime ventilation can
be applied to passively cool the building structure
and provide a heat sink during the daytime occu-
pancy period to achieve good thermal comfort.
Evaporative downdraft cooling techniques
[36, 37] involve introducing fresh ambient air at
the top of a central light well and providing atom-
ized water for evaporatively cooling the air as it
flows downward, filling the space with a static
reservoir of denser, cooler air.
Air Movement in Rooms
It has been well established that air movement is
one of the important factors influencing people’s
perception of thermal comfort [38]. Air movement
is a combination of a momentum-induced airflow
and buoyancy-induced airflow [32]. A jet airflow is
caused by a momentum source, which can either be
a fan or the pressure difference across an opening
caused by the wind or temperature difference.
Buoyancy-driven airflow is caused by density dif-
ferences. This type of motion is also called natural
convection. The research work of Linke [39],
Mullejans [40], and van Gunst [41] has given
clear descriptions of the air patterns produced by
air streams at various velocities and temperatures,
when directed through different types of outlet, and
also their interaction with the natural convection
currents in the space. Design should ensure that the
optimum air and temperature distribution as well as
satisfactory sound levels will be provided from the
air stream outlet.
Natural Ventilation in Built Environment
• Air movement should vary in space and time
without giving drafts, recognizing that some
parts of the body (i.e., ankles, back of the
neck) are more susceptible to drafts.
• Temperatures should vary within the vertical
gradient for comfort, recognizing that a higher
level of warmth is preferable below knee level
rather than at head level.
• For freshness, higher air velocities are required
at higher temperatures, with an air velocity
change of 0.15 m/s being equivalent to a
change of about 1
C in temperature. Air at a
lower temperatures and relative humidity of
40–60% (i.e., air with a lower enthalpy) is
perceived as fresher than air with a higher
enthalpy [42, 43]).
• Above the head, the convection air velocities
can be 0.25 m/s or higher depending on the
occupancy density.
• Air movement helps to dispel a sense of
stuffiness.
Cross ventilation is normally the primary strat-
egy for passive cooling. Operable windows are the
most commonly used vents in natural ventilation
systems. There are four common types of
windows – sliding (sash), horizontal-vane opening,
vertical-vane opening, and combination tilt and
turn windows, as illustrated in the BSRIA guide
[44]. Window selection, integrated with building
form and orientation, façade details, and internal
layout design, contributes to create different indoor
airflow patterns and provide different options for
the control of direction and volumetric flow. In
certain conditions windows can cause localized
discomfort, i.e., local drafts, cold radiant surfaces
in winter, or solar gain in summer. However, occu-
pants of naturally ventilated buildings are generally
willing to accept a wider range of internal temper-
atures as satisfactory and prefer the greater control
they are given over their environment.
In addition to cross ventilation, buoyancy or
stack ventilation can be effective at increasing the
airflow rates for convective cooling of the occu-
pants. Stack ventilation can be further assisted by
wind-induced stack airflow and by solar chim-
neys. Solar chimneys are constructed to capture
solar radiation to increase the difference in
443
temperature between incoming and outflowing
air to enhance stack ventilation.
The design of traditional mosques in Malacca,
Malaysia (Fig. 14), demonstrates the combination
of cross ventilation with stack or heat stratification-
induced ventilation to achieve cooling with natural
ventilation.
Design for Daylighting with Natural
Ventilation
The design of windows for natural ventilation
must also consider effective daylighting opportu-
nities. Daylight is good for health and saving
energy. Natural light has a balanced spectrum of
colors and wavelengths which vary over the day
depending on latitude and seasons (Fig. 15) with
measurable benefits over artificial light sources in
regulating circadian rhythms and maintaining
overall health [46].
The daylight penetration depends on the room
geometry as does the air distribution. In order to
create stimulating high-quality interior environ-
ments, lighting design must consider source inten-
sities, distribution, glare, color rendering, and
surface modeling [47]. Improved daylight metrics
can be applied in a practical, real-world context to
take into account the temporal and spatial aspects
of daylight, as well as meeting design standards
for energy and occupant comfort [48].
Urban Pollution and Noise with Natural
Ventilation
The design of windows for natural ventilation
must also consider the effects of outdoor pollution
and noise. In the built-up urban environment,
buildings and roads make up the basic geometric
form of street canyons. Similar to a natural can-
yon, which is a steep gorge with very high sides
and a minimal valley floor, an urban canyon has
narrow street space bordered by very high build-
ings. One example of an urban canyon is the
Magnificent Mile in Chicago as shown in the
picture (Fig. 16).
It is important to understand how these topo-
graphic places affect wind patterns, pollution, and
noise. An urban boundary layer rises above the
canopy (see Fig. 17). The potential for natural
ventilation is seriously affected by the reduction
444
Natural Ventilation in a qiblat
Built Environment,
Fig. 14 Natural cooling in
traditional Malacca
Mosque, Malaysia [45]. (a)
A traditional Malacca
Mosque in Malaysia with
typical floor plan. (b) Cross
ventilation design. (c)
Stack-effect design
Northeast
of wind speed, complicated turbulent dispersion
patterns, elevated day- and night-time ambient
temperatures due to the urban heat island effect,
and increased external pollutants as well as noise
level.
Based on neural network methodologies, an
algorithm calculating the optimum sizes of open-
ings for naturally ventilated buildings located in
urban canyons for single-sided and stack-effect
configurations was derived by Ghiaus and Allard
[51]. They identify that mitigation of the urban
heat island effect can be accomplished through the
use of green roofs and the use of lighter-colored
Natural Ventilation in Built Environment
qiblat
N
serambi
mihrab
Prayer
hall
serambi
serambi
Southwest
surfaces in urban areas, which reflect more sun-
light and absorb less heat. Green roofs protect the
roof materials from intense solar radiation and
prolong the service lifetime. Plants that retain
and absorb rain improve the microclimate and
also reduce the runoff water to drainage systems.
Plants and soil provide for a level of acoustic
absorption and pollution reduction for incoming
streams of natural ventilation.
Embracing nature, even in urban settings, has
been long-term inspiration and challenge for
architects and engineers. In Japan, the Osaka
Gas Corporation has sponsored an experimental
Natural Ventilation in Built Environment
Natural Ventilation in Built Environment,
Fig. 15 Design to maximize daylight throughout the
year [47]
Natural Ventilation in Built Environment,
Fig. 16 Urban canyon – the magnificent Mile in Chicago
[49]
“Open Building” (Fig. 18) project NEXT21 since
1994. The structural and building services are
challenged to use resources more effectively
through systemized construction [53]. A variety
of residential units have been designed by differ-
ent architects’ practices to accommodate varying
households. Substantial natural greenery was
planted on the “3D streets” formed by different
levels of building service pathways connecting
445
different apartments in a high-rise structure.
Green plants can reduce pollution and create
healthier microclimate in/around the building,
also connecting people to nature above street
level in urban settings. Innovative designs could
tackle the noise issue when utilizing natural ven-
tilation [54–57]. Energy-efficient measures
include fuel cells and behavior – encouraging
occupants to become more aware of how to lead
a comfortable life possible without increasing
energy consumption.
A 1993 study by Clausen et al. in a climate
chamber revealed that a change of 2.4 decipol in
the perceived air quality or a change of 3.9 dB in
the noise level has the same effect on thermal
comfort as 1
C change in the operative tempera-
ture [58]. Recently, a number of newly built
schools in the UK with different ventilation strat-
egies have shown that the complex interactions
between thermal comfort, ventilation, and acous-
tics are major challenges for designers [59].
The shape of the room and surface finishes
affect the sound distribution. The optimum bal-
ance of direct and indirect sound depends on the
shape of the space and the boundary surface sound
absorption. Combined acoustic and airflow design
chart and equations could help designers to
achieve both adequate acoustical insulation and
airflow rates requirement, especially in the early
stages of the design process [60]. The newly com-
pleted broadcast center in London has showcased
a range of sustainable technologies to achieve the
world’s first naturally ventilated television studios
(see details in case study).
Humidity and Condensation Prevention with
Natural Ventilation
Natural ventilation is typically associated with
higher ventilation rates, especially when outdoor
conditions are cooler than indoors. In Nordic res-
idential buildings, monitoring data has shown
health risk for the residents with ventilation rates
below 0.5 ACH. Low ventilation rates may lead to
high indoor relative humidity and indoor pollutant
concentrations. Low ventilation rates and mois-
ture accumulation may lead to increased dust
mites in residential dwellings linked to asthma.
Moisture in buildings can lead to mold formation
446
Natural Ventilation in
Built Environment,
Fig. 17 Cross section of REGIONAL
the urban atmosphere [50] WIND
Rural Suburban
Natural Ventilation in Built Environment, Fig. 18 Open building in Japan [52]
also associated with exacerbation of asthma and
upper respiratory disease in both children and
adults [3, 61].
Studies of ventilation rate and health effects in
public buildings [62] indicate that ventilation rates
below 10 l/s per person have significantly associ-
ated with health risks and perceived air quality
complaints. On the other hand, increased ventila-
tion rates between 10 and 20 l/s per person
reduce sick building syndromes (SBS) and
improve perceived air quality. A relative humidity
Natural Ventilation in Built Environment
Urban
“Plume”
Urban
Boundary Layer
Urban
Rural
Canopy
Boundary Layer
Urban Suburban Rural
range of 40–60% is generally considered accept-
able. High humidities over 60% gradually
increase the risk of mold growth, and other fungal
contamination, which may cause asthma and
other respiratory health concerns. Increased
humidity may also enhance other emissions in
buildings, e.g., formaldehyde from furnishings
[63]. On the other hand, low humidity (<30%)
may cause dryness and irritation of the skin, eyes,
and airways of some occupants [22] including
increased throat infections. Contact lens wearers
Natural Ventilation in Built Environment
often experience discomfort in dry environments.
A set amount of background ventilation (e.g.,
trickle vents formed passive stack) will provide
sufficient fresh air and also work with all types of
ventilation strategies (either natural or mechani-
cal) to ensure a healthy atmosphere and reduce the
potential for condensation and mold.
Fire Safety with Natural Ventilation
In the event of a fire, flames and smoke will follow
the paths of natural ventilation. As a result, the
natural ventilation system must integrate fire safety
strategies and provide solutions which facilitate
safe occupancy, warning, escape, and increased
visibility for the fire service [6]. Smoke ventilation
designs utilize the buoyancy of hot smoke to auto-
matically open vents (AOVs) on the fire floor in
conjunction with an AOV at the top of the smoke
ventilation system to naturally extract smoke from
the common escape routes. Depending on the
building envelope and structural configuration,
automatically open vents (AOVs) should be placed
in natural/mechanical smoke shafts, atria, internal
glazed screen/façades, and fire stairs to achieve the
prime objective of keeping common escape routes
clear of smoke. Standby fans should be installed as
an emergency safety precaution.
Design Guidelines for Natural
Ventilation
The parameters which affect the air velocity and
temperature at a given point in the room include:
1. Air inlet velocity (sound emission must also be
accounted for when selecting a value for this)
2. Temperature differentials of outdoor and room
air
3. Geometry and position of air supply inlets
4. Geometry and position of air extract outlets
5. Room geometry
6. Room surface temperatures (low surface tem-
perature components, such as glass, tend to
promote strong convection currents)
7. Position, shape distribution, and emission of
heat sources (e.g., people)
8. Room turbulence
447
Natural ventilation can be difficult to control due
to the fluctuating indoor and outdoor conditions. As
previously stated naturally ventilated buildings have
to be inextricably linked to architectural form and
fabric; they require holistic design and significant
attention to detail. Well-designed natural ventilation
systems need to address the following aspects com-
prehensively [64–66]:
• Site design – building location, orientation, site
layout, and landscaping
• Building design – building type and function,
building form and orientation, envelope, thermal
mass, natural ventilation strategy, internal spatial
division and functions, internal heat load, solar
shading, daylight, and passive night cooling
potential
• Vent opening design – position of openings,
clear path of airflow, types of openings, sizing
and choice of window opening design, effec-
tive area of multiple openings, provision of
secure, operable openings, and control strategy
The rules of thumb for effective natural venti-
lation can be simplified as follows [10], illustrated
in Fig. 19:
• Single-sided single-opening (mainly driven by
wind turbulence) can be effective up to a depth
of two times the floor-to-ceiling height, typi-
cally 4–6 m (Fig. 19a).
• Single-sided double-opening (mainly driven
by buoyancy forces) can be effective up to a
depth of 2.5 times the floor-to-ceiling height,
typically 7–8 m (Fig. 19b).
• Cross ventilation with ventilation openings on
both sides, generally opposite sides of a space
(mainly driven by wind), can be effective up to
a depth of five times the floor-to-ceiling height,
typically 15 m (Fig. 19c).
• Stack ventilation is mainly driven by tempera-
ture differences between the hot air in the occu-
pied space and the cooler external air. The
effective depth of a stack ventilation system is
up to five times the floor-to-ceiling height. Stack
ventilation can also be enhanced by the wind
effect or through the use of a solar chimney, i.e.,
solar-driven stack ventilation [67].
448 Natural Ventilation in Built Environment

a For natural ventilation to be effective for ther-

mal comfort, it may be critical for heat gains to be
W≤2H kept below 35 W/m2 to avoid excessive over-
heating. This means there is a need to reduce
H
solar loads, daytime highs, and internal gains by:

• Solar protection
W • Vented façades
• Thermal mass
• Low-energy lighting
b
• Plug load management including the use of
W ≤ 2.5 H
cloud computing, which can reduce computer
h approx heat gains considerably
1.5 m H
Benefits of Natural Ventilation
The indoor environmental advantages of natural
ventilation are predominantly gained by the elim-
W
ination or reduced use of mechanical systems:

c • Less energy is consumed.

• Less mechanical system space is needed.
W≤5H • Maintenance is simpler.
H • Durability is improved.
• Mechanical noise is eliminated.
• Occupants gain control of air quality and tem-
perature using windows.
W
• Costs are lower.
• A higher level of daylight is provided with
d Edge-in, Centre-in, well-designed windows.
Centre-out Edge-out
(E-C) (C-E)

The disadvantages of natural ventilation

include:

Edge-in, Centre-in, • The driving pressure depends on the wind

Edge-out Centre-out
(E-E) (C-C) and/or the stack effect, and both are variable
and cannot be easily controlled.
• There has to be an integrated approach to
design between the architect and the engineer
with regard to built form, orientation, massing,
Natural Ventilation in Built Environment, internal layout, selection of window types, and
Fig. 19 Schematic diagrams of the different forms of
natural ventilation: (a) single-sided single-opening, (b)
their positioning in the façade.
single-sided double-opening, (c) cross ventilation, and (d) • Internal heat gains are limited to less than
atrium ventilation [68] 35 W/m2.
• There is no filtration or control of outdoor
• Different forms of atrium ventilation are illus- pollution or moisture content.
trated in Fig. 19d [68]. • Outdoor noise can be an issue.

Figure 20 illustrates how various natural ven- Most significantly, however, the ventilation
tilation strategies can be integrated into design. rate depends on the strength and direction of
Natural Ventilation in Built Environment 449

Stack ventilation
through a rooflight
Wind-assisted
external ventilator Roof vent and glazing
for lower floors with glare protection
Louvres
adjusted to
reject summer
Single-sided
radiation
ventilation

Air supply through

floor diffusers

Louvres
adjusted to
admit overcast
sky luminance

Air intake on
North elevation
to floor duct

Louvres
adjusted to Transfer
act as lightshelves grille Manually
operable
windows in
summer with
BMS control
of fanlights

Natural Ventilation in Built Environment, Fig. 20 Illustration of combined natural ventilation strategies [44]

wind and/or buoyancy forces and the resistance of
the flow path. The uncontrollable feature of natu-
ral ventilation can result in the air change rate
varying significantly and being distributed
unevenly to internal spaces giving periods of inad-
equate ventilation, or periods of over ventilation.
Health and Productivity
There is a unique relationship between an individ-
ual, the environment, and the building they
inhabit. The complicated interaction between the
environmental stimuli, such as air and surface
temperatures, humidity, air movement, and air
purity, and the interlinked social and psychologi-
cal factors of individuals and their organization
influences the sense of well-being, health, and
productivity [20, 69]. Loftness et al. [70] captures
the impact of access to the natural environment,
including natural ventilation, on health and pro-
ductivity (Fig. 21a, b). In addition to the health
and productivity benefits brought by design with
access to the natural environment, there are mea-
surable energy benefits. Effective daylighting can
yield 10–60% reductions in annual lighting
energy consumption. There is evidence of poten-
tial 40–75% reductions for cooling energy con-
sumption when natural ventilation is interactively
supported by mixed-mode HVAC systems. Sus-
tainable and healthy built environments result
from integrating the natural diversity of the
region – its unique climate and seasons, textures,
sounds, smells, and variety of landscape and
species.
Mixed Mode: The Selection of
Ventilation Strategies
CIBSE [64] gives the following monograph to
help the decision process for selecting whether
to use natural ventilation, mechanical ventilation,
mechanical assist to cooling, and air-conditioning
(Fig. 22).
Decision-making can be substantially
improved through the use of computer-aided
prediction models. Chen [71] presented an over-
view of ventilation performance prediction
methods, including analytical models, empirical
450
models, small-scale experimental models, full-
scale experimental models, multizone network
models, zonal models, and computational fluid
dynamics (CFD) models. Recent applications of
these simulation tools were examined in terms
of their contributions to design practice and/or
to research. CFD applications in modeling of
wind-driven natural ventilation [72] have
shown improved prediction capability for com-
plex naturally ventilated buildings. Not reliant
on simulation alone, Walker [73] developed a
methodology to evaluate natural ventilation in a
multizoned commercial office building by com-
bining full-scale building monitoring, reduced-
scale physical experiment, and CFD simulation.
Simulation that incorporates detailed thermal
sensation and comfort models provides more
Fig. 21 (continued)
Natural Ventilation in Built Environment
accurate predictions on the dynamic responses
of occupants to building environments, and
advanced coupling in simulation extends the
prediction capability of CFD and brings the
needs of the human occupancy into the design
of buildings [74, 75]. The integration of CFD
with dynamic building simulation (BS) models
and geographic information systems (GIS) data
would be a practical way to take advantage of
the strength of the other models for optimal
natural ventilation design and analysis. Fig-
ure 23 illustrates an application of CFD for
advanced natural ventilation design in hospitals.
Lomas and Ji [76] evaluated simple natural ven-
tilation (SNV) and advanced natural ventilation
(ANV) designs in terms of overheating risk in
healthcare buildings given current and future
Natural Ventilation in Built Environment
Natural Ventilation in Built Environment,
Fig. 21 Health and productivity gains from access to the
natural environment. (a) Health gains from access to the
climate conditions. They also proposed an over-
heating risk criterion compatible with adaptive
thermal comfort – an emerging approach to
defining comfort in naturally ventilated envi-
ronments (see Chapter ▶ “Adaptive Comfort
and Mixed-Mode Conditioning”). Both field
monitoring and modeling studies reveal that
advanced natural ventilation could offer greater
resilience to climate change, particularly as a
refurbishment strategy.
The strengths and weaknesses of a wide range
of design simulation tools have been summarized
by governmental and professional organizations
in DoE and IBPSA [77, 78]. Educational
resources and practical equations for various
451
natural environment. (b) Productivity gains from access to
the natural environment [70]
design stages and step-by-step guided case studies
will help multidisciplinary professions to design
and build sustainable buildings that incorporate
natural ventilation [68, 79–81]. The following
case studies showcase innovative solution to nat-
ural and mixed-mode ventilated buildings in the
built environment.
Natural Ventilation and Mixed-Mode
Case Studies
Six case studies have been selected to illustrate
the sophistication and diversity of naturally ven-
tilated and mixed-mode commercial building
projects.
452 Natural Ventilation in Built Environment

Start
No
Are Can Is
max. heat Yes re-design No Is No seasonal
gains more than reduce gains to Occupancy mixed-mode
30–40 30–40 transient? acceptable? Yes
–2
W.m ? W.m–2?

Yes Yes Can capacity

No effects absorb
swing in temp.
No
and IAQ? Yes

Yes No Is Yes
this a peak
season?
Yes
Can See also
Does
courtyards or Is zonal AM13:
the building No No
atria reduce width mixed-mode Mixed
have a narrow to less than acceptable? mode
plan? 15 m? No ventilation
Yes Is
Yes Yes
Yes this a
perimeter
zone?
Are
noise and No No
pollution levels
acceptable?

Yes

Can Is
Is tight
occupants No Yes close control Yes
temperature
adapt conditions of RH required?
with weather control required?
(better than
(= ±1 K)
changes? ±10%)

Yes No
No
Is
No humidification
required in
winter?

Yes
Mechanical
Natural Mechanical Comfort Full air
ventilation and
ventilation ventilation cooling conditioning
humidification

Natural Ventilation in Built Environment, Fig. 22 Flowchart for selecting a ventilation strategy [64]

Case Study 1: Liverpool John Moores
University, UK
The award-winning Liverpool John Moores Uni-
versity art and design academy was designed by
Rick Mather Architects, engineered by Whitbybird
Engineers, and built by Wates Construction. The
building was designed from 2004 and opened in
2008 (see Fig. 24).
The 11,000 m2 five-story university academic
building has a number of important environmental
initiatives in the client brief including a 25%
energy savings below UK conservation of fuel
and power building regulations, a BREEAM tar-
get of Very Good, and a 10% onsite renewable
energy target. To meet these requirements, the
design team reviewed a number of architectural,
structural, and services engineering options and
concluded that a mixed-mode ventilation scheme
utilizing thermal mass with heat recovery would
be of particular benefit to the low-energy goals.
Natural Ventilation in Built Environment 453

Natural Ventilation in Built Environment,

Fig. 23 Advanced natural ventilation system design in
hospital using CFD [76]

The building design team used the latest computer

modeling techniques to prove compliance with
industry standards for thermal comfort, with par-
ticular attention to the prevention of overheating
(see Figs. 25, 26, 27, and 28).
The building is designed for cross and stack
ventilation through multiple benefits from a
heavyweight thermal mass during the spring and
summer, utilizes single-sided natural ventilation
with mechanical extract during peak summer with
nighttime free cooling (see Fig. 25), and during Natural Ventilation in Built Environment,
winter operates as a sealed building with heating Fig. 24 LJMU Liverpool façade in nighttime. (a) LJMU
provided by a biomass pellet boiler. A weather Liverpool exterior; (b) LJMU Liverpool façade in night-
station provides data to the BEMS to ensure the time (Source: Rick Mather Architects)
automated windows are aligned with the ventila-
tion strategy.
building regulations and achieved the BREEAM
environmental target of Excellent.
Case Study 2: Tamworth Academies – It was the aim of the architectural, structural,
Staffordshire, UK and services engineering teams to design a low-
Two secondary school academies were commis- energy building that was future proofed against
sioned by Tamworth County Council in 2009. rising energy costs. The client team requested a
Designed by Aedas architects and engineered by life cycle cost solution, with low ongoing costs.
WSP and CTM, the two 9000 m2 two-story build- The building was designed to operate as a natu-
ings were completed by Willmott Dixon Con- rally ventilated building predominantly, with a
struction and opened in 2010 (Fig. 29). These highly efficient mechanical ventilation and ther-
school buildings met the government’s 60% car- mal conditioning system during peak summer and
bon reduction targets compared to 2002 UK extremely cold winters. To extend the period of
454 Natural Ventilation in Built Environment

Natural Ventilation in
Built Environment,
Fig. 25 Exposed concrete WARM AIR
soffit for thermal mass CONCRETE SCAB COOLED AT NIGHT TIME VENTILATION
OUT
benefit (Source: Lee
Hargreaves, WSP UK Ltd.)
RADIANT
HEAT
EXCHANGE
COOL AIR CONVECTIVE
IN HEAT EXCHANGE

Natural Ventilation in
Built Environment,
Fig. 26 Sun path analysis
for external façade design
(Source: Whitbybird
Engineers)

natural ventilation and natural cooling, the project
incorporated TermoDeck by Tarmac, an inte-
grated structural mixed-mode ventilation scheme
utilizing thermal mass free cooling with energy-
efficient heat recovery (see Fig. 30). The mea-
sured impact of night cooling of the thermal
mass for next day ventilation cooling is as high
as 4
C (see Fig. 31).
Other features of these two school buildings
include the use of chilled water cooling with
ground source heat pumps to manage zones with
high internal gains due to communication
technologies. The seasonal operation of natural
and mechanical ventilation and thermal condition-
ing is communicated to the occupants alongside
weather station data on flat screen TVs.
Case Study 3: BSkyB Broadcast Center –
London, UK
Designed by Arup Associates (architects and
engineers), the BSkyB broadcast center
(Fig. 32) is located in West London and houses
the world’s first naturally ventilated television
studios [82]. Thirteen giant ventilation chimneys
Natural Ventilation in Built Environment 455

850
top-hung opening window
(no requirement for restricted opening to be confirmed by LJMU)

1500
side-hung opening window (restricted?)

1100
fixed transluscent panel

PART EXTERNAL ELEVATION PART SECTION

Natural Ventilation in Built Environment, Fig. 27 External façade design (Source: Rick Mather Architects)

30

25

20
Temperature (C)

15

10

–5 Dry resultant temperature: room 214 (room 214.aps)

Dry-bulb temperature: (room 214.aps)

–10
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Date: Sun01/Jan to Sat 30/Dec

Natural Ventilation in Built Environment, Fig. 28 Thermal modeling chart (Source: Whitbybird Engineers)

provide stack ventilation, with nine lining the
building’s eastern elevation and another four on
the west. The construction provides a solution to
eliminating external noise as well as naturally ven-
tilating the studios to remove excessive heat gen-
erated by studio lights. Fresh air is supplied
through an acoustically lined labyrinth built in
between the underside of the studio’s concrete
floor and the enclosure over the street. This config-
uration creates big air paths to minimize noise from
air delivery as well as eliminating street noise
(Fig. 33).
456 Natural Ventilation in Built Environment

Natural Ventilation in Built Environment, Fig. 29 Tamworth Landau Forte exterior (Source: WSP)

Natural Ventilation in Air supply to

Built Environment, hollowcore
Fig. 30 TermoDeck system
concrete plank (Source:
Tarmac Termodeck)

Surface away
from room

Surface facing
into room

Air supply
to room

In order to prevent a common stack ventilation
problem – air cooling in the flue and dropping
back into a room – the flues are lined and insulated
on the inside. In an intermediate mode, the venti-
lation system will run on extract only to pull the
air up the chimney and warm it. When the right
flue surface temperature has been reached, the
air’s natural buoyancy will take over, and the
system will switch to the natural ventilation
mode automatically.
At the south end of the building, a glazed
atrium houses a series of meeting rooms, a café,
and breakout spaces, with access between levels.
The 8-m-deep office areas on the west elevation
are ventilated using single-side natural
ventilation. The 15-m-deep office areas on the
east elevation utilize three additional chimneys
in the atrium at the center of the building to help
draw air across the floor plates. Natural light
through these atriums are additional benefit of
the design.
Case Study 4: Commerzbank – Frankfurt,
Germany
Norman Foster and Ove Arup’s Commerzbank in
Frankfurt, Germany (see Fig. 34), demonstrates
that sustainable urban architecture featuring natu-
ral ventilation, vast amounts of daylight, and
pleasant exterior views can be achieved within a
deep building at the scale of the skyscraper.
Natural Ventilation in Built Environment 457

Natural Ventilation in
36 Lightweight
Built Environment,
Fig. 31 Temperature time Lightweight with
lag for lightweight and night vent
34
heavyweight buildings Heavyweight
(Source: Tarmac Heavyweight
Termodeck) with night vent

Internal temperature/°C
32

30

28

26

24

0 6 12 18 24
Time/h

functional cores located at each corner of the

triangle. The central atrium that is formed by the
buildings provides light both vertically from the
glass roof at the atrium’s top and horizontally
from the winter gardens that displace one of the
office areas for six floors in a spiraling pattern.
These winter gardens, which rotate around the
façade of the building, allow for natural ventila-
tion from the offices into six-story atria. Natural
light is also brought directly into the center pro-
viding daylight and outdoor views to green, natu-
ral spaces. The operable, layered façade allows
natural ventilation into the office spaces, and the
winter gardens provide controllable natural venti-
lation for the building.

Case Study 5: Queen’s Building, De Montfort

Natural Ventilation in Built Environment,
Fig. 32 BSkyB broadcast center in West London [82]
The three thin buildings laid out in a triangular-
shaped plan provide the rigid structural support
needed for a high-rise building alongside
University, UK
The Queen’s Building (Fig. 35), designed by
Short and Ford Associates architects and Max
Fordham LLP engineers and built in 1993, fea-
tures large venting chimneys, heavy thermal
mass, shallow floor plans, operable windows,
and generous ceiling heights to facilitate natural
ventilation and daylighting. This traditional brick
building has deep insulation-filled cavity walls
and concrete floor slabs, buffering the indoors
from outdoor temperature peaks. The glazed
458
Natural Ventilation in Built Environment,
Fig. 33 Natural ventilation flow within the BSkyB tele-
vision studios (Source: Arup Associates)
ventilation shafts also help to provide natural
lighting. In the auditoria fresh air enters through
louvers in the façade supplying plenums below
the raked wooden floor and wall inlets which are
controlled by the building energy management
system.
Since being the Green Building winner of the
Year in 1995, the Queen’s Building has served as a
“Living Lab” to showcase innovative natural ven-
tilation and ventilative cooling technologies and
demonstrate ways of achieving significant carbon
reductions in academic buildings.
Natural Ventilation in Built Environment
Case Study 6: Major Refurbishment Project –
David Attenborough Building, University of
Cambridge, UK
The David Attenborough Building (former Univer-
sity of Cambridge’s Arup Building) was originally
built in 1971 in the “Brutalist” style. The
16,000 m2 reinforced-concrete multistory building
had a poorly insulted concrete façade with ribbons
of steel-framed single glazing. A full-energy audit
together with a thermal-imaging survey of its fabric
explained why the existing building was one of the
most energy-intensive buildings on the university’s
estate. An occupant satisfaction survey also
revealed that the building was too hot in summer
and too cold in winter [85, 86].
Closely working with Nicholas Hare Archi-
tects and Cambridge Conservation Initiative
(CCI), BuroHappold pioneered an extensive Sus-
tainability Framework beyond BREEAM to set
ambitious project-specific targets across 10 head-
line themes and 50 subthemes.
The integrated refurbishment strategies for the
David Attenborough Building (opened in
February 2017) are illustrated in Fig. 36 and
detailed in the following list:
• Natural ventilation zoning strategies
i. Natural ventilation of all perimeter office
bays
ii. Cross ventilation for upper levels
iii. Single-sided ventilation for levels 1 and 2
iv. Window vents with temperature and car-
bon dioxide automated control
• Overheating prevention
i. Utilizing the thermal mass of the concrete
on the lower floors
ii. Adding phase-change materials on top
floor
iii. Adding the low-energy intelligent commu-
nication technology
• Daylight harvesting, lighting, and acoustic
control
i. New glass atrium provides daylight deep
into floor plan with BIPV for glare control
ii. Combined lighting and acoustic raft?? for
acoustic control and low energy
consumption
iii. LED lighting update in the corridors
Natural Ventilation in Built Environment 459

Natural Ventilation in Built Environment, Fig. 34 Commerzbank, Frankfurt, Germany. (a) Building section [83]. (b)
Winter garden and interior view design [84]
460 Natural Ventilation in Built Environment

a c

4.0 m3/s
6.0 m3/s
3
2.2 m /s
3.6 m3/s

Drawing studio
Office
28 W/m2

Auditorium
85 W/m2
Cavity
Laboratory Concourse wall
75 W/m2 75 W/m2 85 W/m2 External air
(Peak)

Cavity
wall
Classroom Classroom Cavity
wall

Key: Numbers with are typical heat gains in a space (W/m2)

Natural Ventilation in Built Environment, (d) The Queen’s Building – natural ventilation strategy
Fig. 35 The Queen’s Building, De Montfort University, (Source: Professor Malcolm Cook, Loughborough
Leicester, UK. (a) Exterior view and stack outlets. (b) University)
Exterior view and air inlets. (c) Interior view of auditorium.
Natural Ventilation in Built Environment
Natural Ventilation in Built Environment,
Fig. 36 David Attenborough Building, University of
Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. (a) Perspective views of the
iv. Lighting controls for daylight dimming
and occupancy sensing
• Soft landing and smart metering to ensure
sustainable occupation
i. Energy and water submetering per floor
461
building model [85]. (b) Integrated refurbishment strate-
gies [86]
ii. Energy displays in the foyer of the building
With a shared vision, integrated and collabora-
tive project teams, engaging all stakeholders, and
a willingness to share lessons learned as a stan-
dard industry practice, a comprehensive
462
handbook was produced. This set design, con-
struction, and post-occupancy targets to ensure
headline targets, including a 40% reduction in
operational carbon emissions, a 30% reduction
in water use per person, and a 60% total roof
coverage for biodiverse green roofs [85, 86].
Future Directions
Sustainable design requires a long-term approach to
ensure resiliency that integrates all passive condi-
tioning strategies. Holistic design and construction
is necessary to achieve a sustainable built environ-
ment [87, 88] and provide the optimum cost-benefit
value for all stakeholders in the building industry
[89]. Natural ventilation should be integrated in all
projects, recognizing that various factors can limit
its use at times. Vernacular architecture demon-
strates that natural ventilation and ventilation
cooling can work effectively in many climates.
Modern solutions demand a unity of thought
between architects and the engineers, introducing
hybrid systems that allow natural ventilation to be
augmented by mechanical ventilation and cooling
as needed. These hybrid systems are common in
Europe driven by the demand for low-carbon build-
ings. Natural ventilation and ventilation cooling are
critical for resiliency in the face of climate change
and critical for enhancing the well-being of building
occupants through increased ventilation rates,
important environmental variability (alliesthesia),
and increased connection to the natural environment.
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Sustainable Heating
Ventilation and Air
Conditioning
Kevin Hydes1 and Jennifer Fosket2
1
Integral Group, Oakland, CA, USA
2
Social Green, Berkeley, CA, USA
Article Outline
Glossary
Definition of the Subject
Introduction
Fundamentals
Philosophy of Sustainable Engineering
Future Directions
Bibliography
Glossary
Biomimicry An approach that imitates or uses
models found in nature as inspiration for
designs and processes to solve human prob-
lems. Nature becomes the measure by which
a designer assesses the rightness of a design.
Green building High-performance building
designed to be less resource intensive, have a
lower environmental footprint, and reduce the
life cycle environmental impacts of the
material used.
HVAC The tools and technologies that heat, ven-
tilate, and air-condition buildings to provide
healthy and comfortable indoor environments.
Hybrid ventilation Mixed-mode building sys-
tems that use natural ventilation when feasible
and supplement with mechanical systems
when not, either sequentially or simulta-
neously. Hybrid ventilation combines the best
features of natural ventilation with mechanical
systems.
Indoor air quality (IAQ) The quality of air
inside the built environment.
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
V. Loftness (ed.), Sustainable Built Environments,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-0684-1_900
Originally published in
R. A. Meyers (ed.), Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology, © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC,
part of Springer Nature 2018, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2493-6_900-3
Indoor environmental quality (IEQ) The qual-
ity of the thermal, air, visual, acoustic, and
spatial environment inside the built
environment.
Living building A net-zero building conceptual-
ized as a living organism, integrated within a
living system and having a positive impact on
that system, including energy, air, water, and
waste.
Natural ventilation Cooling and ventilating
through design choices that permit outdoor
airflow. Natural ventilation plays an important
role in low-tech building design and seasonal
strategies to reduce energy.
Net-zero buildings Buildings that not only
achieve extreme levels of energy efficiency
but that supply their own sources of energy
on a net annual basis through renewable energy
resources. The first goal is to reduce loads and
maximize efficiency and then to provide for all
of the rest of the energy requirements through
on-site, nonpolluting, renewable resources.
Order-of-operations thinking The idea that by
doing things in the right order, the engineers of
sustainable HVAC can ensure the best fit
between performance and cost. The first step
is to reduce loads – to conceptualize a system
that requires less heating and cooling to begin
with. The second step is to utilize free energy
resources including natural ventilation and
passive solar. Step three is to select efficient
and appropriately sized systems.
Regenerative design A design approach several
steps beyond sustainability, encouraging the
designer to participate as part of nature instead
of acting upon nature. While net-zero buildings
neutralize the impact of the built environment
on the planet, regenerative design systems
have a positive impact, often on a community
scale.
Right-sizing systems Designing HVAC systems
that are tailored to a specific building, at a
specific time and place. Amove toward down-
sized systems that fit the job.
465
466
Sustainable building Often used interchange-
ably with green building but with an emphasis
on longer term and broader goals.
Thermal mass The ability of a material to
absorb heat and rerelease it later, using external
energy to change the temperature of a high-
density material such as concrete, stone or
adobe, or a material that absorbs and releases
heat through phase change. Thermal mass
plays an important role in low-tech building
design.
Whole systems thinking Understanding the
built environment as an organism, a coming
together of interrelated elements instead of a
series of discrete and separate parts.
Definition of the Subject
Sustainable HVAC is the collection of tools, tech-
nologies, techniques, practices, and methodolo-
gies that heat, ventilate, and air-condition
buildings with minimal consumption and environ-
mental impact. Sustainable HVAC seeks to find
ways, through integrated thinking, to minimize
and reduce the capacity of primary heating/
cooling and energy-moving equipment in order
to achieve the low energy, zero energy, and
increasingly “energy plus” buildings of tomorrow
alongside the creation of healthy indoor spaces.
Introduction
Commercial and residential buildings are an enor-
mous drain of energy, consuming almost 40% of the
annual primary energy and 70% of the annual elec-
tric power in the United States [1, 2]. Green build-
ings, by contrast, are designed to be less resource
intensive, have a lower environmental footprint, and
reduce the life cycle environmental impacts of the
materials used [2]. The enormity of the environmen-
tal footprint associated with the built environment
means that engineers, whose work critically shapes
that footprint, have a unique responsibility to prac-
tice sustainability [3]. Sustainable heating, ventilat-
ing, and air-conditioning (HVAC) prioritizes energy
efficiency and low environmental impacts in
Sustainable Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning
creating the tools, technologies, techniques, prac-
tices, and methodologies that heat, ventilate, and
air-condition buildings. Sustainable HVAC is part
of broader set of systems, decisions, and practices
that together constitute a successfully designed,
constructed, and operated building. In essence, sus-
tainable HVAC is a complimentary and supportive
strategy to sustainable communities and buildings
(Figs. 1, 2, and 3).
The HVAC field emerged at a time when soci-
ety began expecting a controlled, predictable, and
comfortable interior environment within which to
live, work, and play [4]. From this expectation, the
perceived need for human-made solutions to con-
trol or condition buildings arose. From the origins
of Victorian-era heating and plumbing systems to
warm buildings, to the advent of air-conditioning
and elevators which allowed buildings to be com-
pact and comfortable in ever-denser urbanized
environments, various systems, equipment, and
methodologies have emerged and become defined
as “standard practice” in the twentieth century.
The roots of sustainable HVAC are not new. In
1923, “Ventilation: A Report of the New York
State Commission on Ventilation” [5] analyzed a
variety of systems in New York schools with a
view to determining the healthiest and most pro-
ductive HVAC systems at that time. The members
of the commission included doctors and aca-
demics as well as Dwight D. Kimball, a practicing
mechanical engineer. The study concluded
“. . .that window ventilation (i.e., natural), with
ample direct radiation, window deflectors and
adequate gravity exhaust, seems the most gener-
ally promising method of ventilation of a class-
room, where conditions permit” [5, p. 529].
Almost a century later, this is still a definitive
volume on the subject with enduring importance
and demonstrates that “hybrid ventilation” has
been a system of interest for almost a century.
During the pre- and postwar eras, the move
toward urban density, especially in commercial
and government office space, led increasingly to a
typology of buildings with deeper floor plates and
increased distances between occupants and sources
of daylight and natural ventilation through win-
dows [4]. The preeminent architectural boom of
the 1950s and 1960s effectively led to a new norm
Sustainable Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning
Sustainable Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning, Fig. 1 TELUS Garden
of sealed buildings, relying entirely on artificial
systems regardless of geographical locations. This
defined a new HVAC “standard” which influenced
other building types and ultimately global building
practices. Regional and cultural variation dimin-
ished [6]. In effect, an international HVAC stan-
dard had emerged during a period of prosperity and
cheap, abundant fuel.
The oil crisis of the 1970s began to reframe and
change ideas and attitudes within the HVAC
industry as both the cost and certainty of energy
came into question for the first time in the modern
era [7]. From this point forward, various pressures
began to challenge standard practice. Energy effi-
ciency became a topic of interest as both the cost
and security of fuel was no longer certain. In the
1980s, concerns emerged regarding the depletion
of the ozone layer, attributed in large part to the
commercial refrigerants of the day. In the 1990s,
amplified concerns emerged around climate
change and the direct link from the use of fossil
fuels to CO2 emissions. Meanwhile, a higher qual-
ity of life began to be demanded in developed and
developing economies. Throughout these
467
decades, the costs and environmental conse-
quences of standard HVAC approaches were
being scrutinized, as well as the levels of HVAC
service required or even appropriate.
Today, a new paradigm is emerging where
engineers are increasingly asked to optimize, min-
imize, downsize, or “right-size” systems and
equipment, catering them to a specific purpose,
in a specific location, at a specific time of day or
year [8–10]. The profession has undergone a meta
transformation, entering a new millennium where
HVAC has shifted from a language of capacity
(peak heating, peak cooling, etc.) to a language of
consumption (kwh/ft2 t CO2/person). Sustainable
HVAC has become a critical requirement of the
industry today.
Sustainable HVAC seeks to find ways, through
integrated thinking, to minimize and reduce the
capacity and operational demands for primary
heating/cooling and energy-moving equipment,
in order to achieve the low energy and increas-
ingly net-zero energy buildings of tomorrow. Ulti-
mately, in a world of finite resources and fixed
constraints, the engineer/designer must pursue
468 Sustainable Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning

Sustainable Heating
Ventilation and Air
Conditioning,
Fig. 2 Annual Report
2015/2016, World Green
Building Council

Sustainable Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning, Fig. 3 Annual Report 2015/2016, World Green Building
Council
Sustainable Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning
new ways of making building systems more effi-
cient, with less impact on the infrastructures and
environments that supports us.
In recent times, due to the real impacts of
climate change, the shift to resilient cities [11]
and communities has placed additional attention
to the HVAC systems at a district and regional
level, to ensure appropriate response to critical
weather events – storms, floods, fires, and
more – and the associated impacts on the power,
gas, water, and waste infrastructures.
Fundamentals
Understanding Context
When considering system choices, sustainable
HVAC begins by understanding context. No two
buildings or system solutions are the same.
Instead, the designer should begin by asking the
following key questions:
• Why is the building needed; for what purpose
now and in the future?
• Where is the building to be placed geographi-
cally, given the nested contexts of surrounding
buildings, communities, and natural or urban
environments? Is it a single structure or one of
many?
• What functions and sub-functions will the
building perform? In asking this question, it is
most effective to break the building down into
its subcomponents: transient spaces, fully occu-
pied spaces, and partially occupied spaces, and
set standards and energy targets for each.
• When is the building used (by space, by time of
day, by season)?
• Who will occupy and manage the building?
Are the users permanent (as in the case of
many offices) or transient (as in the case of a
hotel)?
• How will the building be operated and by
whom? Do you need to allow different operat-
ing strategies and system choices?
• What are the desired goals for the building now
and over time? How will these goals vary from
the owner/users perspective, as well as from the
city or state perspective, in 10, 20, and 50 years?
469
Is there in fact a specific goal for the building
(the tallest, greenest, quietest, etc.)? Are there
metrics associated with these goals?
By fully imagining the place the building will
occupy, the designer can carefully consider all of
the unique issues that may affect system require-
ments and performance. Both internal and exter-
nal environmental factors are important.
Contextualizing the building externally is critical:
Temperature, humidity, wind, rainfall, solar
energy, air quality, vegetation, and surrounding
topography are all key. Each of these issues
needs to be understood at the hourly, daily, sea-
sonal, and annual level to maximize natural ben-
efits and deal with natural constraints. Hard data
on climate variations is readily available from
public data sets published by national weather
data sources. The more subtle factors of site and
building responses to variations in the natural
environment also need to be understood (e.g.,
tree canopy can significantly change solar radia-
tion and wind patterns seasonally which could
benefit or hinder a design).
Internal environmental demands are also
important, suggesting another set of questions:
• What is the space being used for (i.e., is it a
building for machines, such as a data center or
microelectronics factory, or is it a building for
human comfort)?
• What are the individual space needs and pur-
poses and will conditioning demands vary sig-
nificantly between spaces?
• Who will occupy the space now and in the
future, and what level of clothing and activity
can be expected? How vulnerable are the occu-
pants in terms of health or disability?
• Why are each of the programmed spaces being
built or renovated?
These questions will determine the desired
indoor environmental quality (IEQ) and the accept-
able ranges for air temperature, radiant tempera-
ture, humidity, air movement, air cleanliness, light,
acoustics, and more [12–14]. Being able to imagine
future use and users means imagining seasonal
clothing patterns, desired access to nature and
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views of nature, permanent versus transient occu-
pancy, and the importance of the ability of an
occupant to control their environment.
These questions may seem obvious, but their
importance cannot be overstated. The system
needs of a building hinge upon the specific con-
texts of that building. For example, a world class
art collection might require highly controlled and
largely artificial HVAC systems to ensure the pres-
ervation and protection of the collection. Con-
versely, a seasonally occupied retreat camp for
outdoor adventurers, in mountain regions far from
urban infrastructure, may trigger a much more
natural set of sustainable HVAC choices in har-
mony with nature. A hotel in a hot, humid climate
should be quite different than one in a temperate
location, independent of the standard of service
expected by the owner/user, and in all settings the
local potential of natural conditioning and engage-
ment with nature should be maximized.
Considering these external and internal envi-
ronmental factors will maximize the potential for
sustainable HVAC. This may be best explained by
comparing two approaches to a three-story office
building in a suburban Midwest location: First, a
fully air-conditioned, code-compliant building
with roof-mounted HVAC and sealed windows;
second, a two-story courtyard design with opera-
ble windows and a hybrid system using
decentralized geo-exchange heat pumps. These
two choices would create significantly different
places, with more or less energy at the source,
more or less noise from external HVAC equip-
ment to the surroundings; less or more ability to
operate/control local ventilation rates via operable
windows with indoor environmental quality
(IEQ) advantages; and less or more ability to
supplement or replace active conditioning when
the power goes out. At the earliest stages of
design, these impacts and differences need to be
identified, discussed, and understood to enable the
best HVAC design decisions.
Developing Engineering Alternatives
The sustainable HVAC design process typically
considers multiple solutions to a given design
project: three or four architectural designs that
determine the loads and conditions for the
Sustainable Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning
HVAC systems and the corresponding engineer-
ing choices and/or alternatives. This formality
allows the designer and extended team to under-
stand the implications both of architecture as well
as engineering design decision-making.
When developing the alternative designs, there
is a methodology that is common to each. All
buildings can be separated into three types of
spaces: passive, active/passive (or hybrid), and
active. In some cases, a larger percentage of the
building may be able to operate passively with the
associated reductions in capital and operating
costs. Conversely, some spaces may need to be
fully treated with active systems. Most often,
however, the solutions can come down to a com-
bination of active/passive systems (often called
hybrid- or mixed-mode systems) capable of oper-
ating differently depending upon season and
occupancy.
Regardless of the split between these three
approaches, a rigorous assessment and analysis
of system requirements both physical and non-
physical (i.e., costs, energy, etc.) must be under-
taken. In the case of passive or hybrid system
design, it is especially important to consider the
implications on comfort of changes in occupancy
and operation. For example, a designer may
choose to explore natural ventilation in an
entrance area with low occupancies but must
anticipate occupant densities that are occasionally
high. The design calculations must predict the
increases in temperatures that are likely to occur
and for how long. This allows the designer to
engage in a dialogue with others and come to
agreement moving forward with the notion of
“informed consent.”
A good place to begin in sustainable HVAC
design is to identify an ideal design diagram to
articulate the principles of what the engineer
wants the building and systems to do. For example,
consider a building in a challenging inner-city site
intended for a holistic health treatment center. The
owner wants to use operable windows and natural
systems, which they believe will be an asset to
patient health. However, the adjacent streets have
significant traffic and associated noise and air pol-
lution, making an intuitive, simple, cross-
ventilated section solution problematic. The
Sustainable Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning
problem is further compounded by the fact that the
site is surrounded by large buildings which block
sun and wind.
Taking into consideration all of the elements of
place and their attendant opportunities and con-
straints, an ideal solution emerges: the creation of
an inner courtyard which will become a green
oasis and the “lungs” of the building. The court-
yard will be used to draw clean air into the build-
ing both naturally and mechanically, while the
perimeter windows will be sealed to prevent
dirty air and noise from entering. This system
exemplifies a hybrid choice driven by an under-
standing of place together with a clear vision of
the principles and philosophies guiding sustain-
able design. In this case, the methodology of
interchanging the external and internal conditions
iteratively led to the most logical solution.
Order-of-Operations Thinking
Order-of-operations thinking posits that by doing
things in the right order, the engineer of sustain-
able HVAC can ensure the best fit between per-
formance and cost [3, 15, 16]. The first step is to
reduce loads – to conceptualize a system that
requires less heating and cooling at the outset.
“Load reduction is the most powerful way to
reduce the environmental footprint of a project”
[3, p. 98]. Sometimes this means challenging pre-
conceived expectations of clients and architects
and requires working with the design team in early
phases to encourage architectural and siting
choices that will ultimately reduce the heating
and cooling loads of the HVAC system.
The second step in order-of-operations think-
ing is to find free energy resources [3]. Using
natural ventilation, time lag, and passive solar,
for example, the engineer can harness the energy
that is naturally available to heat and cool a build-
ing. As with step one, this requires the engineer to
participate in design discussions at the outset.
Finally, step three in order-of-operations think-
ing is to select efficient and right-sized mechanical
and electrical systems [3, 8–10]. Once the loads
have been reduced and free energy utilized, the
engineer can think about what systems should be
designed to do the rest of the HVAC work of the
building. The benefit of order-of-operations
471
thinking is that by doing step one and step two,
step three is often far less expensive and far more
resource intensive than in mainstream engineering
practice [3].
Integrated Design Process
Sustainable HVAC is dependent on integrative
design processes that engage the design, engineer-
ing, and facility teams at the outset [3, 17–19]. As
illustrated in the above discussion of order-of-
operations thinking, sustainable HVAC looks for
solutions in the earliest stages of building design.
Finding ways to reduce loads and utilize free
energy resources means being involved in discus-
sions of building site and architectural design; it
means having a stake in landscaping, structural
engineering, urban planning, water management,
and more. Sustainable design requires understand-
ing the interconnections between all of the design
choices for a building and its environmental and
social contexts. Some of these relationships may be
invisible at first and a single discipline cannot
possibly grasp them all. “Since no one has all of
this knowledge individually, the role of the team
takes on great importance in systems understand-
ing” [18, p. 132]. Integrated design processes allow
the engineer (and all other members of the design
team) to find synergies early on that can maximize
the sustainability of the building.
A key activity of the integrated design process is
the design charrette – a design meeting that brings
together clients, engineers, architects, landscape
architects, and other relevant disciplines or stake-
holders to explore areas of overlapping and mutu-
ally beneficial solutions. The charrette is inclusive,
collaborative, and goal-driven [17]. It is often facil-
itated by someone whose investment is primarily in
the design process itself rather than the ultimate
product, and it brings in nontraditional expertise
[17]. Each member brings their wealth of knowl-
edge and research to the dialogue, applying it to the
project at hand, with the intention of generating
design opportunities for research and exploration
[19]. “The ecological engineer embraces the
charrette as the main engine for eco-innovation
and integration that makes sustainability affordable
and effective” [3, p. 97].
472
LEED and Other Sustainable Design Rating
Tools
Green building rating tools are important assets for
ensuring sustainable HVAC design. The increas-
ingly standardized and third-party-verified tools
provide a framework that can guide sustainable
HVAC choices, reinforcing order-of-operations
thinking in HVAC design. The most widely used
rating system for green buildings is LEED
(Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design),
a point-based rating system that brings together
diverse elements of a green building – from mate-
rials and construction to water use to siting to
energy systems – and rates the degree to which
that building has adhered to widely accepted stan-
dards of green building [20]. Developed by the US
Green Building Council and adapted for an ever-
increasing number of situations and building types
[21], LEED has been widely adopted in policy,
building practices, and design. The growing inter-
est in evidence-based health and well-being has led
to emerging new standards, such as WELL, Fitwel,
and others, which are driving us toward spaces
focused more on the long-term well-being of occu-
pants [22, 23].
Architectural/Engineering Integration
Unlike traditional engineering, sustainable HVAC
encourages an actively symbiotic relationship
between the architect and engineer [3, 24]. “The
ecological engineer. . .realizes that unless the
architectural process is understood and appreci-
ated, then an optimized solution is not possible”
[3, p. 84]. Thus, once the context of the building
has been determined and its implications under-
stood, the sustainable HVAC engineer must con-
sider architectural issues.
In the early stages of the design process, the
architect will be making decisions about site, orien-
tation, density, and massing. These decisions are
critical to order-of-operations thinking and will
have a fundamental impact on the possibilities, con-
straints, and needs of the building systems. Archi-
tectural design is integral to sustainable HVAC
engineering as well as a constraining feature.
The HVAC system requirements that result
from architectural design decisions may, them-
selves, affect the architecture of the building. For
example, a community college with low massing
Sustainable Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning
and shallow floor plates providing good access to
daylight and operable windows may increase the
cost of the perimeter envelope of the building skin
but reduce the sizes of mechanical rooms and
distribution together with lowering the building’s
energy and emissions.
As a result, practicing sustainable HVAC
design requires constant dialogue to balance
architectural and engineering considerations
throughout the design process. Engineers can
explain the implications of primary architectural
design decisions as they relate to system size,
style, and first costs, as well as operating and
environmental costs. Truly elegant architectural/
engineering system integration optimizes the spa-
tial and visual qualities of passive and active sys-
tems and performs at its optimal level discreetly.
Consider the choices of HVAC systems for a
large international airport. The characteristics of
the space are well known: Large transient
populations in high ceiling open spaces; areas of
peak gathering (i.e., ticketing and gates) and large
areas of transient movement (halls, concourses).
A conventional approach might be to utilize over-
head ducts hidden behind acoustic ceilings high
overhead. This approach uses large quantities of
energy and system capacity to condition the occu-
pied zone that is often more than 20 ft. below the
ceiling. Such an option is not an elegant choice or
one that integrates architecture and engineering.
An alternative choice might involve decentralized
localized conditioning equipment at the floor
level, integrated with seating or TV screens, for
example, and a largely passive conditioning strat-
egy for the high volume above the occupants’
heads, with roof relief vents and minor ductwork.
Working with the architecture and furnishings
often allows an efficient, cost-effective solution
that results in lower-energy consumption.
Philosophy of Sustainable Engineering
Sustainability demands a commitment to under-
standing the broad philosophical issues pertaining
to buildings as part of communities and the broader
built environment including infrastructure, trans-
portation, the natural environment, and society
itself. These philosophical issues demand a broader
Sustainable Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning
commitment from the design profession to defining
and realizing bioregionalism, systems thinking,
appropriate technologies, and innovations for
sustainability.
Bioregional and Bioclimatic Thinking
Bioregional and bioclimatic thinking all but
disappeared from HVAC design considerations
in the last century along with the rise of the inter-
national/global standardization of building sys-
tems. The sustainable HVAC engineer must
bring an understanding of bioregionalism and
bioclimate back into design (citations?). This
begins with the exploration of place: Where is
the building? What are the natural characteristics
of that place (temperature, humidity, highs, lows,
averages, snow/rain/drought, wind intensity, and
direction)? How does it vary by season? By time
of day? Are there on-shore/off-shore winds to
consider? Fog? Cloud cover? Sun? What kind of
flora and fauna exist at the site? What are the
indigenous vegetation and pre-existing topogra-
phies? How have the traditional, vernacular build-
ings in that location been designed?
The importance of considering all permuta-
tions of place and its effect on systems cannot be
overstated. For instance, sites in steep ravines will
open up discussions of topographic sun shading
and axial river winds unlike high desert sites with
unobstructed skies and intense sun and wind.
Large diurnal and contextual variations in envi-
ronmental conditions may trigger diverse system
choices to meet identical comfort or energy-
performance goals for the two sites, even when
they are in the same geographic region.
It is possible to find accurate weather data for
most sites, but in cases where there are unusual
microclimate conditions, local site testing is
encouraged to fully understand challenges and
explore opportunities. It is worth noting that the
historic climate data that is relied on is no longer
as predictable due to climate change, heat island
effects, etc., so an ability to forecast future change
is also needed.
Whole Systems Thinking
A fundamental philosophy underpinning sustain-
able HVAC design is “whole systems thinking.”
Whole systems thinking anticipates the
473
interconnectedness of all things – natural systems,
mechanical systems, and social systems [25]. In
green building design, whole systems thinking
means understanding the built environment as a
coming together of interrelated elements instead
of a series of discrete and separate parts. Whole
systems thinking allows the designer to deeply
understand all of the attributes of the system and
their implications and interrelationships. It also
means using the health of the ecological system
as a basis for design [18, 25].
Sustainable HVAC explores and discovers mul-
tiple layers of interconnections between energy
flows, air flows, and water flows and looks for
synergies to ensure use and reuse of resources
flowing through a building and its systems. Whole
systems thinking in sustainable HVAC utilizes an
iterative approach to exploring these opportunities
and tunnels deeper as the design proceeds.
For example, a typical approach to an office
building in a cold climate might be to design a
building with a code-compliant skin that incorpo-
rates a perimeter heating system for comfort at the
window wall. This is a classic example of linear,
nonintegrated system thinking. By focusing only
on one element at a time, this approach misses
opportunities to make design choices that will
have synergistic benefits across the system. Alter-
natively, whole systems thinking might lead to
spending more to create a better envelope,
switching, for example, from double to triple glaz-
ing to increase the insulation value and increase
the surface temperature at the window wall, allo-
wing the designer to eliminate the hydronic sys-
tem altogether – saving both capital and energy.
This whole systems thinking reflects what Haw-
kins, Lovins, and Lovins refer to as “tunneling
though the cost barrier” [16], the idea that active
and passive strategies can be considered that may
eliminate the need for entire systems, resulting in
large gains in efficiency and lower costs.
Prioritizing Low Tech, Optimizing High Tech
Traditionally, heating, cooling, and ventilation
design was a matter of siting and constructing
buildings in ways that took advantage of natural
heating, cooling, and ventilation [4, 26]. It was not
until the early decades of the twentieth century
that totally artificial indoor environments became
474
possible. Since then, the possibilities have grown
exponentially and much of the history of modern
HVAC is a history of technological innovation to
achieve new possibilities in building design. As
illustrated in the discussion of order-of-operations
thinking, sustainable HVAC turns these traditions
on their head – seeking simple, low-tech solutions
before high-tech solutions.
At the heart of sustainable HVAC is the idea
that wherever, and to the greatest extent possible,
design problems should be solved by using the
natural benefits of air, water, sun, and shade.
Designs that take advantage of natural ventilation
[26], night ventilation, and thermal mass [27, 28]
are important low-tech strategies for sustainable
HVAC. Another important set of strategies stem
from enhancing the building facades: appropri-
ately specified and configured windows, sun-
shades, overhangs, trellises, awnings, and
roofing can all be manipulated to support natural
heating, cooling, and ventilation in a building
[29]. These building elements must all be consid-
ered part of the HVAC system design.
In all likelihood, HVAC technologies will be
added to provide conditioning when the natural
systems have exhausted their potential or to
enhance the potential of the low-tech solutions.
Sustainable HVAC has a plethora of cutting-edge
solutions within its tool kit: underfloor air distri-
bution, displacement ventilation, radiant heating
and cooling systems, geo-exchange heat pump
systems, thermal storage systems, labyrinth natu-
ral cooling methods [29–33], and more.
Yet even at this point, a commitment to prior-
itizing lower-tech solutions can lead to optimizing
higher-tech solutions that remain sustainably
focused. Increasingly, engineers are opting for
mixed-mode buildings or hybrid ventilation
using natural ventilation during all times of the
day, year, or use cycle that are feasible and
supplementing nature with building mechanical
systems when natural ventilation is not feasible
[34, 35]. Such strategies combine the best ele-
ments of natural ventilation with high-tech
options. Technologies integrated into walls [36],
roofs [37–39], and windows [40, 41] as well as
attention to how these components are installed
and interconnected [42] can facilitate and increase
the efficiency of natural, low-tech conditioning.
Sustainable Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning
Keeping simplicity at the forefront and engag-
ing in critical, self-reflexive questions is essential
to sustainable HVAC: Has this system been done
before? If not, why? What measures are needed to
mitigate or share risk? Who will operate and
maintain the systems? How much user interface
is needed or encouraged?
Asking these questions will maintain some of
the benefits of low-tech solutions, even as higher-
tech solutions inevitably come into play and result
in a high-tech/low-tech hybrid that optimizes sus-
tainability. As an illustration, a design team was
exploring the introduction of a double facade to an
existing downtown office building. The goals
were to reduce energy while allowing the reuse
of 70-year-old operable windows that had been
fixed shut for two decades due to concern about
noise and external pollution. The design team
developed a scheme which allowed the original
windows to be opened manually by the occupant
again (low tech). They created a buffer zone via
the double facade (low tech) and allowed air to
come into the buffer zone at different levels sea-
sonally through temperature sensors (high tech).
The buffer zone was vented during hot summer
days via fans with DC motors that were powered
by DC PV panels directly (high tech). The balance
of high-tech and low-tech solutions through
whole systems thinking and integrated decision-
making ensured that the project achieved the
highest level of sustainability.
Innovation
Committing to low tech, passive conditioning and
simplicity in high tech does not mean the aban-
donment of innovation. Indeed, it is essential to
continue to search for innovation in sustainable
HVAC, and there are at least four categories of
innovation that are critical to explore: tools, tech-
niques, technologies, and timing.
Innovation in Tools
There are many recent innovations in engineering
design tools and simulation tools for the sustain-
able engineer. Building information modeling
supports integrated design. Energy Plus, under
ongoing refinement by the US DOE and the Law-
rence Berkeley National Lab, illustrates the
advancement of building simulation tools that
Sustainable Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning
support accurate predictions of performance for
hybrid HVAC systems. The advancement in mea-
suring and predicting microclimate weather data
provides increasingly accurate information for
designing buildings that rely on natural energies.
Advances in modeling a building’s potential to
cycle energy in and out of thermal mass can
reduce or even eliminate the need for mechanical
refrigeration.
Innovation in Techniques
As previously discussed, the most dramatic shift
in engineering techniques is integrated design.
Integrated design ensures that all disciplines are
engaged at the earliest design stage in decision-
making and establishes processes to ensure they
remain engaged for critical decision-making as
design develops. Other innovations in engineer-
ing processes include blurring the line between
designing, building, and operating buildings to
ensure the delivery of the highest sustained per-
formance at the lowest cost. Building commis-
sioning is becoming a critical service of the
engineering profession. In the future, peer review
of design drawings – a form of pre-
commissioning by an independent expert – may
also become the norm. Collaboration with indus-
try to ensure the delivery of integrated systems
that deliver sustained performance may replace
the delivery of a series of independent technolo-
gies that may be difficult to integrate and operate
effectively on site. The list of opportunities is
substantial, and global connectivity allows us to
learn from each successful project.
Innovation in Technologies
Clearly, new technologies are allowing us to lower
energy and resource consumption. Breakthrough
technologies, however, are often expensive unless
coupled with incentive programs or with whole
systems thinking to change systematically how
the buildings are designed and built.
Confidence in the market may be critical to
allow the rapid uptake of these new products and
a similar reduction in capital cost. Photovoltaics
are a case in point. Initially invented for the explo-
ration in space, PV panels became a choice for
building renewable energy in the 1970s but were
475
cost prohibitive for most buildings other than
prototype demonstrations or pilots. A number of
countries, states, and other jurisdictions began
aggressive incentive programs, the most publi-
cized and successful of which were in Germany
and California. In Germany the approach was to
pay early adopters three times as much money for
electricity they sold back into the grid than the
utility would charge to sell electricity (known as a
feed-in tariff). The factor of three to one makes the
economics of purchasing the PV panels more
lucrative on a life cycle cost basis and has resulted
in a shared public-private investment into
displacing 7% of fossil fuel use for electricity
generation with renewable energy from solar for
the country. Similarly, the state of California
embarked on a utility incentive program that pro-
vided incentives and rebates to reduce the capital
cost of PV panels installed in the state.
In both cases, the increase in volume of PVs
required in the marketplace led indirectly to
reduced costs for purchase, greater industry
growth, and measurable creation of new energy
sources. This trend continues on a global scale as
the interest in renewables and particularly PV is
driving up the volume of manufacture and down
the price. Simultaneously, ongoing research and
development is increasing the efficiency of the PV
equipment as competitive forces drive the inno-
vation cycle through mass market adoption.
Designers, however, must be aware of the con-
sequences of introducing new technologies into a
new market and build in resiliencies that ensure
adequate training and ongoing technical support
as needed. The global interest in “green technol-
ogy” will bring to market much needed new tech-
nologies (wireless control, advanced glazing,
renewables, to name but a few) which the sustain-
able engineer should be integrating with an under-
standing of whole life performance.
Innovation in Timing
The introduction of innovation requires consider-
ation of the timescale. Sometimes a new product
or system is available, but the market – locally,
regionally, or nationally – is not ready for any
number of reasons: price, attitude, knowledge,
public/private constraints, etc. However, since a
476
building takes multiple years to be designed and
built, “future pricing” will need to be factored in to
make educated decisions regarding technologies
which will be purchased years down the line. At
the same time, long-term goals for sustainability
must be determined: a minimum life cycle for
materials and systems, energy resource goals with
an eye to long-term costs, material resource goals
with an eye to employment and regional strength,
human health goals, and even survivability goals in
the face of brownouts and blackouts. Discussions
about the lifetime of the building and its systems
ensure that sustainability will be paramount.
Replication Is Key to Innovation
It is often the case that sustainable HVAC designers
looking to innovative solutions are thought of as
inventors. This is an incorrect perception. Instead,
it is the HVAC engineer’s job to seek out new ways
of solving problems through the use of innovative
tools, technologies, and techniques and then to
reuse them on a broader scale, through knowledge
transfer within the industry. Efficiency is gained
from the replication of successful design processes
that in turn allow us to spend more time exploring
new ideas of design.
However, the identification of “successful”
designs does place a demand on the engineering
profession to undertake metering, continuous
commissioning, and post-occupancy evaluation, to
ascertain the success of their engineered solutions
for delivering thermal comfort, air quality, acoustic
quality, and more. The importance of sharing suc-
cesses and failures in innovative HVAC and enclo-
sure components, assemblies, and integrated
systems by building function, location, and goals
will ensure that the sustainable design community
continues to iteratively innovate.
The Human Factor
Designing HVAC systems to be sustainable is a
very pragmatic goal. Buildings are tangible assets.
They are designed, built, and operated by real
people of various social, economic, and educa-
tional backgrounds. Addressing the requirements
of all of the users is critical to bringing to life a
well-functioning building. In the end our build-
ings must be practical, affordable, and enduring.
Sustainable Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning
A level of pragmatism should be used at every
step of the process: Can this be done here and
now? Are the right skills, tools, techniques, and
training available? Can future operators and users
manage these systems?
Not only are real people designing the systems,
but importantly, real people will be operating
them [43]. Research demonstrates that predicted
building performance does not match actual per-
formance in part because of the behavior of occu-
pants and facility managers [44, 45]. Cultural,
social, and economic factors can all shape how
people will use building systems and how that
may change over time [43, 46]. It is critical to
anticipate how buildings will be used in real life
and use that information in HVAC design deci-
sions so that otherwise sustainable systems are not
undermined by incorrect use or that opportunities
for user-based savings are not missed
[47–51]. While there is an element of
unpredictability to the behavioral effects on
HVAC systems, models exist to gauge human
influence [52].
If people are seen as active participants in their
built environments, providing and maintaining
the conditions that they desire, instead of as pas-
sive recipients of predetermined comfort condi-
tions, the demands for comfort itself can shift
from energy-intensive HVAC to integrated sys-
tems that are more sustainable [44]. Ray Cole of
the University of British Columbia argues that
conventional approaches to comfort which do
not take into consideration behavioral aspects
result in HVAC systems designed for predictabil-
ity and uniformity rather than resilience and
adaptability [44]. Research is demonstrating that
human comfort in buildings is shaped by more
than narrow, static thermal, luminous, and acous-
tic conditions [44, 53] and that people tolerate and
even enjoy a wider range of conditions than pre-
viously assumed [14].
Engaging building occupants in environmental
conditioning requires clear and concise communi-
cation and feedback among building inhabitants,
building managers, engineers, and the systems
themselves. Emerging communications technolo-
gies to facilitate the ongoing interaction between
building system and end users include smart meters,
Sustainable Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning
data analytics, dashboards, distributed sensors, and
controllers with mobile technology interfaces – the
very real Internet of things (IoT) [44].
Future Directions
The applied science of HVAC has shifted from a
sealed building, system-intensive emphasis dur-
ing the middle of the last century to a much more
integrated combination of natural and artificial
systems. The HVAC designer of the future should
have a broad understanding of both high-tech and
low-tech solutions as well as an understanding of
the place-based, contextual, environmental, and
human factors that allow particular system
choices to succeed..
Rating systems such as LEED and BREEAM
have allowed decision-makers to request, incent,
and explore higher levels of environmental per-
formance at similar costs and service qualities.
Increasingly, sights have been set on producing
net-zero buildings – buildings that not only
achieve extreme levels of energy efficiency but
that supply their own sources of energy through
renewable energy resources [54–57]. Ideally, a
zero energy building meets all its energy require-
ments through on-site, nonpolluting, renewable
resources. As with sustainable HVAC overall,
the first goal is to reduce loads and maximize
efficiency and then to provide for the remaining
needs with renewables.
In the future, there will be greater exploration
of the potential of the net-zero approach at the
level of communities [57, 58]. Understanding
buildings not as isolated units but as
interconnected elements of larger built environ-
ments can ultimately reap even greater environ-
mental rewards. The potential for net-zero design
at the community and campus level, determining
optimal ways to extend the conceptual boundaries
of net-zero buildings, will most effectively utilize
renewable resources globally [57].
As net-zero buildings move into the main-
stream, it is also important to consider not only
operating energy but the embodied energy of a
building – the energy necessary to deliver the
products and services that are used across the life
477
cycle of a building [59–62]. Originally, most def-
initions of zero energy buildings focused on oper-
ational energy rather than embodied energy.
Hernandez and Kenny propose the net-zero build-
ing of the future is one in which the “primary
energy use in operation plus the energy embedded
in materials and systems over the life of the build-
ing is equal or less than the energy produced by
renewable energy systems within the building”
[59, p. 819].
Some argue that net-zero buildings do not go
far enough and that one should be striving for
living buildings. A living building conceptualizes
the building as a living organism, integrated
within a living system [6]. The Living Building
Challenge lays out advanced measures of sustain-
ability for the built environment, working to
diminish the gap between current limits and
ideal solutions [63]. Through its seven perfor-
mance areas: site, water, energy, health, materials,
equity, and beauty, the Living Building Challenge
provides a framework for design, construction,
and the symbiotic relationship between people,
the built environment, and nature.
Moving beyond carbon neutrality, the build-
ings of the future should actively participate in
restoring and renewing natural systems
[18, 25]. Regenerative design goes several steps
beyond sustainability, encouraging the designer to
participate as part of nature instead of acting upon
nature [25]. If net-zero buildings neutralize the
impact of the built environment on the planet, restor-
ative and regenerative design actively engages and
interacts with local earth systems to have a positive
impact. Following principles of biomimicry, regen-
erative design seeks to use nature as its model and
inspiration [6, 64, 65]. Nature becomes the measure
by which a designer assesses the rightness of a
design, asking, is there a precedent for this in nature?
[64]. Constant feedback and ongoing learning allow
the design to shape and evolve in concert with the
natural systems of which it is a part.
Realizing the future of sustainable HVAC will
require a constant thirst for curiosity and
innovation – to explore, define, and redefine
approaches, methods, techniques, and technologies
that will support the quest for a cleaner and health-
ier built environment: in pursuit of zero.
478
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Adaptive Comfort and Mixed-
Mode Conditioning
Richard de Dear1 and Gail Brager2
1
The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW,
Australia
2
University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
Article Outline
Definition of the Subject
Introduction
Adaptive Thermal Comfort Models
Adaptation in Air-Conditioned Buildings
Thermal Comfort in Mixed-Mode Buildings
Fans and Air Movement
Implications for Energy Use
Conclusion and Future Directions
Bibliography
Glossary
Adaptive model A model that relates indoor
design temperatures or acceptable temperature
ranges to outdoor meteorological or climato-
logical parameters.
Clo A unit used to express the thermal insulation
provided by garments and clothing ensembles,
where 1 clo = 0.155 m2
 C/ W (0.88 ft2
h
 F/
Btu).
Draught An undesired local cooling of the
human body caused by air movement.
ET* The new Effective Temperature index is
based on a simple numerical model of thermal
physiological processes. It combines the
steady-state physiological and comfort effects
of both operative temperature and humidity
into a single value of operative temperature at
a reference value of 50% relative humidity that
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
V. Loftness (ed.), Sustainable Built Environments,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-0684-1_1049
Originally published in
R. A. Meyers (ed.), Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology, © Springer Science+Business Media LLC 2018
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2493-6_1049-1
would feel the same as the actual temperature-
humidity combination [14]
HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air-condition-
ing) The systems used to provide thermal con-
ditioning and ventilation in buildings
Metabolic rate (met) The rate of transformation
of chemical energy into heat and mechanical
work by metabolic activities of an individual,
per unit of skin surface area (expressed in units
of met), where 1 met = 58.2 W/m2
(18.4 Btu/h
ft2), which is the energy produced
per unit skin surface area of an average person
seated at rest.
Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) An index that pre-
dicts the mean value of the thermal sensation
votes (self-reported perceptions) of a large
group of persons on a rating scale ranging
from 3 to +3 corresponding to the descriptors
“cold,” “cool,” “slightly cool,” “neutral,”
“slightly warm,” “warm,” and “hot.”
Predicted Percentage of Dissatisfied (PPD) An
index that establishes a quantitative prediction
of the percentage of thermally dissatisfied peo-
ple (voting outside the central three categories
of the seven-point thermal sensation scale).
PPD is a function of the PMV index.
Thermal comfort The condition of mind that
expresses satisfaction with the thermal environ-
ment and is assessed by subjective evaluation.
Thermal sensation A conscious subjective
expression of an occupant’s thermal perception
of the environment, commonly expressed using
the categories “cold,” “cool,” “slightly cool,”
“neutral,” “slightly warm,” “warm,” and “hot.”
Definition of the Subject
Thermal comfort, one aspect of indoor environ-
mental quality (IEQ), is a critical component of
sustainable, high-performance design. The way
we design, construct, and operate buildings has
profound implications for both IEQ, and the qual-
481
482
ity of the natural environment. All too often,
today’s buildings require massive resource inputs,
create bleak, or worse, potentially unhealthy
indoor environments, pollute both their local and
global environments, are responsible for signifi-
cant greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to
the destruction of natural habitats. The energy
required to heat and cool our buildings, and even
the way we define the “comfortable” thermal con-
ditions we are designing for, play significant roles
in this environmental impact.
It is commonly estimated that persons in eco-
nomically developed countries spend at least 90% of
their time indoors, suggesting that the quality of the
indoor environment can have a significant impact on
comfort, health, and overall sense of well-being. In
an effort to maintain the quality of the indoor envi-
ronment, we mechanically condition our buildings
to provide constant, uniform, “comfortable” envi-
ronments. The experimental evidence underpinning
the current standards’ definition of “comfortable”
were conducted in climate chambers, primarily
with university students and in mid-latitude climate
regions [1, 2]. Other than allowing for only a slight
seasonal shift in the comfort zone based on clothing
adjustments, it is often suggested that the standards
are universally applicable across all building types,
climates, and populations. Many researchers, how-
ever, challenge this assumption of universal appli-
cability, arguing that it ignores important contextual
differences that can attenuate building occupants’
responses to a given set of thermal conditions.
A strict reliance on laboratory-based comfort stan-
dards also ignores important cultural and social
differences in the need or desire for air conditioning.
But perhaps the single biggest issue in this
debate remains the applicability of standards in
buildings which are not air conditioned at all.
While the “comfort zone” might be viewed by
the engineering community as a design goal for
a deterministic HVAC control system, its rele-
vance to naturally ventilated buildings, where
conditions are inherently much more variable, is
questionable. Strict and literal interpretation of the
static “comfort zone” precludes anything other
than full-blown HVAC designs across the world’s
moderate to extreme climate zones.
An alternative to conventional comfort theory
embraces the notion that building occupants are
Adaptive Comfort and Mixed-Mode Conditioning
instrumental in creating their own thermal prefer-
ences, either through the way they interact with the
environment, or modify their own behavior, or
because contextual factors and past thermal history
changes their expectations and thermal preferences.
Interest and research into this “adaptive” theory of
thermal comfort first began in the mid-1970s in
response to the oil-shocks, and has recently regained
momentum due to increasing concerns over human
impact on the global climatic environment. Allo-
wing occupants greater control over their own
indoor environment, and allowing temperatures to
more closely track patterns in outdoor climate, can
have potentially significant and positive impacts on
both improving comfort and reducing energy con-
sumption. It also prompts changes in the way we
design and operate buildings.
Adaptive comfort theory and models were ini-
tially developed for naturally ventilated (or free
running) buildings. But given our modern-day
expectations, engineers are often uneasy about the
lack of predictability and control over indoor ther-
mal conditions in naturally ventilated buildings. As
a result, many innovative engineers are exploring
“mixed-mode” buildings, a hybrid approach to
space conditioning that uses a combination of nat-
ural ventilation from operable windows (either
manually or automatically controlled), or other
passive inlet vents, and mechanical systems that
provide air distribution and some form of cooling.
A well-designed mixed-mode building allows
spaces to be naturally ventilated during periods of
the day or year when it is feasible or desirable and
uses air-conditioning for supplemental cooling
when natural ventilation is not sufficient. The
goal is to provide acceptable comfort while mini-
mizing the significant energy use and operating
costs of air conditioning. The challenge, however,
is how to define “comfort” in buildings that fall
somewhere in the continuum between fully sealed,
air-conditioned buildings and completely free-
running, naturally ventilated buildings.
Introduction
In contemporary thermal comfort research, one
continues to see the irreconcilable differences
between early “static heat balance” and
Adaptive Comfort and Mixed-Mode Conditioning
“adaptive” schools of thought [3, 4]. The primary
differences are in the underlying principles of how
a person interacts with their environment and
whether this impacts their comfort, and in whether
the models were developed in laboratory vs. field
conditions (i.e., operating buildings).
Static Heat Balance Models
The static-constancy model essentially views the
person as a passive recipient of thermal stimuli
and is premised on the assumption that the effects
of a given thermal environment are mediated
exclusively by the physics of heat and mass
exchanges at the surface of the body, influenced
by the six classic variables of air temperature,
mean radiant temperature, air velocity, relative
humidity, clothing insulation, and metabolic rate.
The maintenance of a constant internal body tem-
perature necessitates some physiological
responses proportional to the thermal imbalance,
and these include vasoconstriction and shivering
in cooler-than-neutral environments and vasodila-
tion and sweating in warmer-than-neutral envi-
ronments. These models are based on extensive
and rigorous laboratory experiments and have
yielded fairly consistent, reproducible results in
climate chamber experiments.
The best example of a static model of thermal
comfort is Fanger’s [5] seminal Predicted Mean
Vote (PMV) and the associated Predicted Percent
Dissatisfied (PPD) index. PMV/PPD reduces ther-
mal comfort to a steady-state body heat-balance
equation that, according to its author, could be
applied without modification, anywhere in the
world. This global scope was further reinforced
by the inclusion of PMV/PPD in various comfort
standards, most notably ISO 7730 (2005) and
ASHRAE 55 (2013), lending the model an author-
ity that HVAC engineers and others responsible
for delivering thermal comfort need in this
litigious age.
Not too long after the development of the
PMV/PPD model, researchers began exploring
the extent to which we can directly apply these
laboratory-derived models, without modification,
towards the prediction or interpretation of thermal
conditions in real buildings, where the interac-
tions between the occupants and indoor climate
are exceedingly complex. The theme emerging
483
from these “field validation” studies from around
the world was that contextual issues were impor-
tant, and that the universal applicability of the
static comfort model was not supported by field
evidence. The main contender to PMV/PPD com-
fort paradigm is known as the “adaptive model.”
The Adaptive Hypothesis
With the static heat-balance models representing
one side, on the other side of this dialectic is the
adaptive school of thought, in which adherents
regard the deterministic cause-and-effect
approach embodied in the static models as inade-
quate to describe real-world thermal perception
[3, 4, 6, 7]. In many of the historic thermal com-
fort field studies, researchers found that, even
when the crucial personal comfort parameters of
metabolic rate and clothing insulation were actu-
ally known from quantitative observations, the
static models repeatedly failed to accurately
describe or predict thermal comfort in a variety
of real world settings outside the climate chamber
[8–11].
The basis for the adaptive hypothesis is that
factors beyond the physics of the body’s heat-
balance such as climatic setting, social condition-
ing, health, economic considerations, and other
contextual factors all impinge upon thermal per-
ception. The name “adaptive” derives from a view
of building occupants as integral component of
the comfort “system.” The adaptive hypothesis
indicates that one’s satisfaction with an indoor
climate is achieved by matching the actual thermal
environmental conditions prevailing at that point
in time and space with one’s thermal expectations
of what the indoor climate should be like. These
all important expectations result from a conflu-
ence of current and past thermal experiences, cul-
tural and technical practices [3, 4, 12, 13].
The generic term “adaptation” might broadly
be interpreted as the gradual diminution of the
organism’s response to repeated environmental
stimulation. Within this broad definition, it is pos-
sible to clearly distinguish three categories of
thermal comfort adaptation:
1. Behavioral Adjustment. This includes all
modifications a person might consciously, or
unconsciously, make which in turn modify
484
heat and mass fluxes governing the body’s
thermal balance. This can be divided into
three subcategories:
(a) Personal adjustment: adjusting to the sur-
roundings by changing personal variables,
such as adjusting clothing, activity, pos-
ture, eating/drinking hot/ cold food or bev-
erages, or moving to a different location
(b) Technological or environmental adjust-
ment: modifying the surroundings them-
selves, when control is available, such as
opening/closing windows or shades, turn-
ing on fans or heaters, blocking air dif-
fusers, or operating other HVAC
controls, etc.
(c) Cultural adjustments: including schedul-
ing activities, siestas, dress codes, etc.
2. Physiological adaptation. The most compre-
hensive definition of physiological adaptation
would include all of the changes in the physi-
ological response which results from exposure
to thermal environmental factors and which
lead to a gradual diminution in the strain
induced by such exposure. Physiological adap-
tation can be broken down into at least two
subcategories:
(a) Genetic adaptation: alterations which have
become part of the genetic heritage of an
individual or group of people, but develop-
ing at timescales beyond that of an individ-
ual’s lifetime
(b) Acclimation or Acclimatization (used
interchangeably here): changes in the set-
tings of the physiological thermoregula-
tion system over a period of days or
weeks, in response to exposure to single
or combinations of thermal environmental
stressors
3. Psychological adaptation. The psychological
dimension of adaptation to indoor climate refers
to an altered perception of, and reaction to,
sensory information. Thermal perceptions are
directly and significantly attenuated by one’s
experiences and expectations of the indoor cli-
mate. This form of adaptation involves building
occupants’ “comfort setpoints” which may vary
across time and space. Relaxation of indoor
climatic expectations can be likened to the
Adaptive Comfort and Mixed-Mode Conditioning
notion of habituation in psychophysics –
repeated exposure to a mild environmental
stressor leading to a diminution of the evoked
sensation’s intensity.
Adaptive Thermal Comfort Models
History of Adaptive Models
The original papers on the adaptive thermal comfort
model were published by Humphreys and Nicol in
the 1970s. They describe, for naturally ventilated
buildings (or those in “free-running mode”), a
strong relationship of comfortable temperatures
(a.k.a. neutrality) inside a building to the mean
monthly temperatures outdoors at the time of the
study.
The adaptive approach was brought into main-
stream thinking in comfort research and practice
by ASHRAE when it commissioned de Dear and
Brager [14] to develop a rigorous adaptive com-
fort model from quality-assured field data col-
lected across the major climate zones of the
world. A secondary goal of the ASHRAE project
was to shed some light on the “black box” of the
adaptive comfort theory by explaining the adap-
tive regression model including not just air tem-
perature measurements but all the other heat-
balance input parameters to the PMV/PPD
model. Described in more detail later, this project
created a database containing approximately
21,000 sets of raw data from 160 different office
buildings located on four continents, and covering
a broad spectrum of climate zones, that became
the basis for the adaptive comfort standard in
ASHRAE Std. 55 [15].
A couple of years after the ASHRAE adaptive
project was first published, a European project
named SCATS [16] replicated the exercise with
a more limited longitudinal survey of 26 offices
located in Europe (France, Greece, Portugal, Swe-
den and the UK) stretching over approximately
one year. The exclusive focus on Europe reflected
the intention for SCATS to provide the empirical
basis of an exclusively European adaptive com-
fort standard, EN15251, published in 2007 [17].
Both EN15251 and ASHRAE standard
55–2004 contain simple linear equations relating
Adaptive Comfort and Mixed-Mode Conditioning
acceptable temperatures inside naturally venti-
lated buildings to the temperature prevailing out-
doors, and apart from a 1 K difference between
the y-intercepts of the two standards’ equations,
they look remarkably similar. But there are also
differences, some of which have already been
noted by Nicol and Humphreys [18]. First, the
geographic scope of input data to ASHRAE
55–2004 standard was global, whereas EN15251
relied exclusively upon European field study data.
Secondly, the analytic methods used to determine
thermal neutrality (indoor temperature
corresponding with a neutral thermal sensation)
differed. The large sample sizes within
ASHRAE’s database enabled de Dear and Brager
[14] to fit statistically significant regression
models that could be solved backwards to identify
each building’s optimum comfort temperature
(neutrality). In effect the individual building
represented the unit of analysis in ASHRAE’s
database. Smaller sample sizes in the SCATS pro-
ject led Nicol and Humphreys to rely on the
“Griffiths method” to derive neutrality. That
approach requires assumptions about the rate of
change in building occupants’ thermal sensation
with respect to indoor operative temperature – one
of the very things one is trying to derive
empirically – and it is also used to extrapolate
beyond the actual range of temperatures observed
in the building.
Beyond these methodological differences in
these adaptive models, one thing that is implicit
in both is the hypothesis that occupants of natu-
rally ventilated buildings achieve thermal comfort
across a wider range of indoor temperatures than
occupants of buildings with centrally controlled
HVAC systems because of the increased levels of
personal control afforded by operable windows.
Brager et al. [19] conducted a field study in a
naturally ventilated office building located in
Berkeley (California) where occupants had vary-
ing degrees of control over windows. Combining
continuous measurement of each subject’s work-
station microclimate with a web-based comfort
survey, they found that occupants with different
degrees of personal control had significantly
diverse thermal responses, even though they
experienced the same thermal environments
485
while wearing the same clothing insulation (clo)
and performed the same activities (met). These
findings offer further empirical support for the
role of window control in shifting comfort
expectations.
ASHRAE Standard 55 Adaptive Model
The ASHRAE Standard 55 adaptive model is
based on the RP-884 database developed by de
Dear and Brager [14] and de Dear [20]. The pro-
ject began by collecting raw field data from vari-
ous thermal comfort projects around the world
that had followed a similar protocol, and where
the data met strict requirements regarding mea-
surement quality, comfort parameters collected,
and comfort questionnaire items included. Stan-
dardized data processing techniques were then
applied consistently across the entire database.
This enabled the RP-884 researchers to assemble
a very large, high-quality, internally consistent
database of thermal comfort field studies. As men-
tioned, it contains approximately 21,000 sets of
raw data from 160 different office buildings
located on four continents and covering a broad
spectrum of climate zones. The locations selected
for the database include offices in Bangkok, Indo-
nesia, Singapore, Athens, Michigan; several loca-
tions each in California, England, and Wales; six
cities in Australia (Darwin, Townsville, Brisbane,
Sydney, Melbourne, Kalgoorlie); and five cities in
Pakistan (Karachi, Quettar, Multan, Peshawa,
Saidu). The data includes a full range of thermal
questionnaire responses, clothing and metabolic
estimates, concurrent indoor climatic observa-
tions, a variety of calculated thermal indices, and
concurrent outdoor meteorological observations.
The buildings in the database were separated
into those that had centrally controlled heating,
ventilating, and air-conditioning systems
(HVAC), and naturally ventilated buildings
(NV). The primary distinction was that the NV
buildings had no mechanical air-conditioning, and
the natural ventilation occurred through operable
windows that were directly controlled by the
occupants. In contrast, occupants of the HVAC
buildings had little or no control over their imme-
diate thermal environment. Since most of the NV
buildings were studied in the summer, in most
486
Centrally-controlled HVAC bldgs
27
26
temp’ Top (°C)
indoor comfort
25
24
23
22
21
20
–5 0 5 10 15 20 25
outdoor temperature index, ET* (°C)
Predicted: Lab-based heat-balance model
Adaptive Comfort and Mixed-Mode Conditioning, Fig. 1 Observed and predicted comfort temperatures
cases the type of heating system was irrelevant.
The few that were studied in winter may have had
a heating system in operation, but it was of the
type that permitted occupant control. All statisti-
cal analyses were performed separately for the
HVAC and NV buildings, using each individual
building as the initial unit of analysis, and then
conducting a meta-analysis of the separate statis-
tical calculations done within each building.
Figure 1 shows some of the most compelling
findings from our separate analysis of HVAC and
NV buildings. The graphs present a regression of
indoor comfort temperature for each building
against mean outdoor effective temperature ET
which is an index that combines the comfort
effects of humidity and air temperature into a
single number recorded for the duration of the
building study in question. It should be noted
that this is a weighted regression so that outliers
representing small sample sizes had a relatively
smaller effect on the slope of the model. It should
also be noted that these graphs are just showing
what might be considered ideal temperature, not
the thresholds of when discomfort begins. Each
graph shows two regressions, one based on
observed responses in the RP-884 database, and
the other using PMV taking into account the
actual clo, metabolic rate, air speed and humidity
averaged within the building in question.
Two strong patterns emerge from these graphs.
First, the steeper gradient of observed responses in
NV buildings compared to HVAC buildings sug-
gests that occupants of HVAC buildings had
Adaptive Comfort and Mixed-Mode Conditioning
Naturally ventilated bldgs
27
26
temp’ Top (°C)
indoor comfort
25
24
23
22
21
20
30 35 –5 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
outdoor temperature index, ET* (°C)
Observed:Field-based adaptive model
become more finely adapted to the narrow, con-
stant conditions typically provided by mechanical
conditioning, while occupants of NV buildings
prefer a wider range of conditions that more
closely reflect outdoor climate patterns. Secondly,
a comparison of the observed and predicted lines
within each graph clarifies the role of adaptation
in these two building conditioning system types.
In the HVAC buildings, PMV was remarkably
successful at predicting comfort temperatures,
demonstrating that behavioral adjustments of
clothing insulation and room air speeds (both of
which are inputs to the PMV model) fully
explained the relationship between indoor com-
fort temperature and outdoor climatic variation. In
contrast, in the NV buildings, the difference
between these PMV-based predictions and the
adaptive model shows that such behavioral adjust-
ments accounted for only half of the climatic
dependence of observed comfort temperatures.
The analysis suggested that the residual must
come from influences not accounted for by the
PMV model, and that psychological adaptation
is a likely explanation. In particular, indoor com-
fort temperatures in NV buildings are strongly
influenced by shifting thermal expectations
resulting from a combination of higher levels of
perceived control, and a greater diversity of ther-
mal exposures in such buildings.
The adaptive model findings depicted in Fig. 1
led to the adaptive comfort standard shown in
Fig. 2 that serves as an alternative to the PMV-
based method in ASHRAE Std. 55 for naturally
Adaptive Comfort and Mixed-Mode Conditioning
Adaptive Comfort and Mixed-Mode Conditioning, Fig. 2 Adaptive comfort standard for naturally ventilated
buildings
ventilated buildings. This standard required defin-
ing a range of temperatures around the ideal tem-
perature in Fig. 1 to correspond with 80% and
90% thermal acceptability limits. This was done
using the PMV-PPD relationship where 80% and
90% acceptability is associated with PMV 0.85
and 0.5 mean thermal sensation, respectively).
The original research results were also modified to
replace the outdoor climate index Effective Tem-
perature (ET*) on the x-axis with dry bulb tem-
perature to make the calculations more accessible
to practitioners. This simplification meant that the
effects of humidity on comfort were not captured
by ASHRAE’s adaptive comfort standard,
although engineers could go back to the original
research to calculate this effect using ET* as the
independent variable.
Adaptation in Air-Conditioned Buildings
While centrally air-conditioned and naturally ven-
tilated (free-running) conditioning systems can be
considered as polar opposites on a continuum of
adaptive opportunity, there have been several
487
studies into the relevance of adaptive comfort
concepts in air-conditioned buildings. Langevin
et al. [21] re-analyzed three central HVAC build-
ing field studies from the original ASHRAE
RP-884 adaptive database [20] and found statisti-
cally significant correlations between building
occupants’ level of perceived control over their
thermal environment and their thermal comfort
responses in those centrally controlled HVAC
buildings. Another confirmation of this hypothe-
sis came in an original adaptive comfort field
study in office buildings in Japan [22]. That lon-
gitudinal study in six buildings found that a
regression gradient of indoor comfort temperature
in relation to outdoor temperature fell half way
between ASHRAE RP-884’s adaptive models for
centralized HVAC and for naturally ventilated
buildings [14]. This was suggested by Goto et al.
[22] to result from the fact that the occupants in
the Japanese study had more opportunity to con-
trol their thermal conditions than normally
expected in centralized HVAC buildings (i.e.,
operable windows, controllable HVAC, or per-
sonal fans). The thermal comfort literature
published since ASHRAE’s adaptive comfort
488
standard in 2004 is suggesting that adaptive com-
fort theory may well extend to air-conditioned
environments, providing the occupants of those
spaces have access to adequate adaptive
opportunities.
Thermal Comfort in Mixed-Mode
Buildings
Building designers do not have to choose between
the polar opposites of a sealed, air-conditioned
building and one that is exclusively naturally ven-
tilated. Mixed mode refers to a hybrid approach to
space conditioning that combines operable win-
dows and some form of mechanical cooling. By
taking advantage of the strengths of both systems,
well-designed mixed-mode buildings can be more
comfortable and use less energy. A well-designed
mixed-mode building begins with intelligent
facade design to minimize cooling loads. It then
integrates the use of mechanical cooling or venti-
lation only when and where it is necessary, with
the use of natural ventilation whenever it is feasi-
ble or desirable, to maximize comfort while
avoiding the significant energy use and operating
costs of year-round air conditioning. There does
not seem to be a “standard” mixed-mode approach
in practice today – each building continues to be
unique. Yet there are a number of classification
schemes that describe the integration of natural
ventilation and air-conditioning control strategies,
usually in terms of whether they exist in different
spaces (zoned), or exist in the same space and
operate at the same time (concurrent mode), or
exist in the same space and switch on and off at
different times (change-over mode).
Mixed-mode buildings offer many benefits.
They are less climatically dependent than purely
naturally ventilated buildings, as well as being
feasible in a wider variety of building types. Ide-
ally, the building operates in naturally ventilated
mode for as long as possible while weather and
internal loads allow, and then the mechanical ven-
tilation and cooling is there for the hours or days
when natural ventilation alone cannot meet com-
fort expectations of the occupants or is not the
optimal energy solution.
Adaptive Comfort and Mixed-Mode Conditioning
Other approaches include a zoned approach
where some spaces are solely naturally ventilated
(e.g., spaces on the perimeter with low internal
loads, circulation spaces, mechanical rooms), and
other spaces are solely mechanically cooled (e.g.,
spaces with sporadic dense occupancy such as
conference rooms, or are remote from the window
wall). A well-planned, zoned mixed-mode solu-
tion starts with thoughtful space planning to try to
place as much usable area as possible outside the
air-conditioned envelope. A post-occupancy
study of over 600 occupants in a zoned mixed-
mode building in Jaipur found that experiences in
the air-conditioned zones did not seem to influ-
ence the expectations of the occupants in the
naturally ventilation zones, where occupants still
were comfortable at the wider ranges of tempera-
tures associated with adaptive comfort [23].
Mixed-mode provides the designer with more
flexibility to provide operable windows without
worrying as much about precisely sizing those
windows to provide sufficient airflow for extreme
conditions, or adding the expense of automation
of openings. Mixed-mode also provides for “pas-
sive survivability,” meaning that the building is
much more likely to coast through power outages
or periods of minimal power availability, unlike
sealed-façade HVAC buildings which become
uninhabitable during power outages.
Such flexibility comes with a cost, however.
By having dual systems (natural ventilation plus
mechanical equipment), there is less opportunity
for first cost savings, and the financial incentive is
primarily focused on operational savings. This
would be maximized in situations where the
mechanical cooling is used less frequently during
the year.
Achieving operational energy savings in a
mixed-mode building requires occupant and facil-
ity management education. Both decision makers
need to understand when conditions are suitable
for “free cooling” and need to be dissuaded from
reaching immediately for HVAC cooling just
because they are accessible to them. There may
be some hours of the year when energy use could
potentially increase, if mechanical heating or
cooling is being operated while windows are
open. Others argue, however, that even if this
Adaptive Comfort and Mixed-Mode Conditioning
does occur, the number of hours may be far
outweighed by the amount of time during the
year that the mechanical cooling is never turned
on in the first place. Alternatively, thermal con-
tacts on the windows can shut off perimeter
heating and cooling thermal supply whenever
the adjacent window is opened, while maintaining
ventilation supply if it is independent.
An innovative control strategy that is becom-
ing increasingly common in mixed-mode build-
ings is “signaling systems” such as red/green
lights or “open window” signals [24]. These
directly engage the occupants as active partici-
pants in the smart management of the building’s
environmental control systems. This approach
may actually be the tip of the iceberg in future
trends in building design and operation – where
educated occupants become the low-hanging fruit
for enabling us to reduce energy use while simul-
taneously providing more comfortable, healthy,
and productive indoor environments.
Classical thermal comfort field studies in
mixed-mode buildings, based on simultaneous
instrumental and subjective comfort observations,
are few and far between. An extensive longitudi-
nal study by Rowe [25] in subtropical Sydney
showed that adaptive comfort behavior in an aca-
demic office building was clearly taking place
even in the presence of supplemental cooling
equipment. A more recent “right-here-right-
now” comfort survey by Deuble and de Dear
[26], also in another Sydney academic office
building, found that occupants’ acceptance of the
same combination of thermal conditions was
dependent on the building’s mode of operation –
identical thermal environmental conditions
deemed acceptable while the building was oper-
ating in natural ventilation mode were found to be
unacceptable by the same occupants in the same
building during its air-conditioned mode of
operation.
More Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) sur-
veys have been done in mixed-mode buildings.
POE uses occupant surveys but omit the instru-
mental measurements found in the “right-here-
right-now” method. Holmes and Hacker [27]
reported POE results from a UK mixed-mode
building of the “changeover” type – switching
489
from natural ventilation to air conditioning when-
ever internal temperatures were sensed above
25  C. The mixed-mode building’s very favorable
POE results were benchmarked against the BUS
database [28] and found to be in the top 2–5% of
the entire UK building database at that time.
Brager and Baker [29] benchmarked occupant
satisfaction ratings in 12 mixed-mode buildings
in the US against the remaining 358 commercial
buildings that were in the CBE database [30] at
that time. The mixed-mode buildings performed
exceptionally well compared with the overall
building stock in the CBE database, especially
with regard to thermal comfort and air quality
(Fig. 3). The best performing mixed-mode build-
ings were newer than the benchmark average,
were located in moderate climate zones, had radi-
ant cooling or mechanical ventilation only, and
allowed high degrees of direct user control. Sum-
mertime complaints did not include concerns
about drafts from open windows, but did refer to
drafts when the buildings were operating in air-
conditioned mode, suggesting problems with
overcooling during air-conditioned mode [23].
From a thermal comfort point of view, mixed-
mode buildings raise interesting theoretical and
regulatory questions because of the “duality of
comfort expectations” they induce in their occu-
pants. The adaptive comfort literature reviewed
elsewhere in this article has established that iden-
tical indoor climatic conditions can receive dispa-
rate evaluations by occupants, depending on
whether the building is air-conditioned or natu-
rally ventilated, and the comfort standards for
both types of building reflect this perceptual dual-
ity. But in a mixed-mode building, there still
remains uncertainty about whether occupant
expectations can shift as quickly as the building
can shift modes, and further research is clearly
needed on how to optimize setpoint control algo-
rithms for the different operating modes.
Fans and Air Movement
We all have an intuitive understanding of the
impact that increased air speed can have on ther-
mal comfort – in cooler environments air
490
Adaptive Comfort and
Mixed-Mode
Conditioning,
Fig. 3 Cumulative
frequency distribution for
Mean Satisfaction Score
thermal satisfaction
buildings, mixed-mode
compared to larger CBE
database
movement is generally felt as an unpleasant draft,
but in warmer temperatures, air movement is
desirable and described as a breeze. Against a
backdrop of reducing reliance on energy-intensive
air conditioning, recent comfort research has
focused on the positive benefits of moving air
inside buildings to enhance occupant comfort,
particularly under warmer temperatures.
Large field studies in office buildings in a range
of climates found that occupants in conditions
they judged as “slightly cool”-to-“warm”
expressed preference for more air movement,
even when measured air speed was above the
0.2 m/s limit imposed by the draft risk model
([31]; [32]; [49]). Although most of the field stud-
ies have been in office buildings with mechanical
cooling and generally low air speeds within the
occupied zone [20], a number of researchers have
examined offices, schools, and residences with
window or fan ventilation, in which the air move-
ment is higher [19, 33–35]. Especially in tropical
examples, combinations of higher air speeds and
temperatures are typically evaluated as “comfort-
able” by their occupants.
In laboratory studies addressing warmer cli-
mates, a pioneering comfort study by Rohles
et al. [36] examined the effects of airflow provided
by fans. The results indicated that for an air veloc-
ity of 1 m/s, the comfortable effective temperature
could be extended to 29  C. In a similar
Adaptive Comfort and Mixed-Mode Conditioning
Mean Scores - Thermal Comfort
Mixed Mode (n=12) compared to CBE database (n=358)
3
0.59
0
–0.13
–3
0% 25% 50% 75% 100%
Percentile Rank
CBE Database (n= 358) Mixed Mode Buildings (n=12)
investigation, Scheatzle et al. [37] found that at
least 80% of the occupants could be comfortable
at a temperature limit of 28  C and air velocities
up to approximately 1 m/s. Arens et al. [38]
extended this line of inquiry and found that over
80% of the subjects at 1.2 met (typical office
activities) were able to achieve comfort at air
speeds up to 1.4 m/s when the temperature was
29  C, lifting to 31  C at 1 met (sedentary). Other
studies found that in the warm side of the comfort
zone, the preferred air velocity values varied from
1 m/s to 1.5 m/s [34, 39–41]. Even higher values,
up to 1.6 m/s, were suggested for a temperature of
31  C [42]. Collectively, these studies emphasize
that elevated air speeds can positively enhance
thermal acceptability and comfort in warm
environments.
With so much empirical research evidence
accumulating in recent decades, supporting the
comfort potential of increased air movement [37,
39, 41, 43–49], recognition is finally being made
in the standards. In Brazil, there is currently a
proposal to include minimum air speeds in design
guidelines for natural ventilation [50], and the
latest version of ASHRAE Standard 55 [1] indi-
cates how much warmer the comfort zone can be
stretched by increasing air speeds up to 0.8 m/s,
without requiring individual occupant control,
and then up to 1.2 m/s when the occupants are
granted control [51].
Adaptive Comfort and Mixed-Mode Conditioning 491

Implications for Energy Use Conclusion and Future Directions

People can clearly be comfortable at the wider
temperature ranges associated with naturally ven-
tilated and mixed-mode buildings, and with ele-
vated air movement, and there are significant
energy savings associated with operating buildings
across these wider temperature setpoint ranges.
Fig. 4 presents the results of simulations done in
three climates – temperate, warm, cold – showing
the annual energy savings achieved with a range of
possible interior setpoints [52]. Conventional
buildings in the USA typically operate between
22  C and 24  C; the resulting “deadband” is
2  C. The simulation results show that if new
strategies and systems were to allow the building
operator to expand the range of temperatures at
which occupants are comfortable, one can reduce
annual central HVAC-energy consumption by
roughly 10% per C of expansion in either direction.
The savings from increasing the deadband come
both from reducing the intensity of heating/cooling
when the HVAC is running, and reducing the
amount of time during which the HVAC system
needs to operate. This is an enormous savings
opportunity that should be exploited to the extent
possible.
We are seeing a paradigm shift away from heat-
balance-based thermal comfort models towards
adaptive comfort modeling, and a connection
between adaptive comfort theory and other critical
discourse in our field.
All adaptive comfort models implicitly build
on the hypothesis that occupants of naturally
ventilated buildings achieve thermal comfort
across a wider range of indoor temperatures
than occupants of buildings with centrally con-
trolled HVAC systems, and that comfort ranges
for indoor temperatures shift up or down in con-
cert with outdoor seasonal and climatic trends.
There are numerous benefits to be gained from an
improved understanding of the influence of adap-
tation on thermal comfort in the built environ-
ment. These include improved predictive models
and standards, more sophisticated and responsive
environmental control algorithms, enhanced
levels of thermal comfort and acceptability
among occupants, reduced energy consumption,
better management of peak electricity demand
events, reduced carbon footprints from build-
ings, and more climatically responsive building
design.

Adaptive Comfort and Energy savings with wider dead band

Mixed-Mode 40
San Francisco
Conditioning, 35
Fig. 4 Percent energy
savings for widened air 30
Energy Saving (%)

temperature setpoints
25
relative to conventional
Duluth Miami
ranges [52] 20

15
San Francisco Duluth
10

5
Miami
0
16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30
Heating/Cooling setpoint (°C)
60 65 70 75 80 85
Heating/Cooling setpoint (°F)
dead band conventional
radiant free-running ceiling fans
adaptive
personal environmental control systems
492
Looking to the future, we can extrapolate a meta-
trend witnessed in these early decades of the twenty-
first century in which the locus of control of “life” is
shifting away from the collective, towards the indi-
vidual. Enabled by new technologies, we are
increasingly empowered to curate the news and
opinions we digest, the culture and media we
absorb, the advertising content we “eyeball,” even
the diversity of our social interactions. So the future
we will inhabit is going to be very personalized,
bespoke, and it seems inevitable that this generali-
zation will extend to our built environments as well.
We have seen the first steps in personal environmen-
tal control research in HVAC journals (e.g., [53]),
and this can be interpreted in the broader theoretical
framework of adaptive comfort, because one of the
central mechanisms in the adaptive hypothesis is
psychological, in particular, that of perceived envi-
ronmental control. There is plenty of empirical evi-
dence to sustain the conclusion that the range of
acceptable indoor temperatures diminishes as the
occupants’ adaptive opportunities are extinguished.
Therefore by logical inversion, we can expect to see
greater indoor climatic variety as person comfort
systems’ penetration of the HVAC market deepens
in the twenty-first century.
Our goal for creating thermally comfortable
buildings requires us to move away from a
building-centered, energy-consuming approach
that focuses on creating constant, uniform
neutrality – a condition that might actually be per-
ceived as thermal monotony. Instead, a more for-
ward way of thinking would see building designers
and operators defining our thermal goals in terms of
a more person-centered approach by purposely pro-
viding, or at least permitting variability across time
and space. We are in need of a paradigm shift in how
we think about conditioning the indoor environ-
ment, and we need to find low-energy ways to create
more thermally dynamic and non-uniform environ-
ments that bring us pleasure and “thermal delight”
and can also be more stimulating and energizing.
This is an inherent part of biophilic design, which
advocates for a stronger connection to nature,
including a more rich, variable, and multi-sensory
experience where building occupants experience
more nuanced changes in the indoor environmental
qualities of their buildings. This kind of forward
thinking is also supported by the science of
Adaptive Comfort and Mixed-Mode Conditioning
alliesthesia, which presents the physiological expla-
nation of thermal pleasure and helps us understand
why our bodies actually need some kind of dynamic
thermal stimulation or contrast to the sensory depri-
vation and thermal monotony inherent in the static,
isothermal, and neutral (PMV = 0) indoor climate.
Adaptive comfort will also play an increasing
role in future designs for resiliency and climate
change, where our buildings will have to be able
to maintain habitable conditions in the face of
external extremes such as heat waves or power
outages that might result from severe storms and
peak electricity demand events. Resilient build-
ings need to start with resilient people. If we
continue to design sealed, centrally controlled
buildings where occupants essentially become
addicted to a narrow range of temperatures, then
these people are going to have a much more
difficult time adjusting to the wide swings that
might occur during circumstances when there
simply isn’t enough electricity available to main-
tain those internal design conditions.
In the future, we need to be more deliberate in
thermal landscaping of our buildings. For exam-
ple, spatially, we might purposely design for ther-
mally differentiated areas to allow for individual
thermal requirements. Like in the Goldilocks and
The Three Bears fairy tale, some like it hot and
others like it cold, and still more like it somewhere
in between. Maybe we should be deliberately
engineering microclimatic diversity into buildings
instead of tightly regulated uniformity? Tempo-
rally, we might permit a gradual drift of indoor
temperatures towards outdoor conditions in a way
that would encourage adaptations such as clothing
changes and use of operable windows. This think-
ing is embodied in mixed-mode buildings that
allow for natural ventilation as much as possible,
and encourage maximum occupant control of
windows and fans to realize the benefits of adap-
tive thermal comfort.
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escholarship.org/uc/item/55c7r2hz

Green Roofs: Ecological
Functions of the Fifth Facade
Manfred Köhler1 and Andrew Michael Clements2
1
University of Applied Sciences,
Neubrandenburg, Germany
2
Oikosteges Oikosystem Roofs, Northampton,
UK
Article Outline
Glossary
Introduction
Definition of the Subject
Green Roofs as Ecosystems
Three Main Challenges to Be Met by Green
Roofs: Water, Energy, and Biodiversity
Quantifying Water Management with Green
Roofs
Quantifying Energy and Urban Heat Reduction
Impacts of Green Roofs
Enhancing Plant Biodiversity with Green Roofs
Ecological Synergies
Future Directions
Bibliography
Glossary
FLL The Landscape Research and Development
Society (FLL) is a nonprofit organization that
was founded in 1975. Its mission is to research,
produce, and disseminate all the various land-
scape development principles, guidelines, and
specifications for the assurance of environmen-
tal quality [1].
BUGG The Greening Building Association
(BUGG) is a specialized group that was
founded by some members of FLL to focus
more specifically on green building. The FBB
is the German counterpart to the American
industry association Green Roofs for Healthy
Cities (GRHC) and one of the founding
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
V. Loftness (ed.), Sustainable Built Environments,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-0684-1_207
Originally published in
R. A. Meyers (ed.), Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology, © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC,
part of Springer Nature 2020, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2493-6_207-3
members of the World Green Infrastructure
Network (WGIN). The German word
“Bauwerksbegrünung” has no translation in
English – green infrastructure in the sense of
BUGG is focused on all forms of urban green.
Extensive green roofs (EGR) also called natural
green roofs, or eco-roofs, are vegetated roof
constructions that require low maintenance.
Drought-adapted plant species are used to cre-
ate a self-sustaining vegetated surface suitable
for nearly all types of buildings. Growing
media is about 10-cm (4-inches) thick
[2]. The term “Natural Green Roof” is a more
nuanced term, which should set the main focus
on enhancing the biodiversity of vegetated
roofs. This can include irrigation with rain or
gray water in some regions. Natural green
roofs are engineered green roof systems under
the guidance of nature conservations solutions.
This term includes extensive and intensive
green roofs.
Intensive green roofs (IGR), also known as roof
gardens, are garden structures on the top of
buildings and other artificial urban surfaces
typically intended to support human activity.
In most cases, the growing media is more than
20 cm deep (8 inches). For trees, it can be more
than 1 m (39 inches). IGRs, with structures
including lawns, planter boxes, shrubs, and
small trees, require the same maintenance as
traditional gardens.
Storm water runoff rainwater running off
impervious surfaces.
Green infrastructure a phrase used in North
America to describe the use of all types of
landscape solutions for water management
that protects, restores, or mimics the natural
water cycle. This includes urban wetlands,
bioswales, rain gardens, and green roofs tech-
nology as well as other types of greenery on
buildings, like vegetated facades, living walls,
and indoor greening systems. The USEPA
refers to structures specifically intended to
manage wet weather as green infrastructure.
495
496
Growing media the engineered substrate for
green roofs. Green roof substrates typically
have low nutrient content and high drainage
rates. Typical materials are expanded slate,
shale, pumice, or recycled products.
Leadership in Energy and Environmental
Design (LEED) A rating system of the US
Green Building Council (USGBC) that bench-
marks energy savings, water efficiency, CO2
emissions reduction, improved indoor environ-
mental quality, and stewardship. The catego-
ries of achievement are silver, gold, or
platinum. In Australia, a similar rating system
entitled Greenstar uses an accelerated number
of “stars” to designate increasingly stringent
accomplishments. After an extensive debate
about the merits of such certification systems,
the German Sustainable Building Council
established the DGNB rating system in 2009.
Certification can be an effective driver for mar-
ket transformation; however, one critique of
existing systems is that there is not enough
weight placed on landscape contributions to
sustainability.
Low impact development (LID) A stormwater
management and site design technique to
reestablish natural water cycles before con-
struction of the settlements. Green roof infra-
structures play a significant role in reducing
water use, evaporation cooling, and water stor-
age and drainage.
Introduction
The global human family is currently undergoing a
subtle, revolutionary paradigm shift away from an
unsustainable, industrialized, mass, homogenized,
and synchronized society to a sustainable, custom,
micro, niche, and biodiverse world. This is seen in
every aspect of human life – from work to enter-
tainment. Gone are the days when work was done
from 9 to 5, when mass entertainment was enjoyed
all together, and when vacations were a factory
fortnight in August where all headed for warmer
climes for holiday. Today there is work and play
around the clock while telecommuting, working
from home, downloading YouTube videos, and
Green Roofs: Ecological Functions of the Fifth Facade
interacting on Facebook and Skype. This global
shift to an information-rich, knowledge society is
mirrored in how the urban greening industry
worldwide interprets itself. Once upon a time, not
long ago, a green roof predominantly meant an
amenity space with garden furniture and well-
manicured lawns and water features or mass-
produced sedum mats laid over plastic drainage
boards and geotextiles. With the deeper movement
into more sustainable living, this approach to
greening roofs has been replaced by ecological
sensitivity, biodiversity goals, water management
and conservation, and other advances for ecologi-
cal sustainability. This entry will discuss this shift
in detail, from the construct of extensive and inten-
sive green roofs to the benefits for water manage-
ment, energy, and biodiversity.
Definition of the Subject
Green roofs are engineered constructions that
include environments suitable for well-adapted
plant species. In most cases, green roofs have a
longer lifespan than conventional roofing sur-
faces. The following elements are built on top of
the roof structure:
• The underlying protective layer is made of an
impervious material such as bitumen, rubber,
polystyrene, or other similarly adequate tech-
nical materials, in short, roof protection
membranes.
• Root barrier layers are included to prevent the
root penetration of lower layers. These are
known as separation fabrics or geotextiles.
• A separate water-retaining layer, which could
be a natural porous stone material or an artifi-
cial retention mat, in short, a drainage layer.
• On top of this layer, a filter fabric separates the
retention layer from the next layer: the growing
media.
• The growing media is, in most cases, a spe-
cially mixed lightweight soil material with
well-selected components for storing rainwa-
ter. Growing media are mixed for different
purposes. Intensive roof garden growing
media differs in that in the upper levels, there
Green Roofs: Ecological Functions of the Fifth Facade
is a higher content of humus and on the lower
levels lower humus content but more nutrients.
The vegetation layer can range from a shallow
layer with mosses and sedums to fully diverse
grasses, shrubs, and trees on roof gardens. As
such, green roof maintenance requirements can
be as little as an annual inspection or as much as
is usual for ordinary gardens. The success of the
vegetation layer depends on the careful selection
of the other green roof layers. For example, if the
goal is to plant trees on rooftops, a special com-
bination of all these components is necessary.
The maximum weight of the construction must
be calculated carefully. On average, it varies
between 40 kg/m2 (8.33 lb./ft2) and can rise
upward to about 350 kg/m2 (71.7 lb./ft2). The
longevity of green roofs depends on whether
they can be easily accessed with the basic equip-
ment needed for the success of the project as well
as repairs. Maintenance and repairs must be
planned carefully. Certain areas of the roof includ-
ing edges and places around skylights or roof top
climate control systems can be prone to structural
damage. Green roofs can be difficult to sustain on
“unusual” rooftop settings – too high or too steep
for a suitable plant growth or for the needed main-
tenance work. The technical and biological limits
challenge green roof professionals. . Uncontrolla-
ble aspects of local climate, such as wind, temper-
ature, and the intensity of storm events, can set
limits to what is feasible from an architectural
design perspective for developing living surfaces
on roofs and facades.
Green roof technology has become internation-
ally famous in the past few years. The books
recommended at the end of this entry offer a
wide range of information from various regions
in the world.
Green Roofs as Ecosystems
In recent years, there has been a growth in interest
in natural green roofs, or eco-roofs, as distinct
from roof gardens due to the ecological benefits
that may be derived. Roof gardens were tradition-
ally installed in many countries to provide
497
amenity space and for building beautification, in
places such as hotels and resorts. The ecological
benefits that were derived, such as thermal insu-
lation, were almost an afterthought. Nowadays, in
many instances, natural green roofs are installed
to become natural ecosystems in urban areas. The
benefits achieved by such installations can be
measured not only in the building itself but the
surrounding urban area as a whole.
Green roofs have been shown to mitigate the
urban heat island effect. Two key studies in the hot
summer climate of Athens [1–3] concluded that the
thermodynamics of both the building and the sur-
rounding area are affected by the natural green roof
installation studied on the Greek Treasury in Con-
stitution Square in Athens. In addition, leading
natural green roof researchers have compiled a
review article on the benefits of green roof technol-
ogies [4]. A number of environmental scientists
and thermodynamics researchers are working on
quantifying the energy savings, emission reduc-
tions, and water resource management benefits
that come from the use of natural green roofs.
Natural green roofs are also integral to the emer-
gence of biomimicry and biophilic architecture [5,
6]. Research is being conducted to quantify the
ecological benefits of green roofs, such as the
reestablishment of plant and animal biodiversity
in urban areas. Green roofs can be considered as
the open ecosystems described by early ecologists
[7], where inputs of water, nutrients, and substrate
to such installations occur from precipitation, dust
in the urban canyon, and gaseous pollution. Losses
to a natural green roof can come from wind erosion
and stormwater runoff. In terms of ecological pro-
ductivity, natural green roofs have been compared
to desert ecosystems, where there is a similar input/
loss situation. Ecologically, natural green roofs can
be compared to natural structures such as rocky
outcrops or cliffs where harsh weather conditions
and shallow layers of substrate are found. It is
understandable why cities are sometimes described
as being “urban canyons.” Many highly specialized
ecosystems thrive in such structures [8]. In fact,
these ecosystems, in the natural world, have often
developed because of these extreme environments.
The total phytomass of a natural green roof is
measured by considering the total shoot/root
498
biomass. This figure varies in Europe between
100 and 500 g/m2 total dry organic matter
[9]. The 500 g/m2 is an almost fully covered
natural green roof, which has been planted with
sedum or similar succulents, chive (allium spec.),
wildflowers, pioneers, and grasses with about a
95% coverage and about a height of 25 cm. The
figure for a south-facing roof with coverage up to
60% is about 100 g biomass/m2. The gaseous
exchange (O2, CO2) productivity of such ecosys-
tems is relatively low when compared with richer
ecosystems such as forests. A biomass survey
found a natural green roof with a 168 g/m2
above ground biomass and about 107 g/m2 root
system biomass 2 years after installation
[10]. These recent dry matter values are similar
to the abovementioned German measurement
from the 1980s.
If the main aim of the installation of a natural
green roof is CO2 sequestration, annual cutting of
the plants is recommended for mulching, followed
by allowing the plants to grow back each year.
Natural green roofs are also being seriously con-
sidered to not only supplement urban agriculture to
supply cities, particularly in the third world, but
also in the West, as urban agriculture can lead to
significant emissions reductions. This is due to the
fact that food can be sourced and consumed locally,
reducing the need for transportation from rural
areas into cities. There are notable examples of
this emerging around the world, from New York
City to Bangladesh. Urban agriculture is substan-
tially more productive using high-tech hydroponics
and other such intensive technologies than it is with
natural green roofs. However, green roofs can be
used to supplement urban agriculture. In addition,
natural green roofs can provide specialist agricul-
tural products such as aromatic herbs for culinary
and pharmaceutical use.
Natural green roofs are usually designed to
keep vegetation conditions stable over the long
term. However, there is a growing belief, particu-
larly among natural green roof pioneers in Greece,
that natural biological succession could result in
the development of highly successful, biodiverse,
specialist ecosystems, which have adapted to the
peculiarities of urban centers. On the whole,
human intervention and “maintenance” should
Green Roofs: Ecological Functions of the Fifth Facade
be kept to a bare minimum, if not removed alto-
gether. It should be noted that it is advisable that a
specialist inspect a natural green roof annually to
check the waterproofing and to make sure that the
vegetation has not become dangerous in terms of
height. Apart from that, nature should be allowed
a free reign. It must be noted that natural green
roofs are not usually designed as recreational
space. Furthermore, safety concerns relating to
the height of the vegetation must be addressed.
Barriers to prevent falling of material must be
installed around natural green roofs.
Natural green roofs, then, can be considered
extreme “man-started” natural habitats on artifi-
cial urban surfaces. After the installation, annual
inspection ensures that these settings require low
to nonexistent human intervention. Environmen-
talists are becoming increasingly interested in the
almost self-sustaining nature of natural green
roofs. Overall, researchers are beginning to realize
that they may well be able to reduce the anthro-
pogenic impact of urban environments on the
biosphere. The level of this impact depends on a
plethora of factors central to the design of the
natural green roof for each climate and context.
Green roofing is currently practiced in over
40 countries worldwide; please see www.
worldgreenroof.org. There are organized green
roof associations in about 27 countries at the
time of writing [11]. Hundreds of peer-reviewed
articles suggest that while green roof technology
appears to be quite simple and low tech, natural
green roofs, are in fact complex [12], and more
research is required.
The shift from traditional roof gardens to nat-
ural green roofs is being led by the growing
understanding of the benefits of biophilia
[13]. The description of the ecological functions
of natural green roofs by pioneers such as James
Todd [14],and his more modern counterparts such
as Peck [15] and green roof enthusiasts, cam-
paigners, and activists like Dusty Gedge in the
UK (www.livingroofs.org), has created a new par-
adigm in what green roofs should look like. When
the thermal insulation performance of natural
green roofs is combined with water conservation
and enhanced biodiversity on a massive scale
around the world, a technology emerges, which
Green Roofs: Ecological Functions of the Fifth Facade
could ameliorate, if not solve, some of the most
pressing concerns of our time. Treating the fifth
facade, the roof, as a critical addition to our eco-
system, may soon become the status quo in
architecture.
It should be pointed out that historic roof gar-
dens or intensive green roofs, which are primarily
constructed as amenity and recreational space in
towns, could also be used for ecological contribu-
tions. For example, if roof garden decks are built
with rainwater catchments and rainwater storage
systems, there are ecological benefits for
stormwater management. If the load capacity of
a building supports greater structural weight, the
deeper growing medium possible opens up a
wider range of potential plants species for selec-
tion. Consequently, urban forestry becomes pos-
sible along with natural green roofs. Susan
Weiler’s Church project [16] is one example of
introducing urban forestry on rooftops. Research
about the potential of such forestry structures on
rooftops has been conducted and tested in Hong
Kong [17].
The challenge for the urban planner is to find
appropriate mixes of planting schemes and appro-
priate technologies for each climatic condition
and building code. In recent years, forestry struc-
tures that have been installed on buildings range
from sparse plantings to full earth shelters with
copse planting schemes. Greened buildings, then,
can act as natural corridors for the reintroduction
of nature into urban areas [18].
Three Main Challenges to Be Met by
Green Roofs: Water, Energy, and
Biodiversity
Humanity faces possibly the greatest threats any
species can face: the increasing rates of depletion
of ever dwindling energy and natural resource
supplies, the buildup of toxic waste in its environ-
ment, as well as the exploding population growth.
Some activists and campaigners state that there is
a need to save the Earth. The Earth has been here,
according to most estimates, for 4.5 billion years.
In that time, it has survived far greater threats than
humanity. Possibly, what humanity needs to do is
499
to save itself. The only savior up to the task is
nature itself. This is where urban greening and
particularly green roofs really prove their value.
Green roofing may well be the ultimate “return to
nature.” Cities can be transformed into natural
ecosystems using green roofs with impacts that
are both revolutionary and evolutionary. Nature is
the issue, and nature is the solution.
In addition to the known aesthetic benefits and
urban recreational space for city inhabitants, there
are measurable ecological and economic benefits
that are derived by extensive greening of urban
roofs. These technologies are increasingly attrac-
tive to town planners, architects, and civil engi-
neers alike [19], serving both private and public
interests, with local and global benefits. The three
main ecological and environmental challenges
that could be critically met by roof greening will
be further discussed in the following sections:
1. Water cycles and urban water management
2. Urban heat and energy demands
3. Losses in urban biodiversity
The Challenge of Water Cycles and Urban
Water Management
The urban water management budget is stressed
by the impervious surfaces of a built environment.
In the natural world, stormwater runoff forms a
small percentage of the total water volume that
falls as precipitation. Most of the water that falls
as precipitation in the natural world is absorbed by
the Earth and becomes groundwater. The reverse
is true in the urban built environment: most of the
water that falls as precipitation becomes runoff.
This causes a number of problems. Athens may be
representative of what happens during a storm.
The city squares are turned into lakes, and the
streets become rivers within minutes of the onset
of a storm event. Recent research into urban water
management budgets conducted by Göbel et al.
[20] suggests that urban landscapes could be
transformed using a combination of rainwater
catchment and retention areas, which would
reduce urban water management costs to a level
not much different from water management costs
found in the natural world. In this context, green
roofs are important as a type of decentralized
500
rainwater catchment and retention system. Green
roofs and vegetated facades can retain stormwater
and release excesses over a period of hours, if not
days. Green roofs act as a brake on runoff as they
absorb and store large percentage of the water that
falls as precipitation, in a similar method to that
which is found in the natural world.
Rainwater management with green roofs can
incorporate storage values not only in the growing
media but in all other layers in green roof systems.
The drainage layer can be used for storage. Sur-
face and subterraneous ponding can be designed
to allow further storage. In addition to the defined
water capacity of the growing media, drainage/
storage layer, growing media can be designed and
plants selected that can store even larger quantities
of water, especially for countries where monsoon
and excessively heavy rainfall events are experi-
enced. Again, safety issues are an important con-
sideration here because water is heavy, so
permissible static loads must be taken into
account, particularly in seismic regions of the
world.
When green roofs are combined with other
rainwater catchment and retention technologies,
such as rainwater harvesting, reuse, and infiltra-
tion, it is possible to create zero runoff in a city.
The decentralized stormwater retention property
of green roofs also reduces pressures on wastewa-
ter treatment systems that are already overloaded,
since the peak runoff after a heavy storm event is
minimized.
In developed countries, in the next few years,
sewer systems that are approaching 100 years of
age will need to be replaced. The decentralized
water management offered by green roofs, which
can provide a viable solution to reducing
stormwater runoff quantities in cities. In Berlin,
for example, numerous projects to reduce
stormwater runoff, manage water demands, and
handle wastewater disposal in cities have been
implemented since the 1980s [21]. Seventeen pro-
jects have been documented on the official
webpage of the Berlin Senate [22]. Green roofs
and green walls are fundamental solutions in these
projects [23].
Increasingly, over the years, peak runoff during
heavy storm events has become more challenging
Green Roofs: Ecological Functions of the Fifth Facade
for Berlin’s water management. Open evaporative
surfaces could well become mandatory solutions
[24]. In Berlin-Brandenburg, about 80% of the
total precipitation that falls is converted to evapo-
ration using various technologies and methods,
which include green roofs. This figure could
become an achievable target for all cities on Earth.
A further benefit of the water retention of green
roofs is their effect on the urban heat island effect,
which links the water retention with a
hygrothermal benefit. The urban heat island effect
is partly caused by the almost nonexistent level of
evapotranspiration in a city. By retaining more
water in urban structures in green roofs, the city is
cooled in the summer, mitigating this phenomenon.
In addition, in an emerging paradigm among cli-
mate specialists, water cycles are now considered
to have a fundamental causal relationship with
man-caused global warming [25].
Surface runoff rates and the lack of green
spaces also contribute to why there is almost no
urban evaporation and why urban climates can be
hot and dry [26]. With the increasing number of
megacities, this climate may contribute to health
problems for many citizens [27]. This sets them
well apart in terms of their thermal performance
from conventional forms of thermal insulation
with materials like rockwool and polystyrene.
For now, it can simply be stated that the captured
water in a green roof, during a storm event, is
significantly evapo-transpired by the plants. This
actively cools hot cities. This cooling effect
reduces air conditioning demands. Reduced air
conditioning use further cools the city, leading to
a virtuous cycle. The water cycle repair enabled
by green roofs also links to the third benefit of
green roofs, which is the development of natural
ecosystems in urban areas. In Berlin, for example,
for each type of inner city habitat, an optimized
vegetation value can be calculated. In Berlin, this
value is referred to as the “biotope area factor.”
These basic strategies must be adapted to suit
regional climates with appropriate plants and
growing media alternatives and local building
codes.
To develop large-scale vegetation structures on
buildings, greater cooperation must begin
between architectural disciplines and landscape
Green Roofs: Ecological Functions of the Fifth Facade
planners, researchers, and designers. Productive
dialogue is critically needed between conven-
tional black roofers, who use bituminous and
plastic membranes, and green roofers, who use
water storage/drainage systems, substrates, and
plants.
Currently, 5–10% of new buildings in Ger-
many have green roofs. The number of green
walls remains, at present, less than 1%. This rep-
resents a huge opportunity for environmentally
friendly architecture. A paradigm shift is needed
for architecture not only in terms of energy-
efficient designs but also buildings that have
zero negative impacts on the environment. This
is the challenge for the coming years, and green
infrastructure will play a dominant role in
assisting cites to achieve this objective [28].
The Challenge of Energy Use and Urban Heat
Islands
At the dawn of the twenty-first century, humanity
faces what could possibly become its defining
moment. The human race potentially faces the
horrific possibility of a massive die-off at the
very least or extinction at its worst. The reason is
quite simple: mankind has developed modern civ-
ilization and definitions and standards of living
and technologies through a tremendous extraction
and combustion of oil. One liter of oil is the
energy equivalent to 100 man-hours of labor.
During the last 100 years, the West has collec-
tively burned or used a large percentage of the oil
reserves on Earth. How much oil has been used
and how much is left are open to debate and
probably unknowable. More may be found some-
where, sometimes. What cannot be debated is the
fact that oil is a finite resource, which took mil-
lions of years to form, and if only the West con-
tinued using it at the rate that it does, it will dry up
sooner or later. This is likely to be sooner rather
than later because now the rest of the world is
developing based on oil consumption at rates that
make Western industrial development in the late
eighteenth and early nineteenth century looks like
child’s play [29].
Climate change, global warming, the coming
ice age, and how much influence human activities
have on the Earth may be debated endlessly. What
501
cannot be questioned is that continued production
of CO2, CO, and a multitude of other poisonous
gases through oil combustion, continued quarry-
ing, mining, and deforestation, combined with
increased urban development and natural ecosys-
tem degradation, cannot end well for humanity or
for most forms of life. If you keep taking some-
thing from a finite source, sooner or later, there
will be none left. Moreover, if by using the finite
resource taken, degradation of your life-support
systems occurs; the end to this scenario is
catastrophic.
Green roofs provide energy value in four ways:
shade, thermal lag, evapotranspiration, and reduc-
tions in urban heat that lead to further reductions in
air conditioning use. Numerous studies conducted
around the world have shown that green roofs
significantly cooling requirements in both build-
ings and whole cities. In the thermodynamic
study of the oikostegi (natural green roof in
Greek) on the Greek Treasury in Athens, Rogdakis
and Koronaki concluded that air conditioning
requirements were reduced by 50% in the floor
directly beneath the green roof installation, as com-
pared to the half of the occupied space that was not
under the oikostegi natural green roof.
A further conclusion of this study was the
thermal lag effect of the green roof. Instead of a
1 p.m. peak surface temperature that results in a
130 p.m. peak cooling load, the area under the
green roof peaked a full 90 min later at 3 p.m. This
delay is critical since the peak demand for cooling
of the building is now at a time when the civil
servants have already gone home. This means that
there are further reductions in air conditioning,
especially peak load demands for a large govern-
ment facility of 12,500 m2 http://www.oikosteges.
gr/index.php/greenroofs/research.
Green roofs operate differently from other
forms of thermal insulation. A green roof is an
active cooling and heating device as well as a
superior form of thermal insulation. Conventional
insulation isolates the environment from the
building, keeping heat out of the building in the
summer or trapping heat inside the building in the
winter. Insulation creates a thermal barrier
between the building and the outside environ-
ment, which prevents thermal flow. A number of
502
materials are used, including rockwool and poly-
styrene. A green roof does utilize insulation but
also plays a more active role in the thermodynam-
ics of the building and, in fact, the surrounding
environment. A green roof acts as a thermal pump
in the summer. Heat that is in the building is drawn
out by the green roof since the green roof temper-
ature is lower than the environment and the build-
ing. Also, a green roof lowers ambient
temperature in the surrounding area. So, if green
roofs are installed on a large scale, ambient tem-
peratures would fall in the whole city in the sum-
mer. The same is not true for conventional thermal
insulation. Green roofs can also contribute to
heating requirement reductions in winter, through
thermal mass and reduced thermal bridging, with
savings from a modest percentage up to 20% in
top level apartments and offices [43]. Another
important aspect of the thermodynamics of green
roofs is the fact that because air conditioning use
is reduced, further reductions in the ambient tem-
perature of the surrounding area are also reduced,
leading to even further reductions in cooling
requirements. It was anecdotally stated by a
Greek thermodynamics specialist that if all the
air conditioning were switched off in Athens for
3 days, Athens would not need air conditioning
[31]. The reason for this is simple. The inventor of
air conditioning, Carrier, never designed it as a
method of cooling. It was designed to condition
the air. The way air conditioning works is by
taking hot air out of a building and dumping it
into the surrounding area. This means that the
surrounding area becomes hotter leading to
increased requirements for air conditioning lead-
ing to increased heat dumping, leading to a
vicious circle. What green roofs do is to reduce
air conditioning requirement, leading to falling
ambient temperatures in the city, leading to further
reductions in air conditioning requirements in a
virtuous circle. Large-scale implementation of
green roofs leads to a lowering of peak summer
temperatures in cities, which leads to a lowered
energy requirement to run air conditioning units
and lowered peak ambient temperatures.
Reducing energy requirements for air condi-
tioning through the introduction of green roofs is
especially critical for countries like Greece and
Green Roofs: Ecological Functions of the Fifth Facade
Germany where lignite is burned to produce elec-
tricity. Lignite burning produces even greater car-
bon emissions than oil burning and is much less
efficient. Carbon is one of the main greenhouse
gases which are thought to be responsible for
global warming. Energy efficiencies achieved by
green roofs thus directly reduce carbon emissions,
reducing greenhouse gases and slowing down
global warming. It must be noted here that green
roofs also absorb greenhouse gases, further reduc-
ing existing emissions. In Europe, the goal for
fossil fuel consumption reductions stands at 40%
by the year 2020 from a baseline of 2010. Fur-
thermore, European countries have pledged to
reduce carbon emissions by 10% to 20% by
2020. Greece has ambitious plans to reduce car-
bon emissions by 30% by 2020. All of these goals
become achievable using widespread urban
greening including green roofs. Green roofs can
return their installment investment cost many
times over in energy requirement reductions and
emission reductions.
The energy savings offered by green roofs are
also assisted by the increases in evapotranspira-
tion of rainwater. If roof surfaces are extensively
greened, stormwater runoff can be detained and
retained [24] to irrigate the green roof during the
summer, improving the thermal performance still
further using evapotranspiration. Evaporative
cooling can be increased through rainwater catch-
ments and green roof irrigation strategies. This is
known as adiabatic cooling which is a low ener-
getic cooling process in which rainwater can
be used.
The evaporation of water in a city is an impor-
tant component to reducing the heat impact of
solar radiation in a city. Lower evaporation rates
mean higher surface temperatures. The main con-
tributor to the “urban heat island effect.” On a
global scale, the reduction in evaporation in the
built environment is significantly responsible for
climate change [25]. Evaporative cooling is one
key process which can be used in the mitigation of
global warming. Given the challenges of global
warming, green roofs are a critical partner in
energy conservation, providing shade, thermal
lag, evapotranspiration, and reductions in air
conditioning use.
Green Roofs: Ecological Functions of the Fifth Facade
The Challenge of Declining Biodiversity
Urban biodiversity is the third challenge that green
roofs are critical to addressing. The Convention on
Biological Diversity (compare: http://www.cbd.
int/cop9) COP9 Declaration of the Congress in
Erfurt in May 2008 demanded that green roof
plant selection foster and encourage urban biodi-
versity. In 2011, the EU adopted an ambitious
strategy setting out 6 targets and 20 actions to halt
the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services in
the EU by 2020 (https://ec.europa.eu/environment/
nature/biodiversity/strategy/index_en.htm).
For all estimations, a baseline of plant and ani-
mal species level inventory per city/local area is
necessary. The quality and the dates of the inven-
tory vary between cities in Europe, as well as
between cities on other continents. Direct compar-
isons are only possible in the same region and same
baseline and quality of information. The UNEP and
the EU working groups call for information about
the changes within a period of a couple of years.
The first steps are to stop ongoing declines of many
species categories by factors such as the increasing
urban areas, habitat, and climate changes. Beninde
et al. 2015 [32] stated that biodiversity is signifi-
cantly related to the size of green spaces in cities. On
the level of the European Union, green infrastruc-
ture and the greening of buildings become a more
and more accepted way to expand green areas to
stop the loss of biodiversity in urban environments,
https://www.eea.europa.eu/themes/biodiversity/
green-infrastructure. The European Community’s
biodiversity strategy is documented in EU laws, as
detailed in: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/
EN/ALL/?uri¼CELEX%3A52011DC0244.
While the greening of roofs with extensive and
intensive green roof strategies will be invaluable
to the recovery of biodiversity in cities, some
plants are known to be difficult plant species for
NGRs. These must be removed as early as possi-
ble with an annual inspection and weeding. This is
an issue of great debate in the green roof world.
Weeds can be defined as plants that grow and are
not wanted. Some weeds can be invasive and
dominate if they are not controlled. Another way
of looking at a weed is in terms of biological
succession. Weeds are really pioneers. They are
plants that take over barren desert-like
503
environments to begin nature’s slow process
back to a climatically appropriate ecosystem.
Nature is innately wise, and so if the building
owner, the architect, and the green roofer are
informed, then weeds can be viewed as pioneers
and a desirable addition to a natural green roof.
These sections have illustrated the water,
energy, and biodiversity challenges that should
be met at least in part by greening urban roofs.
The following entry will address the approaches
to engineering and the research findings of the
green roof solution sets for these three challenges.
Quantifying Water Management with
Green Roofs
The most desirable goal for water management in
a city is to achieve zero runoff and 100% evapo-
transpiration of precipitation. Green roofs detain
and store water by absorption. Stored water is then
evapo-transpired by the plants at a rate dependent
on the amount of water captured. In order to
calculate the various components of the natural
green roof water budget, at least four variables are
key: meteorological data, measured precipitation
(normally measured with tipping buckets), mea-
sured runoff (by installing adapted tipping
buckets in the downspout) and measured water
stored in NGR substrates (with a type of roof
lysimeter), or calculated via a typical water budget
equation, like HAUDE or others [33].
Currently, many research institutions are working
on the field-tested quantification of realistic numbers
for rain and stormwater retention rates by natural
green roofs. Such experiments are being conducted
globally and on different scales from test houses of a
few square meter (Penn State research in the US) to
larger city-wide study areas (Neubrandenburg or Ber-
lin) [29]. Since 2003, a green roof research facility
has been collecting similar data in the British Colum-
bia Institute of Technology (BCIT) in Vancouver
[34]. Field-measured data on green roof performance
is a major contribution to “applied ecological
research.” This data is critical for the simulation and
quantification of green roof effects at city blocks,
neighborhood, and on even larger scales, in widely
diversified urban climates and ecologies.
504
To test the performance of green roofs mate-
rials, like the drainage layer and growing media,
the FLL [35] developed physical test procedures.
These tests were carried out multiple times; how-
ever, they were only performed on the growing
media without a vegetation layer. Research facil-
ities on a real roof situation perform more realis-
tically than test plots at research facilities. Green
roof plant species need realistic harsh weather
conditions of wind and the cyclic wetting and
drying out of growing media [35]. Thus, the test
plot values are comparable to but lower than mea-
surements done on real roofs.
The water retention values are counted in sev-
eral different ways [36]. Comparisons of the
annual retention rates from 12 different research
institutions in Germany, Sweden, Belgium, and
the USA revealed annual retention rates between
42% and 80% on flat NGRs. For overflow calcu-
lations, the peak load capacity is the most impor-
tant value. In Germany, all growing media must be
certified with this value. A technical report is
included in the FLL guideline on how to make
replicable measurements [35].
An Italian group [37] investigated green roof
retention rates in a Mediterranean climate over a
duration of 18 months’ rain events with varying
intensities. If the total rain event was less than
10 mm, during periods of good ground coverage
(75% +) by the NGR, nearly 100% was retained.
During the heaviest rain event of 132 mm in
November, only 10% of the precipitation was
retained; however, the peak flow reduction was
nearly 80%. The time lag from the beginning of
the rain of this major rain event and discharge was
148 min compared to almost immediate discharge
on an exposed roof. This braking effect of an NGR
is most significant for flood control in a city.
There are differing data requirements between
professions, such as ecologists and civil engi-
neers, who are responsible for drainage systems
of cities. The questions that need to be answered
about NGRs rainwater retention benefits include:
• How much water is captured by the vegetation
structures as well as in storage tanks?
• Is storage for irrigation also a suitable solution
for NGRs? After all, irrigation does help to
Green Roofs: Ecological Functions of the Fifth Facade
reduce high temperatures, particularly in the
late afternoon hours in summer. How can the
evaporative cooling effect be measured?
• Can integration of green roofs into a rainwater
management strategy achieve “zero runoff”
from a property? This would also help to
reduce storm sewer overloads in inner city
sewer systems. A combination of green roofs,
artificial ponds, rainwater harvesting, and infil-
tration could indeed result in a “zero runoff
strategy.” Local solutions are needed to
achieve this goal for each property and for
individual regions.
• Since green roof technologies are a
“decentralized” technology, can political
instruments, like the “runoff tax,” in Germany
be helpful in establishing these strategies in
city policies [38, 39]?
Evaporation takes place for several days after a
rain event on a NGR. The actual evapotranspira-
tion amount depends on the amount of stored
water in the substrate, the temperature, the air
humidity, the solar radiation, and the wind
speed. The amount of real evapotranspiration
water from an NGR in Central Europe
(Neubrandenburg) varies in summer between
0 mm/day (dried out growing media) and
4.5 mm/day in saturated conditions. In many
cases, there will also be drought conditions on
extensive green roofs in Germany [40].
The measured evapotranspiration, by an agri-
cultural field lysimeter station in Berlin, can be up
to 8 mm/day. The potential evaporation on green
roofs is high due to high solar radiation rates on a
roof, high wind speeds, high temperatures, and
low humidity in cities. A full year of measure-
ments allows for selection periods with critical
parameters, including:
1. Summer, dry, or wet growing media – a light
rain event
2. Summer, dry soil, heavy rain event
3. Summer, long wet period, effect of rain events
4. Winter, wet growing media, no frost some rain
5. Winter, wet growing media, frost, snow layer
6. Winter, wet growing media, frost, snow melt,
more rain
Green Roofs: Ecological Functions of the Fifth Facade
When these periods are each studied, a number
of conclusions about retention and evaporation
rates can be generated for Berlin:
1. In the summer situation, nearly all rain quanti-
ties can be retained and be evaporated over the
subsequent days.
2. Surface runoff is lower if the vegetation cover
is complete and the green roof is not inclined.
On flat roofs, in normal situations, the rainwa-
ter will be retained in the coarse structure of the
soil and by some ponding on the roof. In
experiments, the quantity of the runoff was
reduced, and the time lag between the rain
event and discharge was increased when a
green roof was installed [41].
3. During a 10-mm precipitation event in the
summer in a wet period, a 50% storage capac-
ity was achieved in the growing media, with
the additional 50%, i.e., 5 mm, being detained
for a number of hours and discharged slowly
(Bustorf [42]).
Various research groups from Berlin but also in
other climate regions have found remarkably sim-
ilar results.
Figure 1 shows the typical structure of a rain
event. Typically, peak rain full quantity is
achieved shortly after the onset of the rain event
followed by decreased rainfall quantities over
time as the event develops. In layman’s terms, a
Green Roofs: Ecological Functions of the Fifth
Facade, Fig. 1 Schematic function of green roof reten-
tion values. A short downpour is usually followed by
subsequent ongoing drizzle in many if not most storm
events (light line). Green roofs are able to absorb the initial
peak and then break the subsequent runoff from the ongo-
ing drizzle (dark line)
505
short downpour is usually followed by subsequent
ongoing drizzle in many if not most storm events.
Consequently, green roofs are able to absorb the
initial peak and then break the subsequent runoff
occurring from the ongoing drizzle. In conclusion,
the function of a green roof is to absorb initial
storm event precipitation, store the water, and
break the runoff of subsequent rainfall. The stored
water is then evapo-transpired over a matter of
days and maybe even weeks after the rain event.
Green roofs arrest discharge for an extended
duration after the onset of the rain event. On an
exposed roof without a green roof, discharge is
instant and complete. If some extra retention tech-
nology is incorporated into the green roof system,
this time lag can be extended indefinitely. In terms
of urban water management, time lag is critical.
All impervious services have instant and complete
runoff, which is why city streets become flooded
during increasingly frequent storm events.
If discharge is arrested, reduced or delayed
aging urban drainage channels will be capable of
more effectively accommodating the minor
amounts of runoff.
In addition to the runoff reductions, it is impor-
tant to quantify the evaporation contributions of
green roofs. Summer evaporation rates depend on
the amount of water stored in the growing media.
In a Northeastern German climate, three millime-
ters per day of evaporation is the mean under
saturated conditions in summer (Fig. 2, author
measurements, Kaiser [43]).
The results of lysimeter measurements demon-
strate that evaporation also occurs in winter.
Table 1 shows evaporation capacity of NGRs
without irrigation in the Northeastern German
climate.
Several variables are critical in the evaluation
of evaporative contributions of green roofs: latent
heat flux, sensible heat flux, cooling capacitance,
and Bowen ratios. The Bowen ratio is the ratio of
sensible to latent heat in this context; when the
magnitude of this ratio is less than one, a greater
proportion of the available energy at the surface is
conducted to the atmosphere as latent heat than as
sensible heat, and the converse is true for values
greater than one. Table 2 shows the evapotranspi-
ration of a green roof lysimeter in mm/day in
506 Green Roofs: Ecological Functions of the Fifth Facade

Green Roofs: Ecological Functions of the Fifth Facade, Fig. 2 Real evapotranspiration of a green roof in
Neubrandenburg under saturated conditions, measured by lysimeters (compare to Fig. 8)

Green Roofs: Ecological Functions of the Fifth Green Roofs: Ecological Functions of the Fifth
Facade, Table 1 Daily evaporation rates during different Facade, Table 2 Energy demands of evaporation of rain-
seasons (author lysimeter measurements, water on different roof surfaces mean daily values [40, 44]
Neubrandenburg) [44]
Net Latent heat Sensible
Evaporation values in Growing media radiation flux heat flux
Season (mm/day) saturation Roof Wh/m2/ Wh/m2/ Wh/m2/ Bowen
Winter 0.1–0.5 Well saturated, surfaces day day day ratioc
no frost Mean 2,463 1,888 575 0.30
Spring/ 0.6–1.5 Well saturated global
autumn value
Summer, 1.5–4.5 Well saturated Bitumen 1,950 123 1827 14.85
hot roofa
Summer, 0.0–0.2 Dry substrate Green 2,057 1,185 872 0.74
hot roofa
Gravel 2,132 687 1,445 2.10
roofb
Green 1,800 1,258 542 0.43
latent and sensible heat flux alongside the Bowen roofb
ratio. At night, the condensation process can also a
UFA-Fabrik Berlin, 4 June until 31 August, 2000. Precip-
be observed. The evaporation of 1 mm of water itation 201.4 mm. Mean global radiation 5,354 Wh/m2/day
b
means 1 L/m2 converts 680 Wh of energy into Neubrandenburg, 26th April until 8th July 2004. Mean
global radiation 4,848 Wh/m2/day
latent heat. The resultant cooling rate of 3 mm/m2/ c
Bowen ratio of sensible to latent heat
of evapotranspiration in summer represents
2,040 Wh. A before/after impact mathematical
model of an NGR as a retrofit can be seen at In most models and simulations of the potential
http://www.sieker.de/modules/wfchannel/index. daily evaporation rates of NGRs, rates are usually
php?pagenum ¼ 5 taken from calculations from the data provided by
Green Roofs: Ecological Functions of the Fifth Facade
standard meteorology stations, which focus on
agricultural crop production. The difference with
extensive green roofs is the vegetation’s ability to
survive quite long periods of water stress and
regenerate like desert plant species. Poa compressa
is an example of a plant that has this ability. If the
goal is to create a constant cooling system with
green roofs, then irrigation is advisable.
In the late 1970s, the German green roof
industry’s position vis-a-vis the irrigation of exten-
sive green roofs was that green roofs should not be
irrigated. In the 1980s, this position changed as
rainwater-harvesting concepts and technologies
became popular in Germany. Today, green roofs are
an integrated technology in the overall rainwater
management concept. Evapotranspiration from an
NGR, which is irrigated during the summer in a hot
country and temperate region alike using water
harvested from rainwater, provides significant
cooling effects in combination with rainwater man-
agement. Green roofs can provide an integrated solu-
tion to many of the challenges found in the modern
built environment. While summer irrigation allows
for greater diversity of plant species on a green roof,
the maintenance of local biodiversity suggests it may
be desirable to reduce irrigation (see “Biodiversity
and Green Roofs”). What is becoming apparent is
that green roofs can provide highly sophisticated
solutions to many seemingly intractable problems
faced by cities, and green roofs are infinitely fine-
tunable to achieve very specific aims.
One additional value to consider in the quantifi-
cation of green roof contributions is the thermal
insulation value. After more than 10 days without
rain, green roofs, which have not been designed for
extended drought, show evidence of stressed condi-
tions due to the lack of water in the system. Spe-
cially designed natural green roof systems, such as
the Greek “oikosteges” natural green roof ecosys-
tem, have been able to survive for over 6 months
without any inputs of water. So, while the evapora-
tive cooling capacity of a green roof may decrease
the dry growing media, it still acts as a thermal
insulation layer. This means that the green roof
medium provides good insulation but is not always
beneficial to the plants unless the whole system is
purposely designed for such situations. It is the
designer’s responsibility to manage this conflict,
507
by installing an irrigation system, accepting drought
in the vegetation, or designing systems for such
situations. Under normal cases, most green roof
plants regenerate again when it rains.
To encourage further understanding of the ben-
efits of green infrastructure on urban water sys-
tems, further studies will assist in identifying
regional idiosyncrasies. Green roofs work suit-
ably in temperate and tropic climates, but local
research facilities are helpful in identifying site-
specific plants and soils. An early finding of Ger-
man test plots situated in Hannover was that the
pitch of the roof has no significant influence on the
percolation of water [36] but may have an impact
on discharge rate. This research showed that dis-
charge rate and discharge volume were dependent
on the depth of the growing media, total green
roof area, the roof inclination, and the distance to
the nearest drain. The discharge values differ
between 0.6 for very shallow substrates of about
4 cm and 0.4 for 15–20 cm depths under con-
trolled conditions in green houses. The substrates
were filled into boxes, which were then fully
saturated with water before being subjected to
periods of experimental rainfall. This enabled dif-
ferent growing media to be compared. The influ-
ence of plant species was not tested by this model.
Green roof technology is an interdisciplinary
technology for urban water management – and
collaborative research with a focus on civil engi-
neering would be invaluable Knoll [45] (Fig. 3).
In Berlin-Kreuzberg, a system was developed to
collect gray water and rainwater from 120 apart-
ments to be treated in a constructed wetland and
used to flush toilets. This reduced the demands on
potable water by up to 50%. The saved costs for
the potable water were almost the same as the
installation cost, meaning an instant return on
investment [22]. The effective use of intensive
and extensive green roofs for urban water man-
agement can also be seen in Stuttgart (Fig. 4).
Green roofs are an important part of “green
technology” and should be part of a far larger
sustainable development plan for the world’s cit-
ies. Green roofs should be standard elements in
the calculation of water management in buildings
and cities. The data from FLL [35] and other
research should be basic elements in programs to
508
Green Roofs: Ecological Functions of the Fifth
Facade, Fig. 3 Block 6. Plant sewer system in Berlin
with rainwater cleaning facility in the back yard of a
residential area of the City Center of Berlin; details on
this project can be seen at: http://www.stadtentwicklung.
berlin.de/bauen/oekologisches_bauen/download/modellvor
haben/flyer_block6_engl.pdf
Green Roofs: Ecological Functions of the Fifth
Facade, Fig. 4 Abb. 4. An example of a rain garden
infrastructure on an intensive green roof/roof garden in
Stuttgart
model the ecological footprint of buildings. Green
roofs must be integrated into policies, regulations,
building codes, and other tools for sustainability.
Quantifying Energy and Urban Heat
Reduction Impacts of Green Roofs
The thermodynamics and thermal performance of
green roofs have been studied extensively since
the 1970s. Ongoing studies in Neubrandenburg
Green Roofs: Ecological Functions of the Fifth Facade
reveal the striking differences in typical surface
and subsurface temperatures of a gravel roof and a
dry extensive green roof on three selected summer
days (Fig. 5). Remarkable is the attenuation value
of the subsurface temperature of the green roof
(green line “BZT”). The bitumen roof surface can
exceed 70  C [30]. This facility has a data set from
a longitudinal study of about 10 years with ther-
mal values at 5 min intervals comparing extensive
dry green roofs with a gravel layer on nongreened
roofs. The graph showcases three extremely hot
summer days without rain. The green line is the
surface temperature underneath the growing
media. The red line shows the surface temperature
of the green roof. The gravel temperature is shown
by the yellow line. It can be seen that the red and
yellow lines follow the air temperature. The air
temperature, measured in a ventilated shaded area,
has the same peaks and troughs but at a lower
level. The light blue (gravel temperature) and the
green line (growing media temperature) show the
impact of green roofs clearly.
The impacts of surface temperatures extend
beyond cooling loads and urban heat island to
surface longevity. Roof surface building materials
are deteriorated through exposure to ultraviolet
energy and heat. A green roof extends the life
expectancy of roof membranes helping to defray
the installation costs.
The thermal performance of well-constructed
green roofs acts as insulation to reduce summer
cooling and winter heating, which reduces build-
ing energy requirements. In a 2009 study, the
author calculated the additional insulation effect
of a 10-cm layer of growing media [30]. The result
was a reduction in energy consumption during
winter months in Central Europe, equivalent to
that achieved by an extra 1 cm of conventional
insulation. A detached house with standard insu-
lation achieves an energy saving equivalent to a
“week of free heating..” In Vancouver, a total heat
flow reduction up to 70% was measured for
30 days in a moderate spring [46].
Green roofs are most valuable thermodynami-
cally in the summer contributing to reduce air
conditioning requirements. Air conditioning use
in Europe is on the rise, as captured in the “Report
on Energy Efficiency and Certification of Central
Green Roofs: Ecological Functions of the Fifth Facade
Green Roofs: Ecological Functions of the Fifth
Facade, Fig. 5 Real summer surface and subsurface tem-
perature performance over 3 days, 16 to 18 of August 2009
(measurements in Neubrandenburg) Green line:
Air Conditioners” [47] of the European commis-
sion. While energy consumption for heating has
decreased in recent years due to the use of insula-
tion and other energy efficiency strategies, during
the same period, the use of air conditioning
increased at a rate of 12% per year in Germany.
In Germany, an increase in energy consump-
tion for cooling and ventilation of 260% is esti-
mated until the year 2020 [29]. In stark contrast to
this, the “climate protection program” of the Ger-
man government set the target for fossil fuel use
reduction at 40%. This ambitious goal is mainly
based on the reduction of energy consumption in
the building sector. Cooling a room through
509
temperature under the green roof substrate Dark blue
line: Air temperature at 1 m Light blue: underneath gravel
substrate yellow: Surface gravel Red: surface green roof
electricity releases an even higher amount of
energy outside of the building through waste
heat from the air conditioner. This approach to
cooling contributes to a further increase to the
urban heat island effect. Green roofs provide a
more environmentally effective alternative to air
conditioning.
The cooling effect of green roof systems must
be studied extensively in the various regions of the
world. Fang [48] worked on the conditions of
Taiwan with climate chamber experiments. The
conclusion of this study stated that a thermal
reduction of surface temperatures between 20%
and 60% was possible depending on the depth of
510
the substrate, its moisture content, and the vege-
tation type and amount of coverage. The thermo-
dynamic performance of NGRs in Greece is being
studied by the Metsovio National Technical Uni-
versity of Athens. They have studied the oikostegi
installed on the Greek Treasury in Constitution
Square in Athens, opposite the Greek Parliament.
They concluded among other things that the
oikostegi has significantly altered the thermody-
namics of the 10-story building. http://www.
oikosteges.gr/index.php/greenroofs/research.
On a global scale, evaporation of water is the
largest and most important component for the
conversion of solar radiation but also the largest
hydrological component contributing to precipi-
tation and the subsequent biodiversity we depend
on. Only water that evaporates causes rainfall.
The evaporation creates a large and small water
cycle of condensation and precipitation [29].
Figure 6 shows how global radiation components
are converted on the surface of the earth. The data
shown represents one square meter. The diagram
shows that 328 Wh (7.3%) is reflected, and
1,724 Wh (38%) is directly converted to thermal
radiation due to the increase of surface temperatures.
The total long-wave radiation consists of the atmo-
spheric counterradiation and the thermal radiation of
the surface. The net radiation can either be converted
into sensible heat or converted into latent heat
through evaporation. At 1,888 Wh/(m2d), the energy
conversion by evaporation is more important than
Green Roofs: Ecological Functions of the Fifth
Facade, Fig. 6 The summer radiation balance of a black
asphalt roof as compared to a green roof [29]. Both the
green roof studies in Neubrandenburg (Figs. 7 and 8) and
those conducted by Karen Liu in Canada [46] show that the
Green Roofs: Ecological Functions of the Fifth Facade
the thermal radiation and even influences thermal
radiation due to the change in surface temperatures.
The atmospheric counterradiation of 7,776 Wh is a
theoretical component and can be considered as an
exchange of long-wave radiation between two sur-
faces. When green roofs are irrigated through on-site
rain capture or irrigation when needed, the evapora-
tion effect results in major cooling, making green
roofs natural cooling systems (Fig. 6).
Conventional non-vegetated roofs diminish
and even eliminate evapotranspiration in cities.
The deforestation that is occurring worldwide
means losses in evaporation and higher tempera-
tures. The two most promising ways of reversing
global warming trends are urban greening and
reforestation. On the global scale, the reduction
in evaporation is what is mainly responsible for
climate change [25 (Kravčík et al. 2007; www.
waterparadigm.org)]. There is a rise in global
temperatures in conjunction with increased CO2
emissions. Both of these states are caused by
reduced vegetation on the Earth and increased
human development [49]. The correlation
between CO2 levels and the global temperatures
represents the relation between the amount of
biomass, i.e., vegetation, the photosynthesis pro-
cess, and the evapotranspiration of that biomass.
The evaporation of one cubic meter of water
requires 680 kWh of heat. Green roofs are the most
efficient way to cool down a city. The evaporation
of water is the cheapest and most effective way to
overall heat flux in the summer is greater than in the winter.
Consequently, the cooling effect of green roofs in the
summer is even more important than the insulation effect
in the winter
Green Roofs: Ecological Functions of the Fifth Facade
Green Roofs: Ecological Functions of the Fifth
Facade, Fig. 7 Net radio meter. Details from the research
measurement facilities on a green roof at the University of
Applied Sciences, Neubrandenburg, one of the net – radi-
ometers installed above different roof types to calculate the
radiation balance
Green Roofs: Ecological Functions of the Fifth
Facade, Fig. 8 Lysimeter. Detail of the roof lysimeter
installation to measure the real water content of roof grow-
ing media and gravel roof
cool surfaces, and if the rate of evaporation can be
slowed, the effect is more efficient and longer
lasting. This is what a green roof does. Vegetated
structures evaporate water slowly and use CO2.
Trees are the most effective cooling systems
[50]. Trees must be planted in cities on a massive
scale in every available space. Massive implemen-
tation of living wall and green roof technologies
must also be implemented.
Rainwater harvesting techniques, which focus
on evaporation rather than storage could play a
511
key role in further adaptation and mitigation strat-
egies against the urban heat island effect and
global warming. Green roofs and green facades
have a huge potential for decreasing the environ-
mental impact of urbanization. On a global scale,
the reduction in evaporation is the main cause of
climate change [(see www.waterparadigm.org)].
Simulations of global climate changes still neglect
the main driving factor for the global climate: the
evapotranspiration of vegetation. Using evapora-
tive cooling with green roofs offers a 41–93%
higher efficiency for the cooling energetic process
than producing air conditioning with electricity
[51, 52].
Green roofs as well as vertical green systems
(VGS) or also known as living walls are protec-
tion against temperature extremes, which provide
energy-saving opportunities worldwide. The
future must quantify these benefits in urban plan-
ning, incorporating green density factors and/or
the green cooling factors [52].
Enhancing Plant Biodiversity with Green
Roofs
The third major contribution of green roofs is the
enhancement of plant biodiversity in urban areas –
with significant benefits for bee, bird, insect, and
animal biodiversity. Roof gardens or intensive
green roofs are known as “urban forestry” in
Asia. A wide range of plant species are suitable
for roof gardens, which fulfill the design condi-
tions mentioned.
Most natural green roofs (NGRs) are promoted
as self-sustaining ecosystems. A plant cover of
about 60–75% indicates that a high-quality green
roof has been achieved; however, in many cases,
the focus is only on few specific types of plant
species. NGRs can and should also be designed to
encompass a high range of biodiversity.
Depending on the type of the project, a focus on
regional native plants can be integrated into the
design of the installation. To achieve this end, the
right selection of plant species, proper design of
substrates, and a variety of different methods of
ecosystem establishment are important.
512
The number of plant species on a green roof
depends on a number of parameters, such as the
manner in which plants are introduced to green
roofs. The following is a brief description of the
most common methods of plant establishment in
low-profile extensive green roofs:
• Seeding (affordable for flat roofs).
• Sedum sprigs (cheap and easy, establishment
takes about 1 year).
• Plugs – there are a nurseries, in countries where
roof greening is popular, around the world, that
specialize in green roof plants.
• Pre-produced turf mats. This technology was
developed a few decades ago. Most of the turf
mats include drought-adapted grasses and also
several Sedum species. Depending on the local
situation, grasses are often the best competitors
under shady conditions, and Sedum species are
usually the winners in the areas with full sun.
This method offers a complete vegetation
cover from the first day of installation. This is
important for pitched green roofs and high-rise
buildings with a high wind uplift to avoid the
erosion of soil and decline of plant species.
Seasonal changes in the vegetation structure
can be observed. The timing of blooming on
extensive green roofs is related to the frequency
of rain events. In humid and wet summer seasons,
more flowering is normal; also more pioneer
plants invade spontaneously during wet seasons.
The acceptance of unplanned plant species
depends on the aims of the project.
Natural green roofs (EGR) are self-sufficient
ecosystems [53, 54]. Many NGRs have low static
loads with a shallow layer of artificial growing
media of about 5–10 cm in depth. After installa-
tion, they are often nearly maintenance free. Nor-
mally, a little irrigation is used in the first year to
support and encourage the initial vegetation cover.
The conditions on a roof are characterized by
higher wind speed and high direct sun irradiation.
To establish vegetation on roofs, it is helpful to
have higher parapet walls to protect the plants to
establish the plant cover more easily. In addition,
pergolas and other supporting structures help the
plants grow better. In subsequent years, only a
Green Roofs: Ecological Functions of the Fifth Facade
single annual inspection is necessary to identify
any maintenance needs. These needs involve
mainly the removal of invasive tree seedlings
and erosion control. The vegetation will adapt to
the local climate situation after a short while. It
will grow to a nearly full vegetation cover without
any additional irrigation and fertilizer.
A limited number of plant species are suitable
for extreme NGRs without any irrigation. Most of
the adopted plant species have their origins on
sandy dunes or poor soils and wall structures in
marginal agricultural land [55]. In normal cases, it
is a mixture of mosses and lichens combined with
a small number of vascular plants. Succulents are
one of the most well suited NGR plants. Conse-
quently, many designers, particularly in Germany
and German-influenced regions, use Sedum spe-
cies. Specialized nurseries offer a wide selection
of Sedum for green roofs [55, 56]. But also a
number of grasses can dominate such roofs,
where the water storage capacity of the growing
media becomes important. The vegetation of the
early period of modern green roofs constructed
before the World War II was investigated by Kreh
et al. [57, 58]. This research came to the conclu-
sion that a substrate layer of about 10 cm is suit-
able for a Poetum compressa – meadow as the
climax vegetation. The work of Darius and
Drepper [59] correlated soil depth in centimeters
and the successful establishment of vascular
plants. This research concluded that at a depth of
less than 10 cm, there will be a cover of mosses
and Sedum in Germany. Grasses began to become
established when substrate depths were 10 cm,
and deeper than 20 cm substrate depths can sup-
port brown field grasses like Calamagrostis
epigejos.
Research by Tan [60] suggested that succulent
plants from South Africa are suitable for green
roofs throughout the hot humid tropics. Well-
selected dry-adapted plant species can survive
for about 49 days in the Singapore without water
from precipitation or irrigation. Some plants can
last longer even though they look dead; they will
recover when the rain begins [61].
The addition of fertilizer, especially in the early
year of green roofs is still a debate. Thirty years
ago, decentralized oven heating emitted so much
Green Roofs: Ecological Functions of the Fifth Facade 513

pollution, which included micro nutrients such as biodiversity and successful natural green roofs in
sulfur and several others, that the EGRs had a the British climate. The most well-suited species
good nutrition supply. When “Clean Air Policies” were a number of Sedum species, Festuca, and spe-
were instituted in cities, a nutrient deficit cies such as Armeria maritima and Prunella vulgaris.
occurred, and a debate began within the green In the more arid climate of Eastern Germany, on the
roof guideline commission in Germany [35] other hand, the last two plant species are not able to
about the need for fertilizing EGRs. Poor nutrient survive on an average extensive green roof.
availability is good for extreme plant species. A 20-year longitudinal study concluded that in
However, added fertilizers could help to achieve Berlin, for example, chive (Allium schoenoprasum)
a more complete vegetation cover. was one of the most suitable species [53] alongside a
Natural green roofs provide the opportunity to number of ideal plant species selection for green
introduce shrubs and small trees to generate roofs (Table 3) and a growing list of invasive species
medium and high-profile green roof solutions. that should be annually culled (Table 4).
Roof gardens must be carefully designed with In conclusion, the plant biodiversity that can be
the knowledge of the mature heights and sizes of reintroduced into cities through green roofs will
selected plants along with their maintenance depend on a critical set of variables:
requirements. Plants with aggressive root systems
should be avoided. Bamboo is a popular plant, • The project climate Location
nowadays, which is a disaster on roof gardens • The project orientation or solar access
because of its aggressive root system, invasive • Size of the areas to be greened
nature, and uncontrollable growth. • The variation in growing media
Parking decks can utilize shade trees or green • Plant species in the surrounding area
pergolas to protect cars from direct solar heating. • The age of the project (young projects include
This reduces air conditioning requirements in for the first years a high number of annual plant
cars, which again feds into the virtuous circle species, mature projects could have well-
mentioned earlier. Parking decks are an important established vegetation)
source for greenery. In Singapore, for example,
there is a government program to setup green Green Roofs: Ecological Functions of the Fifth
roofs in parking areas as an open space resource. Facade, Table 3 Plant species selection for EGR
Rebuilding and renovation work can cause Endangered plants, Saxifraga tridactylites [57
damage to the vegetation and what is observed is growing well on NGRs Kreh]
the arrival of annual plants as biological succes- (temperate climate of Teesdalia nudicaulis
sion begins again. Urban birds such as pigeons Northern Europe) Poa bulbosa
and doves bring in seed of several pioneers, which Some of the fittest in Sedum album and many
will grow there for a while on the roof. There are Central Europe more of the genus Sedum
some 100-year-old EGRs which are irreplaceable Cloves, many Fabaceae are
good competitors on poor
learning grounds [62]. Many of these will be and dry soils
removed in the coming years as these buildings Grasses, like genus
are renovated. The potential value of these old Festuca, Poa,
green roofs is unestimable as they are living Allium schoenoprasum
examples of how a green roof develops and so Fittest plant species in Delosperma cooperi,
should be protected in the same way as other subtropics and tropics, Cyanotis cristata, Wedelia
selected after [49, 50] trilobata, Liriope muscari,
natural ecosystems are protected.
Ophiopogon japonicus
The ideal suite of plant materials – sedums, (this is a favorite in
grasses, shrubs and trees – must be developed climate Germany for indoor living
by climate. At the University of Sheffield, research walls, Koehler).
[63] concluded that plant selection and depth of Bryophyllum “mother of
thousands” – Crassulaceae
substrate were the vital characteristics of rich
514 Green Roofs: Ecological Functions of the Fifth Facade

Ecological Synergies There are a number of benefits not previously

discussed that form a mandate for further research.
Green roofs have dramatically improved the biodi-
versity in cities and need to be a critical solution to • Green roofs may offer effective solutions to
managing stormwater, reducing urban heat island, noise reduction from airplanes and other over-
and enhancing biodiversity for species preservation. head sources. Maureen’s study of Schiphol
A total overview of all ecological benefits of Airport in Amsterdam showed a substantial
green roofs cannot be described for all regions in 5 dB(A) drop.
this entry. However, Table 5 introduces additional • Green roofs may offer effective solutions to
ecological benefits of green roofs from research urban air pollution. Binding fine particles is a
around the world. benefit of green roofs which is currently being
studied. Yang’s [70] research in Chicago con-
Green Roofs: Ecological Functions of the Fifth cluded that an area of about 20 ha of green
Facade, Table 4 Groups of plants, considered to be roofs can capture about 1,675 kg/m2 10 parti-
troublesome weeds, which should be removed during the cles each year. Gas born emissions, like ozone
annual maintenance work
and NOx, can be sequestered at of about 27%
Recommendation of total emissions.
Tree Birch, Prunus, Salix, Annual
• The plant diversity of EGRs is good for wild-
seedlings Hippophae inspection
life as well, especially as the plant ecosystem
Grasses Agropyron,
Calamagrostis modifies the poor and extreme climatic condi-
Herbs Taraxacum tions found on roofs with higher radiation and
Mosses Several taxa, removal higher wind speed. The importance of bee hab-
needed, must be itats, insects, rodents, and birds that are
discussed in relation supported by green roofs should be further
to the project aims.
quantified.

Green Roofs: Ecological Functions of the Fifth Facade, Table 5 Main ecological effects of green roofs [64, updated]
Private/
public
Monetary efficiency Source good
1 Insulation, 3–10% better than a gravel 40.0 €/building Köhler Private
winter, roof, 100 m3 gas reduction (2009) [64]
Central each year for a single house
Europe,
Winter, Depending on the type of – [65] Spala Private
southern building, no effect
Europe,
2 Air can Insulation effect and Up to 20% reduction, depending on the [66]
substitute evaporation cooling of about climate in upper level of a multistory Alcazar
summer 3 l/m2 house
3 Urban Cooler surfaces in summer, Monetarization, done by Banting et al. [67]
climate better insulation in Toronto. A green roof calculator Banting
exists on www.greenroof.org under
development
4 Noise Test facilities are installed in A reduction of about 5 dB(A), [68]
reduction Vancouver depending on structure, moisture, and Maureen
some more
5 Biodiversity Biodiversity depends on No monetary effect [69]
various factors Köhler
Green Roofs: Ecological Functions of the Fifth Facade
• Green roofs may measurably affect the quality
of the water discharged during a storm event,
supporting for effective reuse and healthier
habitats. The ongoing use of toxic materials
and additives by the construction industry
could be ameliorated by green roofs, such as
the removal of heavy metals from rainwater.
Green roofs have become a topic of research in
a plethora of disciplines combining field experi-
mentation with mathematical and computer
modeling algorithms. There are more than 1000
peer-reviewed publications as of 2019 in various
disciplines (a M. Kohler survey with Springerlink
and similar data bank systems). The combined
research points to the significance of the fifth
facade (and green walls for the other four) as a
critical partner in the global water cycle, heat,
carbon, and air quality management as well as
critical biodiversity for the survival of species.
Since 1995 at the first world climate confer-
ence in Berlin (COP 1) to the last one in Madrid
(COP 25), participants have been searching for
solutions to mitigate climate change. There will
not be only one strategy, but there is consensus
that global deforestation and the ever-increasing
levels of urbanized land worldwide need strate-
gies to increase vegetation wherever possible. The
quality of an “urban forest “ in street canyons and
on the surface of buildings both must play a role.
From the perspective of biodiversity, only a
selected number of species are able to survive on
shallow substrates. Therefore, weight must be
given to endemic species. Green roofs play a
relevant role to reduce urban air temperatures by
2  C over a period of 20 years [70, 71]. Vegetated
surfaces are critical elements of the blue-green
infrastructure to handle stronger urban storm
events with high efficiency [43]. Green roofs
play an integrative role in rainwater savings and
management [72, 73]. Urban surfaces offer oppor-
tunities for urban agriculture and species
preservation [74].
“Natural Green Roofs “ are a critical and integra-
tive element of sustainable architecture, with amaz-
ing potential for aesthetic, performative, and culture
diversity [74]. The next generation of natural green
roofs offers a platform for exchange and
515
collaboration between industrial and emerging
countries to introduce well-engineered natural solu-
tions to address global environmental challenges.
Future Directions
Proponents of green roof technologies, such as the
World Green Roof Infrastructure Network (http://
worldgreenroof.org), are working to ensure that
all local and national governments institute incen-
tives for the implementation of massive scale
urban greening. The experience of German roof
greening over the last 30 years suggests that gov-
ernment incentives to individuals, businesses, and
the state lead to significant increases in the imple-
mentation of green roof technologies. To date, the
cities that have taken green roof technologies
most seriously are mainly found in Germany and
result in large-scale implementation. Cities such
as Berlin and Stuttgart have high adoption rates,
which are measured in percentage points of avail-
able city area. Cities in Austria, such as the city of
Linz, follow close behind. Other European cities,
such as Copenhagen, Malmö, and London, have
ambitious plans for roof greening in the coming
years. An important next step in the implementa-
tion of large-scale greening globally is the map-
ping and modeling of successful initiatives that
are being taken by local and national govern-
ments, agencies, and stakeholders. A full over-
view of the state of roof greening in Europe was
given in a workshop at the World Green Roof
Congress in Nürtingen 2009 [75], to be updated
in 2020 at the World Congress of Building Green
in Berlin.
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518
73. Franken M (2007) Gestion de aguas. Plural editores,
La Paz 74. Ksiazek-Mikenas K, Köhler, M (2018)
Traits for stress-tolerance are associated with long-
term plant survival on green roofs. Journal of Urban
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Additional Books and Reviews
Dunnet N, Kingsbury N (2008) Planting green roofs and
living walls, 2nd edn. Timber, Portland
Ernst W (2005) Dachabdichtung Dachbegrünung. IRB-
Fraunhofer Gesellschaft Stuttgart
Green Roofs: Ecological Functions of the Fifth Facade
Köhler M, Ansel W, Appl R, Betzler F, Mann G, Ottelé M,
Wünschmann S (2012) Handbuch Bauwerks-
begrünung. R. Müller Verlag, Köln, 250p
Briz J, Koehler M, de Felipe, I, (2018) Green Cities in the
World. Ed. Agricola Espaniola, Madrid. 2nd.
Ed. Publication of the World Green infrastructure
network
Recommended Additional Internet Links
https://unfccc.int/cop25
https://www.cbd.int/cop/
https://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/biodiversity/strat
egy/index_en.htm
http://oikosteges.gr/index.php/studies
http://www.gebaeudekuehlung.de
http://www.stadtentwicklung.berlin.de/bauen/
oekologisches_bauen
http://www.waterparadigm.org
http://www.evapotranspiration.net
www.worldgreenroof.org
www.livingroofs.org
 and heat-transfer reservoir for heating or
Geothermal Conditioning: cooling, without further conversion such as
Critical Sources for electric power generation
Sustainability Geothermal heat pump A conditioning device
that operates on a mechanical vapor compres-
Nina J. Baird sion refrigeration cycle and takes advantage of
Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics, the earth’s thermal energy and heat capacity to
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA transfer energy between a ground-coupled liq-
uid and the refrigerant and between the refrig-
erant and interior conditioning air or fluid
Article Outline Low-exergy system Heating and/or cooling sys-
tem that provides energy at a temperature close
Glossary to room temperature for efficient utilization of
Definition of the Subject low-grade energy sources
Introduction Open loop system A system designed to use
The Earth’s Thermal Energy Sources and Ground groundwater or surface water for the purpose
Temperature Distribution of extracting or rejecting heat for building
Geothermal Conditioning Principles and conditioning
Approaches Closed loop system A continuous, sealed,
Subsurface Soil and Rock Geothermal underground, or submerged heat exchanger
Conditioning Systems through which a heat-transfer fluid passes to
Earth Sheltering and returns from building conditioning
Earth Tubes, Also Called Earth Pipes or Earth-to- equipment
Air Heat Exchangers Underground thermal energy storage
Horizontal Trench, Pipe, or Slinky Coil (UTES) A subsurface system for storing heat
Vertical Boreholes, Shallow and/or cold using groundwater and/or the
Vertical Boreholes, Deep ground in natural or constructed media
Borehole Thermal Energy Storage
Water-Based Geothermal Conditioning Systems
Aquifer-Based System Definition of the Subject
Standing Column or Coaxial Well
Surface Water System Geothermal conditioning is the use of the earth’s
Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage thermal energy and storage capacity for heating,
Abandoned Mine Tunnel/Cavity Systems cooling, and ventilation. These types of condition-
Sewer and Water Treatment Infrastructure ing strategies can transfer heat to the indoor envi-
Systems ronment using the ground, groundwater, or surface
Installed Capacity and Annual Energy Use water – resources that are abundant and ubiquitous –
Future Directions to satisfy some or all of the heating load. They can
Bibliography also capitalize on the heat capacity and thermal
inertia of the earth and its waters by transferring
Glossary excess heat from indoors to outdoors, providing
cooling with substantially reduced energy consump-
Geothermal direct use Use of thermal energy in tion from conventional cooling and negligible ther-
the earth or earth-coupled fluid as a heat source mal impact on the outdoor environment.

© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020 519

V. Loftness (ed.), Sustainable Built Environments,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-0684-1_422
Originally published in
R. A. Meyers (ed.), Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology, © Springer Science+Business Media LLC 2018
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2493-6_422-3
520
Geothermal conditioning, like solar condition-
ing, includes passive and active strategies. Both
have a long history. Passive earth sheltering has
been used by plant and animal species throughout
time. Active geothermal conditioning as defined
here for heating, cooling, and ventilation was not
broadly tracked until 1995 when geothermal heat
pumps were added to global reports of geothermal
direct-use installations [1]. However, frequently
cited early examples are the district heating sys-
tem installed in Boise, Idaho (USA), in 1892 to
heat 400 homes [2] and a residential geothermal
steam heat system in Tuscany, Italy, introduced
between 1910 and 1940 [3]. In present times, the
Paleiskwartier district geothermal system in ‘s-
Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands, includes a
large pond and aquifer thermal energy storage
(ATES) coupled with heat pumps to condition a
mixed-use development of 1200 housing units
and more than 135,000 m2 of office space, retail,
and entertainment [4].
Accessible geothermal energy includes ground
temperatures in excess of 150  C, hot enough to
generate electricity and higher than temperatures
that can be used directly for building condition-
ing. In such situations, building conditioning can
be linked to geothermal power production through
energy cascades, but the cost and complexity of
power production processes substantially exceed
those for building conditioning alone. In addition,
access to geothermal resources that support elec-
tricity generation is far more limited. For those
reasons, this entry will focus on direct-use geo-
thermal conditioning. References that address
geothermal power production and geothermal
energy cascades are provided in the Future Direc-
tions and Books and Reviews sections.
Introduction
In 1973, an Icelandic engineer, Baldur Lindal,
listed current and potential uses of geothermal
energy for conditioning and industrial processes
and their temperature requirements. That list
became known as the Lindal diagram, shown in
Fig. 1 with conditioning processes highlighted.
Since that time, substantial improvements in the
Geothermal Conditioning: Critical Sources for Sustainability
availability and use of insulation products have
allowed well-designed building enclosures to
manage an increasing portion of the conditioning
loads. When that occurs, heating and cooling can
be provided at temperatures much closer to the
human comfort range, no longer needing to over-
come extreme heat loss or gain at the perimeter.
Sustainably designed buildings can satisfy occu-
pant comfort requirements with smaller mechani-
cal equipment that operates at lower supply
temperatures, supporting low-exergy systems
(see Fig. 2). This puts building conditioning
squarely in the geothermal “sweet spot,” a tem-
perature range available to almost every building
in contact with the earth. Increased use of geother-
mal conditioning strategies will significantly
lower conventional energy consumption, peak
demand, and the corresponding carbon emissions,
if done with understanding of these systems and
their interaction with the environment.
This entry begins with a discussion of the
earth’s thermal energy and its ability to supply
and store heat. The range of geothermal condi-
tioning approaches are then described and illus-
trated with pertinent examples. Available data on
global use of geothermal conditioning are pre-
sented, and likely future developments in the
design and application of geothermal condition-
ing technology are discussed. Finally, printed and
electronic sources of additional information about
geothermal conditioning are enumerated.
The Earth’s Thermal Energy Sources and
Ground Temperature Distribution
The European Union succinctly defines geother-
mal energy as the energy stored in the form of heat
beneath the surface of the solid earth (RES Direc-
tive 2009/28/EC). Nothing in that definition, how-
ever, suggests the dynamic nature of the heat
storage processes. Some of the shortwave solar
radiation incident on the surface is absorbed and
conducted into soil and rock. Precipitation, either
rain or snow melt that percolates into the subsur-
face, can transport this thermal energy substan-
tially farther into underlying aquifers and the soil
and rock surrounding them. Thermal energy is
Geothermal Conditioning: Critical Sources for Sustainability 521

Temperature Application
(C)
200

190

180 Evaporation of highly concentrated solutions, Refrigeration by ammonia

absorption, Digestion in paper pulp (Kraft)
170 Heavy water via hydrogen-sulfide process Conventional
Drying of diatomaceous earth power production
160 Drying of fish meal
Drying of lumber
150 Alumina via Bayer’s process

140 Drying farm products at high rates

Canning of food
130 Evaporation in sugar refining. Extraction of salts by evaporation and
crystallization, Fresh water by distillation
120 Most multi-effect evaporation. Concentration of saline solutions.

110 Drying and curing of light aggregate cement slabs

100 Drying of organic materials, seaweeds, grass, vegetables, etc.

Washing and drying of wool
90 Drying of stock fish
Intense de-icing operations
80 Space heating (buildings and greenhouses)

70 Refrigeration (low temperature limit)

60 Animal husbandry
Greenhouses by combined space and hotbed heating
50 Mushroom growing
Baleonology
40 Soil warming

30 Swimming pools, biodegradation, fermentations, Warm water for year-

round mining in cold climates, De-icing
20 Hatching of fish. Fish farming

10

Geothermal Conditioning: Critical Sources for Sustainability, Fig. 1 Original Lindal diagram: geothermal energy
uses

also created within the earth through the decay of
radioactive isotopes such as U238 and Th232 in
granite and basalt in the earth’s crust and through
earthquake friction and the formation of new
crust. These types of heat energy, in addition to
thermal energy stored when the earth was formed,
are transferred via conduction and convection
from the interior of the earth to its surface. At
the surface, long wave radiation and convective
flow to the atmosphere balance the thermal energy
inputs. The earth’s total heat energy content is
estimated to be 12–24 1030 J [5].
Within the earth’s internal energy reservoir,
temperatures are estimated to reach 5000  C (see
522 Geothermal Conditioning: Critical Sources for Sustainability

°C Low Range of Conditioning Technology/Process

100

90

80
Cogeneration supply for urban heating system
70

60

50
Fan coil heating water supply
40
Conventional boiler supply temperature
30

20 Floor heating, Ceiling heating water supply, Wall panel heating

10 Ceiling cooling water supply

Sewer water supply temperature
0 District cooling, Fan coil cooling water supply, Earth sheltering, Earth tube supply air, Extended
range heat pump entering water temperature: cooling
-10 Extended range heat pump entering water temperature: heating

Geothermal Conditioning: Critical Sources for Sustainability, Fig. 2 Low-temperature/low-exergy conditioning

Geothermal Conditioning: Critical Sources for Sus-

tainability, Table 1 Earth temperature profile [6] that temperature range in the top 10 m of the
earth’s surface.
Earth layer Depth (km) Temperature ( C)
Solar Energy Input: When sun strikes the
Near-surface 0–0.02 Similar to mean annual
solar zone air temperature earth’s surface, the radiation must be reflected
Earth’s crust 0–30 Up to 1000 from the surface, absorbed by the surface, or
Earth’s Up to 3000 1000–3000 transmitted through the surface to material
mantle below. For most ground surfaces, the radiation is
Earth’s core Up to 6370 3000–5000 either reflected or absorbed; some transmission
occurs through snow and ice. In approximate per-
centages, of the total solar radiation that enters the
earth’s atmosphere, roughly 55% reaches the
Table 1). However, because the earth has been earth’s surface where 4% is immediately reflected
drilled only to a depth of 12,262 km, less than to the atmosphere and 51% is absorbed (see Fig. 3,
1% of the earth’s diameter [7], and the present absorbed and reflected solar radiation).
limit of economic drilling is approximately 4 km, The thermal impact of that absorbed radiation
the practical maximum temperature of geothermal can be affected by dynamic processes such as
energy is now <1000  C. Constraining that range wind and rain, but the static properties of the
to temperatures effective for direct-use geother- surface soil, water, and underlying rock are typi-
mal conditioning, the range is approximately cally used to calculate how solar radiation affects
4–150  C. An even smaller range, roughly ground temperature. The thermal conductivity of a
4–27  C, is sufficient for energy-effective build- material, expressed as k or l in units of W/m/K,
ing conditioning (see Fig. 2, low-temperature con- indicates how readily heat is transferred within a
ditioning). In many areas around the world, solar material by rapidly colliding molecules. It is an
radiation supplies the thermal energy for most of important mode of heat transfer in solids although
Geothermal Conditioning: Critical Sources for Sustainability 523

Geothermal EARTH’S ENERGY BUDGET

Conditioning:
Critical Sources for Reflected by Reflected Reflected from
Sustainability, atmosphere by clouds earth’s surface
6% 20% 4% 64% 6%
Fig. 3 Absorbed and
reflected solar radiation Radiated to space
Incoming from clouds and
solar energy atmosphere
100%
Absorbed by
atmosphere 16%
Radiated
directly
to space
Absorbed by from earth
clouds 3%
Radiation
absorbed by
Conduction and atmosphere
rising air 7% 15%

Carried to clouds
and atmosphere by
Absorbed by land latent heat in
and oceans 51% water vapor 23%

Geothermal Conditioning: Critical Sources for Sustainability, Table 2 Key soil and rock properties for thermal
performance
Property Common symbol Units
Density r kg/m
Specific heat capacity cp J/kg
K
Thermal conductivity k or l W/m
K
Volumetric heat capacity rc MJ/m3
K Specific heat * density
Thermal diffusivity a or k m2/s Conductivity/volumetric heat capacity
Thermal inertia I Jm 2K 1
s ½ √ density * specific heat * conductivity

most soils and rock are relatively poor conductors.
The specific heat of a material, expressed as cp in
units of J/kg/K, indicates how much thermal
energy a material can absorb for a given change
in temperature. A material’s specific heat and its
density (r) in kg/m3 determine its volumetric heat
capacity, expressed as rc in units of MJ/m3/K.
Volumetric heat capacity is the specific heat per
unit volume and indicates the ability of a substance
to store energy without undergoing a phase change.
Soil and rock have a very high volumetric heat
capacity relative to air, and their ability to store
heat creates a useful thermal lag. Thermal diffusiv-
ity, which indicates how quickly a material adjusts
to the temperature of its surroundings, is calculated
by dividing conductivity by volumetric heat capac-
ity. Thermal diffusivity is expressed as k in units of
m2/s. A highly conductive material with low volu-
metric heat capacity will have high thermal diffu-
sivity and readily adjust its temperature, whereas a
material with similar conductivity but higher volu-
metric heat capacity will adjust more slowly. In
contrast to high thermal diffusivity, a material
with high thermal inertia will store heat and give
it off slowly, resisting diurnal and seasonal temper-
ature changes. Thermal inertia is the square root of
the thermal conductivity, density, and specific heat
capacity expressed as I with units of J m 2 K 1 s ½.
Table 2 summarizes these properties and Table 3
shows representative values for air, water, soil, and
rock.
Table 3 highlights the benefits of ground- or
groundwater-based conditioning compared to air-
based strategies. The thermal inertia of water, soil,
524 Geothermal Conditioning: Critical Sources for Sustainability

Geothermal Conditioning: Critical Sources for Sustainability, Table 3 Surface and ground properties affecting
subsurface temperature change
Density Specific heat Volumetric heat Thermal Thermal Thermal inertia
(r) in capacity (cp) capacity (rc) in conductivity diffusivity (k) (I) in J m 2 K
Material kg/m3 in J/kg
K 106 J/m3
K (k) in W/m
K in 10 6 m2/s 1
s ½.
Air (STP) 1.29 1005 0.0012 0.02 15.43 5.09
Water 1000 4186 4.19 0.60 0.14 1585
Sandy soil 1600 800 1.28 0.30 0.23 620
(dry)
Sandy soil 2000 1480 2.96 2.20 0.74 2552
(saturated)
Clay soil 1600 890 1.42 0.26 0.18 192
(dry)
Clay soil 2000 1550 3.10 0.58 0.19 1341
(saturated)
Rock 2600 800 2.08 2.50 1.20 2280
(basalt)

and rock is high. Surface temperature fluctuations
diminish with depth, and the time lag between the
surface temperature and the ground temperature
increases. Daily fluctuations are dampened within
30 cm of the surface [8]. Annually, surface tem-
perature fluctuations reflect monthly solar cycles
and attenuate with increased depth, and the time
lag between the surface temperature and ground
temperature is more extended with depth on an
annual basis. At the depth of zero annual range
[9] or the neutral zone [10], the atmosphere and
soil are presumed to achieve long-term thermal
equilibrium. Here, no seasonal temperature fluc-
tuations occur, and the ground temperature should
reflect the long-term average annual air tempera-
ture for that particular location. Under these cir-
cumstances, the ground temperature is warmer in
winter and cooler in summer than the air temper-
ature, which means that the ground can provide
heat in winter and absorb excess heat in summer.
Table 3 also shows the impact of subsurface
moisture. Saturated soil has substantially greater
specific heat, volumetric heat capacity, and thermal
inertia than dry soil, making it a far better and more
stable heat source and sink. If soil moisture varies
with precipitation, the ground’s thermal properties
will reflect that variation. Alternatively, if soil mois-
ture can be controlled to some extent, it may be
possible to improve ground performance for geo-
thermal conditioning.
The depth at which the neutral zone is said to
occur varies within the literature (14–20 m) [11]
and is typically calculated, not measured. This is
not surprising since determining the density, con-
ductivity, and specific heat of heterogeneous soil
and rock layers is difficult. In fact, the ASHRAE
Handbook of HVAC Applications (2015) acknowl-
edges that long-term field-monitored data are still
a major missing component in the effort to
improve calculations for geothermal system
design (greater detail about calculations for geo-
thermal system design is provided by Kavanaugh
and Rafferty) [12]. More important than the spe-
cific depth of the neutral zone is its occurrence in
the ground temperature profile. Within a few
meters from the earth’s surface, a zone in which
building foundations exist, the ground tempera-
ture reaches or approximates long-term thermal
equilibrium with the atmosphere due to incident
solar radiation. Effective integration of the
ground’s low-temperature heat supply and heat
storage capacity can substantially reduce con-
sumption of nonrenewable energy for building
conditioning.
Interior Energy Input: Beyond the neutral zone,
the temperature typically rises with depth, follow-
ing what is called the geothermal gradient, shown
in Fig. 4 as a broken line descending from the
surface. The temperature rise along the geothermal
gradient reflects heat flow from the earth’s interior
Geothermal Conditioning: Critical Sources for Sustainability 525

Geothermal Solar radiation

Conditioning:
Atmosphere
Critical Sources for Share of geothermal energy
0% 100%
Sustainability, Share of solar energy
100% 0%
Fig. 4 Ground thermal 0 Earth’s surface
flows and temperature 1 Range

Depth (10 to 20 m)
profile [13] Earth’s crust

10
Depth in m
Mean
share
100

Mean temperature curve

1,000
Possible temperature
range

10,000
–50 0 50 100 150 200 Temperature in °C

Geothermal heat flow

via conduction through solid rock and convection
within geothermal fluids. Of the sources of heat
energy within the earth, radiogenic heat, from the
decay of radioactive isotopes, contributes the
greatest share, annually estimated as 8.6  1020 J
[14]. The geothermal gradient can vary substan-
tially by locale and region. Recent research sug-
gests that the gradient can be lowered or reversed,
at least to 250 m depth, with increased energy input
at the surface. Ongoing monitoring of well temper-
atures by Majorowitz et al. (2009) shows that rising
surface air temperatures are increasing the amount
of thermal energy stored in the shallow geothermal
environment in some locations. Their analysis of
temperature changes down to 250 m shows that the
near-surface heat gain is also creating a null or
negative thermal gradient. As a result, drilling
below 50 m depth in these locations offers little
thermal benefit for heating applications [15]. Their
findings also suggest that the ground’s near-surface
thermal storage (heat sink) capacity may diminish
with rising air temperatures.
Globally, the average geothermal gradient
ranges from 30 to 60 K/km, but the gradient may
be as little as 10 K/km in older crustal areas or as
high as 200 K/km in tectonically active areas such
as Iceland. The most tectonically active country
on earth, Iceland, has more than 200 volcanoes.
Nearby ground temperatures exceed 200  C at
1 km depth, and outside the volcanically active
zone, the geothermal gradient is still quite high at
150  C per km. Current information from the
National Energy Authority of Iceland indicates
that 66% of Iceland’s primary energy and 29%
of its electricity come from its geothermal
resources [16].
Geothermal Conditioning Principles and
Approaches
An essential principle in sustainable building
design is to create a building enclosure that man-
ages as much of the heating, cooling, and ventila-
tion loads as possible. With a high-performance
enclosure, the size of the mechanical equipment
and its related energy consumption and carbon
emissions are reduced. In addition, sustainable
building conditioning employs the following gen-
eral strategies [17].
• Use water as an energy carrier since it carries
3000x the energy that air carries in an equiva-
lent volume.
526 Geothermal Conditioning: Critical Sources for Sustainability
• Use low-exergy systems, independently or as
part of an energy cascade, to match the energy
content of the supply more closely with
the need.
• Use distributed rather than central systems, i.e.,
multiple small units distributed throughout the
building with commensurate controls, rather
than a single large central unit, to cut transmis-
sion losses and to deliver thermal comfort close
to building occupants.
• Zone the system to allow equipment to operate
at full load efficiency and only when needed to
support occupant comfort and health and
building durability.
• Use renewable energy and energy recovery
wherever possible.
• Design a flexible system that accommodates
reconfiguration of interior space over time
while maintaining original level of
performance.
• Separate the delivery of ventilation air from
heating and cooling, and integrate the monitor-
ing of these systems for occupant comfort and
energy effectiveness.
• Provide means for occupants to adjust thermal
comfort conditions.
• Incorporate sufficient sensors and metering
capability so that occupant and building oper-
ators can see, assess, and improve conditioning
system performance.
Geothermal conditioning lends itself well to
the application of these strategies. It provides a
renewable source of thermal energy and a heat
sink for heating, cooling, and ventilation. With
the exception of passive earth sheltering and
earth tube ventilation systems, geothermal condi-
tioning typically uses water or a water/antifreeze
mix as an energy carrier for all or part of the
system. Most geothermal conditioning systems
are low-temperature/low-exergy systems, and
those that are not often use energy cascades with
energy recovery to make effective use of higher
temperature ground resources. The total savings
from geothermal conditioning will vary widely
depending on the local climate and subsurface
temperatures, the conditioning strategy, and its
design and operation. Nonetheless, because the
ground temperature often approximates the aver-
age annual air temperature in a given location, a
geothermal approach is likely to save energy
wherever the average annual air temperature is
closer to the building balance point temperature
than the outdoor temperature range.
Discussions of geothermal conditioning often
focus on heat pumps as the interior delivery sys-
tem. One reason for this is that heat pumps operate
efficiently at temperatures commonly accessible
at and within a few meters below a building foun-
dation. In addition, even when a heat pump’s
energy consumption is evaluated as source or
primary energy rather than site energy, its effi-
ciency usually exceeds 100% (note: primary or
source energy is the energy value based on source
fuel inputs. For electricity, this is the energy value
of the oil, natural gas, coal, or other source fuels
used to generate the electricity and is typically
3.0–3.5 times higher than the energy value of the
electricity at the building site). This is because the
heat pump can use heat in the ambient air, ground,
or water to cause certain refrigerants to vaporize
and to reach a much higher temperature when
compressed. Low-grade heat coupled with a
refrigerant cycle allows the heat pump to supply
heat to or absorb heat from a building with a
fraction of the energy required by combustion
heating or conventional air conditioning.
In the case of a geothermal heat pump, the heat
is being transferred from and to the ground or
ground-coupled water. In heating mode, a com-
pression heat pump transfers the earth’s thermal
energy, often in the range of 10–15  C, to a refrig-
erant that evaporates as the heat is absorbed and
becomes a gas. The refrigerant gas then passes
through a compressor where it is pressurized.
This increases its temperature, generally above
71  C. The heated gas then passes through another
heat exchanger, transferring its heat to air or water
being used to heat the interior space, often at
38–43  C. As the refrigerant gas loses heat, it
condenses back to a liquid, is cooled as it passes
through an expansion valve, and is then ready to
repeat the cycle (see Fig. 5). A reversing valve
allows the heat pump to change the direction of
refrigerant flow, causing heat from the indoor
space to be transferred to the refrigerant and later
Geothermal Conditioning: Critical Sources for Sustainability
Geothermal
Conditioning:
Critical Sources for
Sustainability,
Fig. 5 Diagram of vapor
compression heat pump in
heating mode [18]
to the ground. Compression heat pumps are by far
the most common, but absorption and adsorption
heat pumps also exist. Like compression heat
pumps, absorption heat pumps use low-grade
heat to vaporize a refrigerant but use thermal
energy rather than electricity to compress the
refrigerant. Adsorption heat pumps, still in devel-
opment, also use thermal energy to drive the pro-
cess [19]. Heat pumps and their operation are
extensively discussed in several sources [20–22],
but their efficiency is a key aspect of their sustain-
ability and is briefly summarized here.
The efficiency of the heat-transfer process is
the ratio of the energy used to drive the process to
the amount of heat transferred. This is called the
coefficient of performance or COP, and it is an
equipment parameter determined under specific
operating conditions: In heating mode, the COP
is the ratio of heat supplied to energy used. In
cooling mode, the COP is the ratio of heat
removed to the energy used [23].
COP = heat supplied or heat removed (kW)/
power input (kW)
As an example, a geothermal heat pump that
provides 12 kW of heat output with 3 kW of
electricity has a heating COP of 4. This means
that one part electrical energy and three parts
ground thermal energy supply four parts of usable
energy. On a site energy basis, this means that the
heat pump efficiency is 400%. When considered
527
from a source or primary energy perspective and
assuming a 30% source to site conversion effi-
ciency for electricity, the source efficiency of
this heating process is 120% (30%  400%).
Heat pump COPs are often said to range from
3 to 5 at present.
The efficiency of heat pumps over the course of
a year under actual operating conditions and con-
sidering auxiliary system components such as cir-
culation pumps is expressed as the seasonal
performance factor (SPF) or average annual
COP. The SPF is the ratio of the system’s usable
energy output to the energy input.
SPF = annual usable energy output (kWh)/
annual energy input (kWh)
This measure more accurately describes sys-
tem performance and is often lower than the
equipment’s rated performance for several rea-
sons. Commonly, a heat pump that provides
heating and cooling is sized for the dominant
load. This may mean that a heat pump with suffi-
cient heating capacity, for example, is oversized
for cooling and therefore operates less efficiently
in cooling mode. In addition, a system often does
not operate at the temperatures at which it is rated
but rather under more variable temperatures that
decrease its efficiency. Cited SPFs for geothermal
heat pumps vary considerably but may be in the
range of 3.3–4.3 [24]. Because a heat pump is able
to derive a substantial portion of its heating energy
528
or heat removal capacity from ambient air, the
ground, or groundwater, its efficiency generally
exceeds that of any other mechanical conditioning
equipment powered by nonrenewable energy,
even when the source to site conversion efficiency
of the power source is much higher than that for
electricity, e.g., natural gas [25].
A heat pump’s ability to heat and cool makes it
effective in distributed systems (also known as
unitary systems), particularly in mixed-use build-
ings. In fact, a distributed approach tends to be
more energy efficient [26]. In a mixed commer-
cial/residential building with multiple heat pumps
connected to a single internal water loop, heat
pumps in commercial zones with high internal
loads might be in cooling mode while those in
residential zones are heating. Because a heat
pump in cooling mode returns warmer water to
the internal loop and a heat pump in heating
mode returns cooler water to the loop, the temper-
ature of the internal loop will be self-balancing to
some extent, remaining in a temperature range
favorable for efficient heat pump operation for an
extended time period. This reduces the need for
heat transfer between the external (ground) loop
and internal loop and thus the pumping energy
required. Either alone or in combination with
other low-exergy equipment such as radiant wall,
floor or ceiling panels, or fan coil units, heat pumps
can be flexibly configured to deliver thermal com-
fort efficiently and close to the point of use. See
Fig. 6 for a geothermal heat pump system design
strategy/guideline, developed by Kavanaugh [27].
Heat pumps are not, however, a component of
every geothermal conditioning strategy. By focus-
ing on the thermal properties of soil, rock, and
water, a host of strategies has been developed to
couple building heating and cooling with the
ground and ground-coupled fluid. Tables 4 and 5
list many available options. Each capitalizes on the
capacity of the ground or ground-coupled water to
absorb and supply substantial thermal energy while
maintaining a fairly constant temperature year-
round (note: UTES systems are the exception;
they may be designed to concentrate thermal
energy for seasonal use, as described later in this
section). The basic components of each approach
are (a) the ground coupling through which thermal
Geothermal Conditioning: Critical Sources for Sustainability
energy is transferred to and from the ground and
(b) the internal system through which thermal
energy is distributed from or to the ground for
comfort conditioning. Because this entry focuses
on the earth’s thermal energy for sustainable con-
ditioning, Tables 4 and 5 emphasize ground cou-
pling options. Table 4 lists closed loop systems in
subsurface soil and rock, and Table 5 lists water-
based systems, both open and closed loops. Within
the system descriptions and examples, however,
internal system options are often discussed.
Like solar conditioning, geothermal condition-
ing can be passive or active. In essence, every
building in contact with the ground exchanges
heat with it, intentionally or not. In fact, any
ground-based construction, including roads and
pavement, alters the ground’s thermal profile by
changing characteristics, such as albedo, reflectivity,
and rainwater absorption, and by adding heat-
transfer surfaces. Passive geothermal condition-
ing is by far the oldest approach listed, but like
passive solar conditioning, it may be overlooked.
Active strategies are more numerous and can
be subdivided into approaches that use subsurface
soil and rock for their ground coupling and those
that use water. The effectiveness of a given
approach will depend on site conditions and nat-
ural resources, the local geothermal gradient, and
many project-specific variables. In recent years,
system designers have also developed approaches
that derive their thermal stability from a subsur-
face location (e.g., sewer pipe) while the source of
their thermal energy may be other than geother-
mal, e.g., residual heat in building wastewater.
With the exception of earth sheltering and earth
tube ventilation systems, geothermal conditioning
approaches use a fluid as the energy carrier or
heat-transfer medium between the outdoor and
indoor system components. The interface between
the outdoor and indoor components is often a heat
exchanger or heat pump, although other types of
equipment are possible. Ground sources that pro-
vide higher temperature heat (e.g., >30 C) must
interface with something other than a heat pump
because the maximum input water temperature for
a heat pump is approximately 32  C and its effi-
ciency is compromised at these higher tempera-
tures. In open loop water-coupled systems, a heat
Geothermal Conditioning: Critical Sources for Sustainability 529

#1 - Building Layout

∗ Divide floor plan into zones

∗ Calculate heat loss/gain for each zone
∗ Group building zones into one central or multiple ground loops

#2 - Select Equipment

∗ Select heat pumps for each zone based on capacity and efficiency at design conditions
∗ Consider head loss, temperature range, package type, sound, serviceability
∗ Specify water source water heating and refrigeration equipment if applicable
∗ Select ventilation air system components—ducting, heat recovery, preconditioning coils, etc.

#3a - For GCHPs 3b - For GWHPs 3c - For SWHPs

∗ Determine ground properties ∗ Determine groundwater ∗ Find reservoir flows, depth,

(test bores)
∗ Specify tube type, size, bore
separation, backfill
∗ Calculate required bore
∗ Design exterior headers
∗ Design purge system
availability/quality
∗ Specify required well flow
∗ Specify water disposal method
∗ Specify groundwater-to-loop
water heat exchanger
and temperatures (high/low)
∗ Specify coil size & type
∗ Calculate required coil length
∗ Design exterior headers
∗ Design purge system

#4 - Design Building Piping Loop

∗ Weigh advantages of central loop vs. multiple loops

∗ Route and size piping system for low pressure losses
∗ Provide on-off flow control through heat pumps and isolation valves
∗ Specify materials—indoor piping, insulation, antifreeze, inhibitors

#5 - Specify Pump and Control Method

∗ Weigh advantages of central pump(s) vs. multiple remote pumps

∗ Select pump(s) to operate near maximum efficiency on pump curve
∗ Weigh pump control options—no control, on-off. multispeed (or multiple pump), variable speed
∗ Calculate loop pump power and redesign system if greater than 10% of total demand

#6 - Evaluate Other Alternatives

∗ Use higher efficiency heat pumps to reduce required ground loop size?
∗ Use cooling tower or fluid cooler to reduce loop size?
∗ Increase or decrease bore separation or coil tubing size?
∗ Look at cost of multiple loops and pumps vs. central loops and pump—include cost of controls.

Geothermal Conditioning: Critical Sources for Sus- soil-based systems), groundwater heat pumps (GWHPs),
tainability, Fig. 6 Strategy for geothermal heat pump and surface water heat pumps (SWHPs)
system design: ground-coupled heat pumps (GCHPs,

exchanger is recommended as a buffer between All of the geothermal conditioning approaches

the external water source and the indoor condi- in Tables 4 and 5 take advantage of the earth’s
tioning equipment because of the lively chemistry stable, low-grade thermal energy and its heat
and/or biology of these water supplies [28]. capacity. Most systems use these ground
530 Geothermal Conditioning: Critical Sources for Sustainability

Geothermal Conditioning: Critical Sources for Sustainability, Table 4 Subsurface soil and rock systems (all
closed loops)
Passive
or Exterior
active equipment/ Energy
strategy configuration Typical depth carrier Function Exterior/interior interface
Passive Earth berms At grade or Soil Insulation, thermal Building enclosure
foundation mass, reduced
depth infiltration, reduced
solar gain
Active Earth tubes 3–5 m Air Preheating or Energy recovery ventilator;
cooling of possibly UV disinfection
ventilation air
Horizontal 1–2 m Water- Energy exchange for Heat pump
trench with antifreeze heating and/or
straight pipe or mix cooling
slinky coil
Direct 1.2–2 m Refrigerant Heat pump
connection to
conditioning
equipment
Building 5–30 m Water or Heat pump or heat exchanger
foundation water-
piles (open or antifreeze
closed) mix
Shallow 30–120 m Water or Heat pump
vertical water-
boreholes with antifreeze
U-tube pipe mix
Deep vertical 1000–3000 m Water Heating equipment or heat
boreholes with exchanger (typically cooling
coaxial pipe not attempted with deep
systems)
BTES 20–300 m Water or Seasonal hot or cold Heat pump, heat exchanger,
(borehole water- storage for increased cogeneration power plant,
thermal energy antifreeze efficiency solar hot water system
storage) mix

characteristics for energy exchange, to provide a
heat source and heat sink for the building. Some
approaches target thermal storage only. Given the
range of options available and an increasing
emphasis on low-exergy conditioning technolo-
gies, one or more geothermal conditioning
approach is probably feasible in most buildings.
Subsurface Soil and Rock Geothermal
Conditioning Systems
With the exception of earth sheltering, subsurface
soil and rock systems use a fluid enclosed in pipe to
transfer heat between the building and the outdoors.
For earth tubes, that fluid is air and for other sys-
tems, refrigerant, water, or a water/antifreeze mix.
Under normal operating conditions, there is no
direct contact between the fluid and the subsurface
environment, and this type of sealed subsurface pipe
heat exchanger is called a closed loop system.
Design and sizing of the ground heat exchanger
is a key aspect of system cost and performance. The
characteristics of underlying soils and rock, ground
moisture content, and water movement are among
the variables that affect ground temperature and heat
transfer, and these can be difficult to model with
precision. Research has also shown that in low-
Geothermal Conditioning: Critical Sources for Sustainability 531

Geothermal Conditioning: Critical Sources for Sustainability, Table 5 Water-based systems (all active strategies,
both closed and open loops)
Open
or Exterior Exterior/
closed equipment/ Energy interior
Water source loop configuration Typical depth carrier Function interface
Aquifer Open Supply well 15–100 Groundwater Energy Heat
with surface exchange exchanger
discharge for heating
Supply and 15 + Groundwater and/or Heat
injection cooling exchanger,
wells, cooling or
shallow or heating
deep equipment
Standing 120–375 m Groundwater Heat pump
column
(or coaxial)
well
ATES 10–400 m Groundwater Seasonal Heat
(aquifer hot or cold exchanger
thermal storage for
energy increased
storage) efficiency
Surface Open Supply and Varies by water body; Surface water Energy Heat
water (ocean, reinjection ideally at depth where exchange exchanger
lake, river) pipe temperature is stable and for heating
where reinjection does not and/or
affect natural seasonal cooling
cycling
Closed Slinky coil 3–3.5mminimum; Water or Heat pump
or open sufficient depth so that water- or heat
supply temperature antifreeze exchanger
always >4  C mix
Abandoned Open Supply and Varies with mine Groundwater Energy Heat
mine tunnels reinjection exchange exchanger,
pipe for heating heating or
and/or cooling
cooling equipment
Open CTES Up to 2000 m Groundwater Seasonal
(cavern possibly with hot or cold
thermal phase change storage for
energy material increased
storage) efficiency
Sewer Closed Heat Standard sewer pipe depth Water or Energy Heat pump
infrastructure or open exchanger for given location water- exchange
within/ antifreeze for heating
around pipe mix and/or
cooling
Water Open Supply and Surface or subsurface pipe Treated Energy Heat
treatment reinjection wastewater exchange exchanger
infrastructure pipe for heating
and/or
cooling
532
temperature systems, the effectiveness of the ground
heat exchanger is strongly associated with its heat
transfer over time, particularly when multiple heat
exchanger pipes are in close proximity [29]. Abun-
dant research focuses on this topic and many sizing
calculations, modeling tools, and rules of thumb
exist to support this task [30, 31]. It is worth noting,
however, that the validity of available sizing
methods is still debated by those who design and
operate closed loop systems [32]. Data from operat-
ing systems are also lacking [33]. Despite these
challenges, the majority of ground-coupled systems
now being installed are closed loop systems
[34]. Brief descriptions of soil- and rock-based sys-
tems and installed examples are offered below.
Earth Sheltering
The simplest form of geothermal conditioning is
the passive strategy of earth sheltering, also called
earth berming or earth integration. Ground temper-
atures begin to converge on a steady value just
30–50 cm below the surface [35]. An earth-
sheltered building enclosure at and below this
depth experiences temperatures that vary only a
few degrees throughout the year and will generally
be warmer in winter and cooler in summer than the
outdoor temperature. The constant temperature,
together with the reductions in air leakage and in
convective and conductive heat loss that accom-
pany earth sheltering, can substantially reduce
mechanical conditioning requirements. The effec-
tiveness of earth sheltering is well-established, but
its use requires careful attention to orientation,
structure, waterproofing, daylighting, and egress
as well as the standard range of design consider-
ations. Although current enclosure design strate-
gies focus largely on reducing heat transfer at the
foundation, there may be substantial room for
development or redevelopment of passive geother-
mal conditioning strategies [36].
Earth Tubes, Also Called Earth Pipes or
Earth-to-Air Heat Exchangers
Earth tubes are buried pipes through which out-
door air is drawn into the building. The earth’s
Geothermal Conditioning: Critical Sources for Sustainability
temperature can heat the air in winter and cool it in
summer, reducing the energy required to condi-
tion ventilation air and, in some instances, elimi-
nating the need for additional cooling equipment.
Monitoring data for earth tube systems are still
limited, but Pfafferott et al. [37] offer a compara-
tive analysis of the performance of systems
installed in three buildings in Germany between
1999 and 2001. He found that each system sup-
plied far more heating and cooling energy than the
primary energy used by the fans and that the
ground characteristics and the impact of the build-
ing on ground temperature were as important as
the earth tube diameter on thermal efficiency. To
avoid unwanted heating in summer and cooling in
winter, a control strategy is necessary. In some
systems, permeable pipe is used to allow conden-
sation within the tubes to evaporate, and UV fil-
tration is used to address mold or bacteria that may
be in the air stream. Where radon is a concern,
care must also be taken that the earth tubes are not
transferring radon gas from the ground into the
ventilation system [38].
Horizontal Trench, Pipe, or Slinky Coil
Small building loads can be handled with a hori-
zontal ground heat exchanger installed below the
frost line (Fig. 7). Since trenching is less expen-
sive than drilling, horizontal installations cost less
but require more land area; increased temperature
fluctuations at shallower depths (1–2 m) mean that
increased pipe length (heat-transfer surface area)
is required. Because of the land area requirement,
horizontal ground heat exchangers typically serve
building loads less than 175 kW.
Building foundation heat exchangers
(foundation piles, energy piles, slot-die walls).
Structural components such as piles, retaining
walls, and foundation slabs can be used to
exchange thermal energy between the ground
and the building. Fluid-filled pipe systems are
incorporated inside the foundation elements and
serve a purpose similar to vertical borehole
exchangers but within the building’s footprint.
Relatively new (1990s) as a design strategy, foun-
dation piles may be steel, precast concrete, or cast-
in-place concrete [39]. The piles contain two or
Geothermal Conditioning: Critical Sources for Sustainability
Geothermal Conditioning: Critical Sources for Sus-
tainability, Fig. 7 Horizontal ground heat exchanger
more U-tubes (see Fig. 8) that are connected either
directly (open) or indirectly (closed) to the build-
ing’s mechanical system. Pump energy is mini-
mized since the heat exchanger is within the
building footprint. Currently, design of these sys-
tems is adapted from vertical borehole design, and
because of uncertainties about the mechanical
behavior of the soil over time (thermoelasticity
and soil strength with heating and cooling), sub-
stantial safety factors are built into these systems,
resulting in high costs [41].
Vertical Boreholes, Shallow
The most common type of closed loop ground
heat exchanger is a shallow vertical borehole sys-
tem. Borehole diameters vary by pipe size and by
construction convention, which differs by country
to some extent. In the United States, a typical
borehole is about 10–15 cm diameter. The depth
may range from 30 to 120 m, depending on sev-
eral factors such as the conditioning load, avail-
able land area, ground conditions and
temperature, and drilling costs. A U-tube or
ground probe, usually of high-density polyethyl-
ene (HDPE) pipe and often 19–25 mm pipe diam-
eter, is inserted into each borehole (see Figs. 9 and
10), and the borehole should be packed and sealed
with grout, at least at the surface, to prevent
533
Foundation pile
Reinforcement cage
Heat exchanger pipes
Geothermal Conditioning: Critical Sources for Sus-
tainability, Fig. 8 Building foundation pile heat
exchanger [40]
surface contaminants from passing easily down
the borehole and into groundwater (note: require-
ments for grout vary, although the potential for
surface contaminants to reach groundwater more
easily through a borehole does not. Grouts with
improved heat-transfer characteristics are avail-
able). The total underground pipe length must
provide sufficient heat transfer to satisfy the
connected peak block load, which is the maxi-
mum cooling or heating load, whichever is
greater, imposed on the conditioning equipment
during the cooling or heating season (note: if the
building has good load diversity, the peak block
load will be less than the sum of the peak room
loads or peak zone loads). Except where borehole
thermal energy storage (BTES) is used, boreholes
are often spaced 4.5–6 m apart so that heat transfer
with the ground is not compromised by proximity
to other boreholes. A radial configuration for shal-
low boreholes has also been developed [43].
Vertical Boreholes, Deep
Deep borehole systems, 1000–3000 m, capitalize
on higher ground temperature at depth and so are
predominantly used for heating systems. In this
534
Geothermal Conditioning: Critical Sources for Sus-
tainability, Fig. 9 Vertical borehole heat exchanger
Geothermal Conditioning: Critical Sources for Sus-
tainability, Fig. 10 HDPE U-tube for vertical borehole
[42]
type of system, an insulated production pipe is
inserted into a borehole casing sealed at the bot-
tom, providing a concentric pipe configuration.
The heat-transfer fluid, typically water that may
be treated with a corrosion inhibitor, is pumped
down the borehole casing and up through the
central production pipe (see Fig. 11). There is no
direct contact between the heat-transfer fluid and
Geothermal Conditioning: Critical Sources for Sustainability
Heat carrier
inlet Heat carrier
outlet
Increasing depth
Geothermal heat flow
Geothermal heat flow
Geothermal heat flow
Geothermal Conditioning: Critical Sources for Sus-
tainability, Fig. 11 Deep borehole heat exchanger [44]
the subsurface soil and rock; the fluid gains heat at
depth according to the geothermal gradient. At
well exit, the heat-transfer fluid passes through a
heat exchanger, heat pump, or other heating
equipment, depending on the fluid temperature
( 40  C). The higher cost of deep borehole
systems makes them better suited to serve the
base load in systems that have sizable heat
demand (see Fig. 12) [46].
Borehole Thermal Energy Storage
Borehole thermal energy storage, BTES, is a type
of underground thermal energy storage (UTES)
system used to concentrate heat and cold for sea-
sonal use. For a BTES, vertical boreholes are
placed in close proximity (1.5–3 m apart) to sea-
sonally charge the system with hot or cold fluid. In
summer, for example, a heat pump or other
mechanical device can transfer heat to the ground
for winter heating. In winter, that heat can be
extracted and the ground can be charged with
cold fluid for summer cooling. For efficiency,
different ground areas or depths are often used
for hot and cold storage. Although some heat or
cold is lost at the system edges and at the ground
surface, these systems can be used successfully in
Geothermal Conditioning: Critical Sources for Sustainability
Exhaust gas
Heat
pump
Deep
well
Natural gas
Heat pump drive
Geothermal Conditioning: Critical Sources for Sustainability, Fig. 12 District system served by deep borehole
exchanger [45]
existing subsurface rock and soil; constructed
storage vessels are not required. From a cost
standpoint, underground thermal energy storage,
including BTES, ATES, and CTES systems, tend
to work best for small district systems rather than
for single buildings.
Examples of Subsurface Soil and Rock
Geothermal Systems
Earth Tubes: Fraunhofer ISE, Freiburg, Germany:
Installed in 2001, the earth-to-air energy
exchanger provides cooled or preheated air with
a ground temperature of 13.8  C. This open loop
system consists of seven polyethylene ducts,
90–100 m long and 250 mm in diameter, buried
4–5 m and partially below the foundation slab.
The air speed is 5.6 m/s and mean air flow is
7000 m3/h. The system is controlled by air tem-
perature at the inlet and does not operate between
12 and 16  C. During a 1-year analysis of the
system from November 2001 to October 2002,
the COP was 29 kWhth/kWhmech, high enough to
supply more heating and cooling energy than the
primary energy used for fans, with a fan efficiency
of 70% [47].
535
District
Backup system based on fossil fuel energy
heating
system
Vertical Borehole Heat Exchanger: In 1993, a
2.2 MW vertical borehole heat exchanger was
installed at Richard Stockton College in Pomona,
New Jersey (USA), to allow replacement of aging
gas-fired heaters and electric compressor type
coolers with geothermal heat pumps. A total of
400 boreholes 425 ft (129.54 m) deep and approx-
imately 4.5 m apart were installed under an
existing parking lot and adjacent open area. Each
10 cm borehole contains a single 3.25 cm diame-
ter HDPE plastic U-tube pipe and is sealed with
clay slurry. Twenty lateral supply and return pipes
channel the water circulating through the bore-
holes to central building where they are combined
into 16 in. (40.64 cm) supply and return lines that
serve heat pumps (35–123 kW) in campus build-
ings. The system reduced natural gas consump-
tion approximately 75% and electricity
consumption 25%, despite the switch to heat
pumps. Since 1993, the college has added sub-
stantial geothermal conditioning infrastructure,
both closed and open loop systems, and in 2008,
an aquifer thermal storage system [48]. Substantial
monitoring of system performance and ground/
groundwater conditions is conducted.
536
Building Foundation Piles: The nursing school
at Sapporo City University in Japan, completed in
2006, uses steel foundation piles filled with water
to provide a ground heat exchanger that supplies
the building’s base heating and outdoor air cooling
loads. For a floor area of 2800 m2, 51 piles from
600 to 800 mm diameter were drilled 4 m into the
ground. Two U-tubes were inserted in each pile and
the pile was filled with 115 m3 water. The manifold
system for the piles feeds a 50 kW heat pump that
provides both heating and cooling. Three vertical
boreholes 75 m long supplement the system so that
the ground heat exchanger system can meet the
base heating load of 50 kW and the base cooling
load for outside air. During 2007, the piles extra-
cted 43,929 kWh of heat from the ground in winter
and transfer 53,939 kWh of heat into the ground in
summer [49].
Borehole Thermal Energy Storage (BTES):
The Drake Landing Solar Community in Okotoks,
Alberta (Canada), relies on the earth’s high volu-
metric heat capacity to store heat captured with
solar hot water systems in summer months and to
provide heat throughout Alberta’s cold winter.
Opened in 2007, the Drake Landing project is a
district system serving 52 well-insulated single
family homes. Heat from 800 single-glazed roof-
mounted solar hot water panels is fed to a seasonal
thermal storage system that consists of 144 vertical
boreholes approximately 30 meters deep. The
borehole field required 5 years to fully charge to
80  C by summer’s end, but by year 6, 98% of the
heat delivered by the district loop was from solar
(98% solar fraction) and the remaining 2% was
from natural gas. Fan coil units are the terminal
heating equipment in each home [50].
Water-Based Geothermal Conditioning
Systems
Water-based systems use water that originates
outside the building – generally groundwater or
surface water – as the energy carrier. With a few
exceptions, this externally sourced water is piped
to the building where it transfers heat in direct
contact with some component of the conditioning
system: a heat exchanger, heat pump, or other
Geothermal Conditioning: Critical Sources for Sustainability
conditioning equipment. It is then piped away
from the building for release to or near the original
water source and usually at a temperature within
6  C of its source temperature. This is called an
open loop system. Closed loop water-based sys-
tems bring building piping to the external water
source such as a pond or lake. Like other closed
loop systems, the building piping is filled with a
fluid that transfers heat between the building and
the outdoors, and there is no direct contact
between the external water source and the heat-
transfer medium in the building pipes.
The reason for emphasizing direct contact
between an external water supply and the building
mechanical equipment, or the lack thereof, is that
water is an excellent solvent that “dissolves more
substances in greater quantities than any other liq-
uid” [51]. Water will react with pipes and equip-
ment, and natural water such as groundwater or
surface water contains minerals and microbes from
surrounding soil and rock that can promote those
reactions, particularly in the presence of oxygen.
Whereas equipment connected to the municipal
water supply is often treated with chemicals to
control chemical and biological activity (e.g.,
cooling towers), equipment connected to a natural
water supply cannot be handled the same way. This
characteristic is understood and addressed in water
well literature but underemphasized in building
systems literature and should not be ignored in
practice when sustainability is the goal [52]. For
guidance on interpreting groundwater analysis for
design of open loop geothermal heat pump sys-
tems, see the US National Ground Water Associa-
tion (NGWA) publication, Understanding
Hydrogeology and Its Impact on Large-Scale Geo-
thermal Heat Pump Systems [53].
As with subsurface soil and rock systems, the
design and sizing of the heat exchange system is a
key aspect of overall cost and performance. One
obvious prerequisite is the proximity of a suitable
water source. Local regulations must also support
the use of such systems. In groundwater applica-
tions, the water is pumped from an aquifer at
stable temperatures similar to the ground temper-
ature at that depth and is discharged either to
surface water or to the same aquifer. Ease of
access, water quantity, water quality, and viable
Geothermal Conditioning: Critical Sources for Sustainability
discharge options are the limiting factors. In sur-
face water applications, which can be either open
or closed loops, water temperature and quantity
are essential factors for effective heat exchange.
The water temperature must not fall below 4  C
and must remain in an efficient range for cooling
(preferably <23  C) regardless of solar radiation
and other heat transfer to the water. For open loop
surface water applications, water quality is also
important and can vary seasonally and during
storms. Whereas soil- and rock-based heat
exchangers are estimated to have a heat output
of 20–50 W/m2, the heat output of groundwater
and surface water systems is estimated to be
2300–4600 W/m3/h [54]. Brief descriptions of
water-based systems and installed examples are
offered below (Fig. 13).
Aquifer-Based System
Before the development of plastic pipe that could
be used for closed loop systems, aquifer-based
open loop geothermal systems predominated.
Two primary configurations exist: those that
reinject the water into the ground, usually into
the source aquifer (Fig. 14), and those that dis-
charge to surface water (pump-and-release or, col-
loquially, pump-and-dump systems). Well depths
Geothermal Conditioning: Critical Sources for Sus-
tainability, Fig. 13 Brazed plate and frame heat
exchanger in 4000 m2 mixed-use building. Water’s remark-
able heat capacity allows smaller mechanical system com-
ponents than those required by air-based systems [55]
537
may range from 15 to 100+ m and flow from 1 to
125+ L/s.
Because they require less exterior infrastruc-
ture, aquifer-based systems need less land area
and have lower first costs. Conventionally, the
considerations in choosing an aquifer-based sys-
tem include proximity to the building site;
groundwater availability/quantity, depth, and
flow rate; water chemistry; the conditioning sys-
tem temperature drop and load factor; and the
groundwater discharge strategy. Today, however,
a primary consideration for the sustainability of
these and all other groundwater applications may
be the protection of drinking water resources.
Groundwater is a preferred source of drinking
water, but lax or nonexistent groundwater regula-
tion in the past and even at present has allowed
contamination and depletion of known aquifers.
Population growth compounds these problems.
Although some aquifer-based systems have been
operating for decades without dropping the
groundwater table, ongoing use of aquifer water
for any application must consider its impact on
future drinking water supplies (Fig. 15).
Secondary circuit
Production well Heat exchanger Injection well
or heat pump
Reservoir
Minimum well offset
Geothermal Conditioning: Critical Sources for Sus-
tainability, Fig. 14 Open loop aquifer system with pro-
duction and injection well [56]
538
Geothermal Conditioning: Critical Sources for Sus-
tainability, Fig. 15 Heat exchanger fouling from exces-
sive iron in groundwater [57]. Failure to test groundwater
prior to system installation may result in a system too
maintenance-intense to operate economically
Standing Column or Coaxial Well
A standing column well (SCW) is an open loop
system that draws and reinjects to the same well.
SCWs are generally used where bedrock is close
to the surface. The ground heat exchanger is a
vertical well typically 150 mm diameter in bed-
rock with a 200 mm steel casing in the overlying
unconsolidated layer. In shallower wells, the sub-
mersible pump is at the bottom of the well with the
return near the top. In wells deeper than 150 m,
return is generally via a 100 mm PVC dip tube that
extends to the well bottom and is perforated for
the last 6–18 m. A distinct characteristic of these
wells is the practice of “bleeding” the well to
control the temperature. Where freezing is possi-
ble, the well may be bled, typically with surface
disposal, to draw warmer water into the well.
Bleeding may also be used if the well is over-
heating in summer. SCWs connect directly to a
geothermal heat pump and in residential systems
may also provide domestic water.
Surface Water System
The diverse thermal profile of surface water bod-
ies results in similarly diverse strategies for sur-
face water geothermal conditioning. Surface
water systems can be either open or closed
Geothermal Conditioning: Critical Sources for Sustainability
Geothermal Conditioning: Critical Sources for Sus-
tainability, Fig. 16 Closed loop surface water exchanger
loops. They can be as shallow as a pond and as
deep as the ocean (e.g., the Hawaii Gateway
Energy Center, described below). In closed loop
systems, water or a water/antifreeze mix is
pumped through a submerged pipe loop that trans-
fers heat to and from the body of water. Compared
to soil-based closed loop systems, water-based
systems have lower excavation costs and usually
lower costs for pumping and for overall operation
and maintenance. Temperature variations in sur-
face water are typically far greater than those in
soil, however, so the system may be less efficient
and at greater risk for freezing and other damage if
the piping is accessible and/or close to the surface.
In open loop systems, the surface water body is
often used for a heat sink, similar in function to a
cooling tower but without the noise, fan energy,
chemical dosing, and maintenance demands.
Direct cooling or precooling of ventilation air is
also possible by pumping water at 10  C or below
through a coil within a return air duct or convector
system (Fig. 16).
Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage
Similar to BTES, aquifer thermal energy storage
(ATES) is a means to concentrate heat and cold
Geothermal Conditioning: Critical Sources for Sustainability
underground for seasonal use. A series of injec-
tion wells is used to inject either heated
(13–120  C) or cooled (6–12  C) water for later
withdrawal. Heat and cold can be stored at differ-
ent depths if the underlying geology permits.
Withdrawal can occur through the same wells, or
through separate ones, in which case the water
flows in the aquifer between injection and supply.
China began installing large open ATES systems
(surface water allowed to infiltrate groundwater)
for cold storage in the 1960s [58]. The longest
operating high-temperature system was installed
at Utrecht University in the Netherlands in 1991,
using residual heat from cogeneration. Estimates
of energy savings from ATES are quite high: 80%
reduction in cooling costs and 40% reduction in
heating costs [59]. Research indicates that a large
percentage of land area is underlain by aquifers
that could be used for ATES [60].
Abandoned Mine Tunnel/Cavity Systems
Abandoned underground mines and tunnels accu-
mulate groundwater. Depending on their size, these
cavities can thermally function like an aquifer,
providing an underground reservoir at a stable
temperature. Cavity thermal energy storage
(CTES) systems typically use supply and injection
wells. In some cases, environmental regulations
(e.g., in the United States) require that groundwater
in mine tunnels be treated for surface discharge.
Where this occurs, a water treatment infrastructure
system (see below) may be possible.
Sewer and Water Treatment
Infrastructure Systems
Sewer pipes and municipal or industrial pipes that
carry treated water to its discharge point are typically
buried and benefit from the ground’s thermal stabil-
ity and capacity. In addition, the processes that serve
these pipes add heat energy so that the fluids they
carry often have thermal energy content comparable
to or higher than groundwater (>10  C). Although
water treatment pipes may not be colocated with the
buildings they serve, sewer pipes are. With constant
539
Geothermal Conditioning: Critical Sources for Sus-
tainability, Fig. 17 Sewer pipe with embedded heat
exchanger [62]
and sufficient flow, these pipes and/or the fluids they
carry provide a heat source and heat sink for geo-
thermal conditioning without the need for new
ground infrastructure. At least one company manu-
factures concrete sewer pipe with embedded heat
exchangers to permit noncontact heat transfer [61]
(Fig. 17).
Examples of Water-Based Geothermal
Systems
Aquifer Geothermal System with Surface Discharge:
The Galt House Hotel and Waterfront Plaza Office
Towers in Lexington, Kentucky (USA), use a
21 MW open loop heat pump system to condition
approximately 185,806 m2 of hotel, office, and apart-
ment space (see Figs. 18 and 19). The system was
initially installed in 1984 and has since expanded to
its current capacity. Seven wells approximately 40 m
deep supply groundwater at 14  C and approxi-
mately 46 L/s to a central network of seven plate
and frame heat exchangers. The groundwater dis-
charges to the Ohio River. Distributed heat pump
loops serve the buildings’ interior. Because the well
pumps are close to the ground surface, the ground-
water system is shut down when outdoor tempera-
tures fall below 4  C and boilers supply the building
loop during cold weather.
Seawater Direct Cooling: The Hawaii Gate-
way Energy Center (HGEC) visitor center on the
south coast of Kona on the Big Island of Hawaii
pumps seawater at 7  C from 914 m below the
540
Geothermal
Conditioning:
Critical Sources for
Sustainability,
Fig. 18 Original Galt
House Hotel on left; hotel
expansion on right,
Louisville, KY (USA) [63]
surface to cool the 334 m2 building. The water is
distributed through cooling coils in a subfloor
plenum, absorbing heat from air supplied to the
plenum through a dedicated air inlet structure. The
conditioned air then rises through the building to
thermal chimney outlet pipes for exhaust. This
open loop seawater cooling system runs continu-
ously throughout the day, providing 10–15 air
changes per hour. Cooling coil condensate is col-
lected and used for irrigation and toilet flushing.
No auxiliary cooling equipment is used; only
pump energy is consumed. HGEC produces
more electricity than it uses (a net energy
exporter), and the pump energy is supplied by a
PV array.
Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage (ATES): At
the Reichstag Building in Berlin, Germany, two
confined aquifers at different depths are used for
thermal separation and storage. The shallower
aquifer ranges from 0 to 66 m depth and is served
by two sets of five wells. The deeper aquifer lies at
270–370 m depth and is served by two wells
300 m apart. In summer months, residual heat
from two combined heat and power (CHP) plants
in the building charges the lower aquifer to
approximately 70  C. During the winter, this
water directly serves heating equipment at the
beginning of winter and later; as the storage
Geothermal Conditioning: Critical Sources for Sustainability
temperature drops during the heating season to
45  C, its temperature is boosted with an absorp-
tion heat pump. Meanwhile, the upper aquifer is
charged with ambient cold during winter to a
temperature of 10  C. In the summer, cooling
needs are met with the cold storage and with an
absorption heat pump serving as a chiller [65].
Mine Tunnel Geothermal District System with
Cavern Thermal Energy Storage (CTES): In Heer-
len, the Netherlands, flooded coal mine tunnels
abandoned about 1960 are now part of a district
geothermal system that provides conditioning to
350 homes and to businesses (see Figs. 20–21).
Five wells 700 m deep serve a primary energy
grid. Each well can supply almost 80 cubic meters
per hour from each well at approximately 32  C.
At distributed local “energy stations,” heat
exchangers transfer energy to the secondary grid
that serves district buildings. Heat pumps, com-
bined heat and power (CHP) equipment, and con-
densing gas boilers are used to add thermal energy
for conditioning and domestic hot water, depending
on the buildings’ requirements. The system supplies
low-temperature heating (35–40  C), high-temper-
ature cooling (16–18  C) supply, and a combined
return (20–23  C). The system includes both warm
and cool thermal energy storage at 450 and 250 m
depth, respectively [68].
Geothermal Conditioning: Critical Sources for Sustainability
Geothermal Conditioning: Critical Sources for Sus-
tainability, Fig. 19 Waterfront Plaza Office Towers,
Louisville, KY [64]
Water Treatment Infrastructure: To supply a
new geothermal heat pump district system,
Oceana Naval Air Station in Dam Neck Annex,
Virginia (USA), taps a pipe that carries
113,592 m3 of 21  C treated wastewater to the
ocean daily. The Hampton Roads Sanitary District
(HRSD) owns the 1.6 m diameter concrete
reinforced pipe that runs above and below ground
across Navy property carrying the treated water
2.4 km into the Atlantic Ocean. In a planned
conversion from a central steam plant to a
1.6 MW geothermal heat pump coupled with a
14.5 MW cooling water condenser loop, the Navy
avoided the installation of a 2100 vertical bore-
hole ground heat exchanger by using the treated
wastewater. Almost 53,000 m3of the wastewater
flow through four plate and frame heat exchangers
daily and are returned to the pipe within 1.7  C of
the supply temperature. Sixty-five percent of the
base is currently on the system, which is expand-
able. In its first year of operation (2009), the
system reduced energy consumption for building
conditioning by 40%.
541
Geothermal Conditioning: Critical Sources for Sus-
tainability, Fig. 20 Cultural center: “Gen Coel” in Heer-
len. Home of mine tunnel geothermal district system [66]
Installed Capacity and Annual
Energy Use
Global geothermal conditioning capacity includ-
ing earth sheltering, earth tubes, and ground-
based heat exchangers connected to heat pumps
or other indoor conditioning equipment is not
fully tracked. However, the World Geothermal
Congress uses national reports to estimate the
total thermal power of direct-use geothermal sys-
tems. In an analysis of those reports, Lund and
Boyd state that installed capacity at the end of
2014 in 82 reporting countries is estimated to be
70,885 MWt [69]. This is an increase of 46.2%
over 2010 data. Their 2015 analysis show that
approximately 55% of this capacity is for condi-
tioning with ground source heat pumps, 20%
for bathing and swimming, 15% for direct space
heating that is largely district heating, and
the remainder for greenhouses, aquaculture,
542 Geothermal Conditioning: Critical Sources for Sustainability
Geothermal
Conditioning:
Critical Sources for
Sustainability,
Fig. 21 Schematic
diagram of Heerlen
subsurface system [67]
industrial process heating, agricultural drying,
space cooling, and snow melting. The annual
energy savings from geothermal direct use based
on 2014 data were equivalent to 352 million bar-
rels of oil and avoidance of 149.1 million tons of
CO2 released to the atmosphere. See Fig. 22 for
growth of installed direct-use geothermal capacity
since 1995 and Fig. 23 for breakdown of 2015
global annual direct-use geothermal energy in
TJ/year by thermal application.
Five countries accounted for almost two-thirds
(65.8%) of the installed direct-use capacity
(Fig. 24): China (17,890 MWt), the United States
(17,416 MWt), Sweden (5600 MWt), Turkey
(2937 MWt), and Germany (2849 MWt). Most
of the increases were due to geothermal heat
pumps. Notably, China’s installed direct-use
capacity more than doubled between 2010 and
2015, overtaking that in the United States.
The countries with the highest geothermal direct-
use energy consumption per year closely track those
with most installed capacity: China, the United
States, Sweden, Turkey, Iceland, and Japan,
accounting for 67.5% of the global annual total
592,638 TJ per year (see Table 6). Of course, energy
use is affected by climate and system efficiency.
When energy use per person is calculated,
Iceland’s geothermal direct-use energy per person
far exceeds all other countries (see Fig. 25). This
results from the prevalence of direct-use geother-
mal systems for space heating (such systems
account for 89% of space heating in Iceland
[71]) and the high energy content of Iceland’s
geothermal resources. “Low-temperature” wells
serving Reykjavik’s district heating system, for
example, supply water at 62–132  C [72]. Refer-
ring back to Fig. 2, the revised Lindal diagram for
low-exergy conditioning, it is interesting to note
that this temperature range supports cogeneration
with ample residual heat for conditioning and
cascaded uses such as greenhouse heating.
Future Directions
A study published by Ferguson and Woodbury in
2004 indicated that conductive heat loss from
floors and basements of buildings in Winnipeg,
Canada, was the likely source of a regional
groundwater temperature anomaly beneath the
city [73]. Just as buildings and their mechanical
conditioning systems can generate urban heat
islands above the earth’s surface, they can also
alter the geothermal gradient. Fortunately, a grow-
ing emphasis on well-designed building enclo-
sures allows heating and cooling to be provided
at temperatures much closer to the human comfort
range and to cut extreme heat loss or gain at the
perimeter. When occupant comfort requirements
can be met with low-exergy systems, building
conditioning operates in a range close to the
ground temperature and buildings can be coupled
Geothermal Conditioning: Critical Sources for Sustainability 543

Geothermal Conditioning: Critical Sources for Sustainability, Fig. 22 Global growth installed thermal power of
direct-use geothermal

Geothermal Conditioning: Critical Sources for Sustainability, Fig. 23 2015 global direct-use geothermal by
percent of energy used (TJ/year)

with the substantial thermal energy supply and
storage capacity the earth offers at the building
foundation. The complimentary development of
high-performance enclosures and geothermal
conditioning infrastructure – if accompanied by
ongoing monitoring and research – has the
potential to appreciably reduce building energy
consumption, peak demand, and corresponding
carbon emissions while maintaining occupant
comfort and supporting environmental health.
To some extent, further development of geo-
thermal conditioning infrastructure is limited by
544 Geothermal Conditioning: Critical Sources for Sustainability

Geothermal Conditioning: Critical Sources for Sustainability, Fig. 24 Geothermal direct-use installed capacity
(MWt)

Geothermal Conditioning: Critical Sources for Sus-

tainability, Table 6 Countries with highest annual • Increased efficiency of geothermal heat pumps
direct-use geothermal energy in TJ/year • Increased use of natural refrigerants such as
Country Annual use (TJ/year) R-744 (carbon dioxide)
China 174,352 • Improved understanding and modeling of soil
United States 74,862 mechanical behavior and temperature recovery
Sweden 51,960 time periods for ground heat exchangers
Turkey 45,892 • New sustainable approaches to bacteriological
Iceland 26,717 and chemical fouling in heat exchangers, pip-
Japan 26,130 ing, and associated equipment
• Improvements in the cost, size, and efficiency
of ground heat exchangers
• Increased use of heat recovery from existing
issues of cost, convenience, and property owner- underground infrastructure (e.g., sewer pipe,
ship. Nevertheless, there are several technical treated wastewater pipe) for building
advances that could further increase its use and conditioning
sustainability. These developments, some of • Improvements in mechanical systems integra-
which are underway, and others that are logical tion and system metering and control
extensions of trends in sustainable building design • Increased use of district geothermal and solar/
and operation may include: geothermal systems
Geothermal Conditioning: Critical Sources for Sustainability
Geothermal Conditioning: Critical Sources for Sustainability, Fig. 25 Direct-use geothermal energy: annual
use/million people [70]
• Development of vapor compression heat
pumps powered by biogas motors or water-
power or high-temperature gas absorption
heat pumps powered by biomass [74]
Expanded geothermal power production will
support some of these developments since its
scale provides opportunities for district systems
and energy cascades.
One of the key organizations that conducts and
tracks geothermal conditioning research is the
International Energy Agency Technology Collab-
oration Programme on Heat Pumping Technologies
(HPT TCP) and its information service, the Heat
Pump Centre (see http://heatpumpingtechnologies.
org/about/heat-pump-centre/). Founded in 1978,
the primary mission of the HPT TCP is “to achieve
widespread deployment of appropriate high qual-
ity heat pumping technologies to obtain energy
conservation and environmental benefits from
545
these technologies.” Through its website, news
and information about member country activities
are available.
Within the United States, the Geo-Heat Center
at Oregon Institute of Technology hosts an online
library that emphasizes applied (how-to) engi-
neering of direct-use systems http://www.oit.edu/
orec/geo-heat-center . With publication dates
ranging from 1975 to the present, the system
details and lessons learned are particularly valu-
able in this library.
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industry: report of a National Consultation Conducted
by the Canadian GeoExchange Coalition (Summary),
June 2010, p 11. http://www.geo-exchange.ca/en/
UserAttachments/news433_Standards%20Consultation
%20_%20Final%20Report_Public%20_2010_E.pdf
33. American Society of Heating Refrigerating and Air-
Conditioning Engineers. Geothermal energy, 32.13
34. Sanner DB (2007) Geothermal energy–opportunities
for industry. In: EMEA environmental health and safety
conference, Bruxelles, 13 June 2007. http://www.egec.
org/target/bruxelles%20130607%20j&j.pdf
35. Short N. http://rst.gsfc.nasa.gov/Sect9/Sect9_4.html
36. Kwok AG, Grondzik WT (2007) The green studio
handbook: environmental strategies for schematic
design. Architectural Press, Oxford, pp 169–174
37. Pfafferott J, Walker-Hertkorn S, Sanner B (2007)
Ground cooling: recent progress. In: Santamouris
M (ed) Advances in passive cooling. Earthscan,
London, pp 190–227
38. Lechner N (2009) Heating, cooling, lighting: sustain-
able design methods for architects, 3rd edn. Wiley,
Hoboken, p 292
39. Nagano K (2009) GSHP in Japan. In: IEA Heat Pump
Centre Newsletter, 27 no 1. http://www.heatpump
centre.org/en/newsletter/previous/Documents/HPC-
news_1_2009.htm
Geothermal Conditioning: Critical Sources for Sustainability
40. Clauser, Figure 8.31
41. Peron H (2010) Geotechnical design of heat exchanger
piles. In: GSHP association research seminar, current
and future research into ground source energy.
National Energy Centre, Milton Keynes. http://www.
gshp.org.uk/documents/REsearchseminar2010/Herve%
20Peron%20Geothechnical%20Design%20of%20Heat
%20Ex.pdf
42. Baird N (2009) Center for building performance &
diagnostics. School of Architecture, Carnegie Mellon
University
43. Radial systems are mentioned in Kaltschmitt M (2007)
Utilisation of ambient air and shallow geothermal
energy. In: Kaltshmitt M, Streicher W, Wiese A (eds)
Renewable energy: technology, economics and envi-
ronment. Springer, Heidelberg/Berlin, pp 385–436
44. Kaltschmitt, p 463
45. Kalschmitt, p 465
46. Kaltschmitt M (2007) Utilisation of geothermal
energy. In: Kaltshmitt M, Streicher W, Wiese A (eds)
Renewable energy: technology, economics and envi-
ronment. Springer, Heidelberg/Berlin, p 465
47. Pfafferott (2007)
48. Paksoy J, Snijders A, Stiles L (2009) Aquifer thermal
energy cold storage system at Richard Stockton Col-
lege. http://talon.stockton.edu/eyos/energy_studies/
content/docs/effstock09/Session_6_3_ATES_Applica
tions/57.pdf
49. Nagano K (2009)
50. Drake Landing Solar Community http://www.dlsc.ca/
51. Driscoll, Fletcher G. Groundwater and wells, 2nd
Sub edn. St. Paul: Johnson Filtration Systems
Inc. 1986, p. 1
52. Baird N (2015) Future infrastructure: a critical evalu-
ation of the environmental performance of district
open loop geothermal heat pump systems. Doctoral
dissertation, School of Architecture, Carnegie Mellon
University, USA
53. Baird N, Rhyner J (2015) Understanding hydrogeol-
ogy and its impact on large-scale geothermal heat
pump systems. National Ground Water Association,
Westerville
54. Laue HJ (2006)
55. Baird N (2008)
56. Clauser, Figure 8.33
57. Baird N (2010)
58. NL EVD International (2005) China: cold rise
(PESP01051), Publication 147970. http://www.evd.
nl/cooperation/zoeken/showbouwsteen.asp?bstnum=
147970&location=&highlight=
59. Harvey LD, p 587
60. Ibid
61. Rabtherm–Energy Systems AG. http://www.rabtherm.
com/
62. Ibid
63. Baird N (2009)
64. Ibid
547
65. Sanner B, Kabus F, Seibt P, Bartels J (2005) Under-
ground thermal energy storage for the German parlia-
ment in Berlin, system concept and operational
experience. In: World geothermal congress 2005,
Antalya
66. Municipality Heerlen. http://www.heerlen.nl/Pub/
Duurzaamheid/Projecten-Stadsplanning-Mijnwateren
ergie.html
67. Ibid
68. Roijen E, Op ‘t Veld P, Demollin-Schneiders E (2007)
The Minewaterproject Heerlen – low exergy heating
and cooling in practice. PALENC AIVC Roijen. http://
www.chri.nl/upload/art.%20minewaterproject.pdf
69. Lund J, Boyd T (2016) Direct utilization of geothermal
energy 2015 worldwide review. Geothermics
60:66–93
70. This table was generated using the Lund JW, Boyd TL
(2015) Direct utilization of geothermal energy 2015
worldwide review (see [69]) and population data from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_pop
ulation, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Carib
bean_island_countries_by_population
71. Ibid
72. Björnsson S (2010), p 21
73. Ferguson G, Woodbury AD (2004) Subsurface heat
flow in an urban environment. J Geophys Res 109:
B02402
74. Banks D (2008) An introduction to thermogeology:
ground source heating and cooling. Wiley-Blackwell,
Oxford, p 296
Primary Literature: Books and Reviews
Carmody J, Sterling R (1983) Underground building
design: commercial and institutional structures. Van
Nostrand Reinhold, New York
Clauser C (2009) Heat transport processes in the Earth’s
crust. Surv Geophys 30(3):163–191
Givoni B (1998) Climate considerations in building and
urban design. Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York
ICE Virtual Library. Aquifer thermal energy storage: theo-
retical and operational analysis. 17 Apr 2011
ICE Virtual Library. Use of energy piles in a residential
building, and effects on ground temperature and heat
pump efficiency. 17 Apr 2011
Lienau P (1998) Geothermal direct use engineering and
design guidebook, 3rd edn. Oregon Institute of Tech-
nology, Geo-Heat Cent, Klamath Falls
Orio CD, Chlasson A, Johnson CN, Deng Z, Rees SJ,
Spitler JD (2005) A survey of standing column well
installations in North America. Trans Am Soc Heat
Refrig Air-Cond Eng (ASHRAE) 111(2):109–121
Powrie W, Preene M (2009) Ground energy systems: from
analysis to geotechnical design. Géotechnique
59(3):261–271. 16 Apr 2011
Xu X et al (2010) Active pipe-embedded structures in
buildings for utilizing low-grade energy sources: a
review. Energ Buildings 42(10):1567–1581
 Part IV
Sustainability Practices

Sustainable Design and
Construction, Integrated
Delivery Processes, and
Building Information
Modeling
Laura Lesniewski1 and Bob Berkebile2
1
AIA, BNIM, Kansas City, MO, USA
2
FAIA, BNIM, Kansas City, MO, USA
Article Outline
Glossary
Definition of the Subject
Introduction: Sustainability Through
Reintegration
Sustainable Design and Construction
Integrated Delivery Processes
Building Information Modeling to Support
Integrated Project Delivery
Future Directions
Bibliography
Glossary
BIM model A three-dimensional digital simula-
tion, typically of a building or other built form,
which is both parametric and database-driven.
Building information modeling (BIM) The
methodology or process of creating a paramet-
ric database-driven digital model of a building
or built environment. Understood within the
practice of building information modeling,
especially on large complex projects, is the
collaboration required of various team mem-
bers during all design and construction phases
to add, delete, modify, enhance, or otherwise
update the BIM model for the benefit of the
overall project and team.
Integrated project delivery (IPD) A project
delivery approach that integrates people, sys-
tems, business structures, and practices into a
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
V. Loftness (ed.), Sustainable Built Environments,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-0684-1_390
Originally published in
R. A. Meyers (ed.), Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology, © Springer Science+Business Media LLC 2018
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2493-6_390-3
process that collaboratively harnesses the tal-
ents and insights of all participants to optimize
project results, increase value to the owner,
reduce waste, and maximize efficiency through
all phases of design, fabrication, and
construction [1].
Lean thinking An approach to do more and
more with less and less – less human effort,
less equipment, less time, and less space –
while coming closer and closer to providing
customers with exactly what they value [2].
Sustainable design An approach to design
whereby the needs of the present are met with-
out compromising the ability of future genera-
tions to meet their own needs [3].
Definition of the Subject
While a nascent understanding of the need for a
more sustainable approach to design and con-
struction has been around for decades, only
recently have there been appropriate methods
and tools available that are substantial and mature
enough to help move a design and construction
team toward a more integrated approach and,
therefore, a more sustainable project. For these
last few decades, sustainable thinking in both
academia and practice has progressed awkwardly,
relying on old tools and methods while attempting
to accomplish fundamentally different (i.e., sus-
tainable) results. The mainstream availability of
integrated delivery processes, as well as building
information modeling tools that have been tested
in the field with positive results, suggests that the
industry is on the verge of a true integration of
philosophy, process, and product.
Introduction: Sustainability Through
Reintegration
Since Descartes and Bacon, western civilization has
proliferated two formative world views: humanity’s
551
552
dominance over nature as a divine right (Descartes)
and specialization as the means to understand nature
by dissecting it into component parts (Bacon). Since
then the practice of deconstructing the natural world,
specializing in individual disciplines, and the gen-
eral belief that humans are apart from or in control of
nature leave the current generation in a fragmented
state of naiveté, particularly as it struggles to under-
stand the global impact of humanity’s collective and
cumulative decisions and actions within dynamic
systems. This gradual loss of the wisdom of
interconnected and whole systems leaves today’s
societies puzzled and overwhelmed in trying to
understand or achieve sustainability. As specialized
behaviors, methodologies, and policies have devel-
oped over the centuries, design and construction
professionals have similarly divided into disciplines
within academia, codes, and practice, both within
the design practice and on to the construction site.
This disintegrated approach, which has been
codified and widely practiced within the design
and construction industry, directly reflects a Bacon-
esque tendency toward specialization and
separation.
As the effects of design and building decisions
have become more measurable through quantita-
tive metrics for sustainability, and the impact of
these decisions is made more evident, architects
and engineers are radically rethinking their
approach to design. In addition to engaging
numerous disciplines early in the design process,
new methods for collaboration have been devel-
oped to reduce the traditional redundancy and
suboptimization of project goals. Transforma-
tional methodologies and tools, particularly inte-
grated delivery processes and building
information modeling, are finally dovetailing
with comprehensive sustainability goals in build-
ings and communities.
Sustainable Design and Construction
Indigenous Architecture
In an abbreviated history of sustainable design,
McLennan [4] refers to four “beginnings”: the
biological beginning, the indigenous vernacular
beginning, the industrial beginning, and the
Sustainable Design and Construction
modern beginning. The first three beginnings are
referenced here, while the biological beginning is
addressed under Future Directions.
A quick survey of the architecture of indige-
nous cultures reveals a profound understanding of
the interconnected nature of living systems and
the unique characteristics of their local environ-
ment. Without the ability to transport materials
over great distances, and without the benefit of
technological advances such as electricity, com-
bustion engines, and elevators, for example,
indigenous populations founded their architecture
firmly within the limits of their culture, climate,
and place. The use of the term “limits” here is not
to be considered pejorative but rather as a foun-
dational principle of sustainability. Benyus [5]
refers to “tapping the power of limits” as a mature
understanding of one’s place within a whole, as
contrasted to the more domineering mentality of a
culture that seeks to find boundaries in order to
overcome them, as described by Descartes.
The beauty of the Anasazi rock dwellings in
Colorado and Utah lies not just in their formal
qualities but in their direct and readily apparent
response to their climate and place. An experien-
tial understanding of their climate informs several
design decisions: orientation, mass, overhangs,
the use of local materials, and seasonal variations
for protection from hot and cold temperatures,
sun, wind, and rain.
Similarly, the nomadic tribes of the North
American plains developed portable tipis to sup-
port their nomadic culture, made from wood and
animal skins readily available in their place,
designed to take advantage of prevailing winds
for natural ventilation and to protect from sun and
wind as needed (Fig. 1).
The igloos of the Inuit in northern climates
suggest a multifaceted and deep understanding
of snow and ice as a building material. In its
stacked form, it provides protection from winds
and introduces a thermal insulation critical in their
climate. The rounded form is appropriate to
deflect strong winds and for structural stability
with a building block that is not otherwise
mechanically secured or tied in place.
Though these indigenous structures are famil-
iar to many in the western world, these examples
Sustainable Design and Construction
Sustainable Design and Construction, Integrated
Delivery Processes, and Building Information Model-
ing, Fig. 1 Indigenous architecture. The tipis of the Crow
Nation are built for their portability, with materials readily
available. The form and construction of the tipi also
encourage natural ventilation
reflect both a strong pragmatic solution and a
profound understanding of interconnected sys-
tems in design and construction that were devel-
oped over time from a deep understanding of
climate, culture, and place that can easily be over-
looked. When seen only as rudimentary or senti-
mental structures irrelevant to current lifestyles,
an opportunity for deep learning from multi-
generational cultures can be missed. The ability
to respond intelligently to climate, culture, and
place emerges from the time spent in that place,
measured in generations rather than years.
A multigenerational understanding of place
allows sustainable actions to become intuitive.
Without it, a design team that is not from the
place requires an extensive research effort that
aims to connect ancient wisdom (by seeking out
and convening generational knowledge) with cur-
rent place knowledge (by observing existing con-
ditions and investigating changing patterns
553
associated with the place). There is also an oppor-
tunity for designers to identify sustainable solu-
tions for each place through biomimetic
investigations into the natural world and the indig-
enous human cultures to derive relevant modern-
day solutions.
While the examples provided thus far are gen-
erally more temporary by nature, designing for
durability can be an equally important concept to
sustainability. As societies expanded, larger struc-
tures were designed and built to reflect religious,
cultural, or political institutions. These structures
similarly reflected the climate, culture, and place
and were built to last far beyond the generation
that built them. Many laborers that began the
construction of such buildings, for example, the
Duomo in Florence, knew that they would not
see the completion of that structure in their
lifetime [6]. By comparison, many buildings
of the late twentieth and early twenty-first century
are designed and built for the short term
(20–30 years), reflecting a throwaway culture
that is not sustainable.
As will be explored later in this entry, the use of
integrated project delivery and BIM cannot make
up entirely for the loss of intuitive wisdom born
from multigenerational familiarity with place nor
for the cultural shift away from long-term
(durable) structures toward short-term paybacks.
These tools do, however, have potential to
reconnect that which is lost by way of access to
relevant place data and the collective wisdom of a
diverse and integrated team. The opportunity now
is to record ancient wisdom before it is lost and to
build a new source of generational knowledge that
will last beyond our lifetime.
Unsustainable Design and Construction
In the late eighteenth century, the transition from
custom-made to machine-made goods as part of
the Industrial Revolution impacted the design and
construction industry profoundly. Mass produc-
tion gradually became the norm, suggesting a
shift toward interchangeable building parts and
materials that were no longer customized for
each project. As an extrapolation of Bacon’s
emphasis on the study of discreet components of
a system to understand it, the use of
554
interchangeable parts in building design and con-
struction opened the door to incorporate discreet
components in a way that was not relevant to place.
With primary goals of conserving human labor and
increasing production, the slow evolution away
from culture-, climate-, and place-based structures
began. Concurrent with this transformation in the
delivery of buildings was a prevailing attitude that
natural resources were abundant, even unlimited,
and relatively inexpensive to extract. This new
idea, to extract resources in one location to mass
produce parts that can be shipped anywhere, also
erodes the notion of regionally appropriate mate-
rials and vernacular building forms.
In the early era of this shift toward technological
solutions, the architecture of the early 1900s still
responded to place-based principles for daylighting,
natural ventilation, thermal mass for cooling, and
mixed-use pedestrian lifestyles in evidenced in early
“letter-shaped” buildings shown in Fig. 2. As build-
ing technology developed, however – introducing
air conditioners, high-rise elevators, automobiles,
for example – it became easier to design and build
without regard to climate and context. With the
increased use of manufactured materials, as well as
a willingness to transport materials over great
Sustainable Design and Construction, Integrated
Delivery Processes, and Building Information Model-
ing, Fig. 2 Narrow footprints. The plan for Detroit’s
General Motors headquarters, built in 1921, places each
Sustainable Design and Construction
distances, projects relied less and less on materials
harvested near the site and more and more on the
hermetically sealed climate-protected conditions
that would guarantee a product’s warranties.
With the rise in access to and use of electric
lighting, it was possible to design buildings with-
out access to daylight in each space. With air
conditioning, deep floor areas, and windowless
spaces, unshaded and sealed building envelopes
could provide thermal comfort regardless of cli-
mate and place. Each of these innovations gradu-
ally and significantly contributed to more energy-
intensive buildings and an ever-increasing sepa-
ration of humans from fresh air and daylight and a
view to the outdoors.
Over time, heating, cooling, and lighting were
predominantly handled with mechanical systems,
rather than taking advantage of prevailing breezes
and passive heating and cooling for conditioning
spaces. Building codes gradually required uniform
comfort standards to be maintained, leading the
design industry to rely even more on mechanical
(and not natural) solutions. Eventually, manufac-
turers of building products limited their warranties
to these tightly controlled conditions, providing
even less incentive for the building owner to allow
worker within 20 feet of an operable window and provides
access to views and daylight for almost every room in the
building. Architect: Albert Kahn, Inc
Sustainable Design and Construction
the building to be “open” to the opportunities of
natural conditioning and direct contact with place,
season, and even time of day. By the mid-twentieth
century, the independence of building design and
construction from climate and place was possible.
A mid-rise building design for Anchorage, Alaska,
could be indistinguishable from a similar structure in
Phoenix, Arizona. From a cultural perspective,
many site-specific walkable and human-scale design
elements were similarly lost as designs reflected a
growing automobile-focused culture. Separation of
planning experts and architects further removed
emphasis on an intentionally designed public realm.
Gradually and eventually, through case studies
demonstrating the human health implications of
the design of such spaces, a renewed understand-
ing of both the interconnectedness of natural sys-
tems and the inherent affiliation between humans
and natural systems emerged. As Kellert suggests
in Biophilic Design [7]:
Most of our emotional, problem-solving, critical-
thinking, and constructive abilities continue to
reflect skills and aptitudes learned in close associa-
tion with natural systems and processes that remain
critical in human health, maturation, and productiv-
ity. The assumption that human progress and civili-
zation is measured by our separation from if not
transcendence of nature is an erroneous and danger-
ous illusion. People’s physical and mental well-
being remains highly contingent on contact with
the natural environment, which is a necessity rather
than a luxury for achieving lives of fitness and
satisfaction even in our modern urban society.
It is a similar renewed understanding of the
power of human/nature integration that has
influenced the explosion in the late twentieth and
early twenty-first centuries of new integrated tools
and processes, such as BIM and integrated project
delivery. As we will see, this relatively recent and
renewed understanding of the need for deep inte-
gration, from stronger connections between
humans and the natural world to better integration
between designers and builders, is critical to
achieving integrated systems design throughout
the built environment.
The Modern Sustainable Design Movement
Many consider Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring [8]
of 1962 to be the catalyst of the modern
555
environmental movement and a precursor to the
modern sustainable design movement. In her posi-
tion as a marine biologist with the US Fish and
Wildlife Service, she was overwhelmed by the
detrimental impacts of the cumulative actions of
humans on the environment. In “A Fable for
Tomorrow,” Carson illustrates the interconnectiv-
ity of ecological diversity and the health of
humans.
Carson’s work became a catalyst for a new era of
environmental thinkers within the US Environmen-
tal Protection Agency (EPA), yet the building pro-
fessions lagged until the energy crisis of the 1970s,
when a group of architects, including Sim Van der
Ryn and others, focused their efforts on building
designs that minimized reliance on oil and maxi-
mized reliance on solar energy. In the 1980s, the
seeds were being sown to expand the environmental
movement beyond the issues of energy conserva-
tion. Leaders like William McDonough Architects,
BNIM, HOK, and others broadened the dialogue to
include design for material and water resources,
indoor air quality, and livable communities. In
1993, the US Green Building Council (USGBC)
launched the Leadership in Energy and Environ-
mental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating Sys-
tem, transforming US attitudes and behaviors
toward sustainable design and construction.
The LEED family of tools, and those emerging in
other countries such as BREEAM and CASBEE,
were developed for a variety of reasons: to define
standards for measuring sustainability, to compare
buildings evenly, to transform the construction
industry, to raise consumer and client awareness,
to stimulate competition, to establish a recognized
name for sustainable design, and to educate and
integrate the building industry, building owners,
and design practitioners. Most significantly for the
discussion of integrated design practice, the LEED
credit system seeks to promote integrated design;
encourage innovative design solutions; improve the
life cycle economics of the project; provide a
healthy, productive, and safe workplace for
employees; reduce resource consumption; and
reduce the negative impact on the environment.
These methodologies place real attention on the
performance of buildings and communities and
their impact on the environment. However, they
556 Sustainable Design and Construction

tend to focus on reducing environmental impact
rather than the more challenging goals of
rebalancing the relationship between humans and
nature, closing the ecological cycles, and restoring
or regenerating the earth’s natural biodiversity. Sev-
eral approaches have challenged the professions
even further, including Architecture 2030, Living
Building/Community Challenges, Biomimicry, Cra-
dle to Cradle, and One Planet Communities. A key
tenet of these approaches to sustainable design is the
need to reintroduce ecological and human-purposed
design strategies that are derived by an integrated
design team with a renewed reliance on place-based
knowledge and wisdom, which in turn suggests an
integrated delivery process.
Integrated Delivery Processes
Legacy of a Fragmented Infrastructure
S.G. Mattar identifies the operational islands that
exist in the building industry that contribute to
ongoing performance failures in economic, environ-
mental, and human terms [9]. By overlaying the
functional gaps of increasingly large multi-
disciplinary teams with the management discontinu-
ities of sequential stages of the work, potential
points of missed interconnectedness or disintegra-
tion are revealed. Fig. 3 illustrates the potential for
missed integration in both design and construction.
For example, architectural and mechanical systems
are best integrated within a building design, but
separate specialized teams still rely on human expe-
rience and coordination strategies to ensure all
aspects are captured in the construction document
packages. Similarly, as the project progresses
throughout its phases (from preliminary design
through commissioning), many individuals move
on and off the project team; unless individual
knowledge is captured as collective knowledge,
more opportunities for missing coordination exist.
Integrated delivery processes, including the use of
BIM as a tool, begin to coordinate the separate
disciplines in the design stages and building trades
in the building delivery process. Section “Integrated
Delivery Processes” will illustrate first how the
building delivery process is evolving to integrate
the expertise of design-construction-management,
and section “Building Information Modeling to
Support Integrated Project Delivery” will illustrate
how the design process is evolving to integrate the
diverse expertise of the comprehensive design team.
Lean Thinking as a Path to Integrated Project
Delivery
In the Japanese language, the term for waste is
muda, which is fundamentally based on an under-
standing of value – that which does not provide
value is waste. In the world of lean manufacturing,

Sustainable Design and

Construction, Integrated Prelim. design
Delivery Processes, and
Building Information Detail design
Modeling,
Fig. 3 Fragmented Working drawings & specs
infrastructure. These
diagrams by S.G. Mattar in Tender (bidding)
“Buildability and Building
Envelope Design” illustrate
ral

Planning & scheduling

Mechanica

the operational islands

Structural
itectu

l
trica

(opportunities for
Construction operations
Elec

disintegration) in the
Arch

traditional delivery model

Commissioning

Professional and Trade Building Delivery Process Operational Islands

Responsibilities (Management (Ineffective coordination;
(Functional gaps) discontinuities) poor communication)
Sustainable Design and Construction
at least seven types of muda have been identified:
overproduction, waiting, transporting, inappropriate
processing, unnecessary inventory, unnecessary/
excess motion, and defects [2]. Further, lean think-
ing places value on the delivered product and its
performance rather than just the cost of production,
which in a sustainable building industry suggests
emphasis on life cycle benefits as compared to sim-
ple first cost considerations.
Lean Production/Manufacturing
Advances in the manufacturing world, specifi-
cally the automotive industry, provide context
and insight into potential breakthroughs in the
design and construction industry. In their book,
The Machine That Changed the World: The
Story of Lean Production [10], Womack,
Jones, and Roos trace the history of production
methodologies in the automotive industry, from
craft production to mass production and most
recently to lean production. In the mid- to late-
1800s, craft production was the norm, charac-
terized by a highly skilled workforce,
decentralized organizations, use of general-
purpose machine tools, and a very low produc-
tion volume. In the early 1900s, Henry Ford
introduced revolutionary changes to car
manufacturing, thus beginning the era of mass
production, coincidental with the transforma-
tion of the design and construction industry’s
emerging reliance on technological innovation.
As Womack suggests, it was not the assembly
line that marked Ford’s innovation but rather
“the complete and consistent interchangeability
of parts and the simplicity of attaching them to
each other.”
Though considered to be a breakthrough in
efficient product delivery, Holstein [11] notes
that mass production held the same primary chal-
lenges of building design and construction com-
ing out of the Industrial Revolution, namely,
“principles of specialization, division of labor,
and standardization of parts to the manufacturing
of goods on a large scale.” While mass production
may be a more efficient means of production, the
costs of specialization on the individual workers
remained hidden. Holstein further explains the
dangers of specialization in this way:
557
. . . the division of labor, the specialization of nar-
row skills, the detailed engineering specification of
how each task is to be carried out, and the assem-
blage of large numbers of employees in great
manufacturing plants have greatly diluted the iden-
tification of employees with their productive func-
tions and with their employers. Many surveys in
the United States and in the industrialized coun-
tries of Europe have shown that workers do not
fully understand and appreciate their roles and
positions in society. In addition, the division and
specialization of labor may lead to such narrowly
defined skills and highly repetitive operations,
paced by the steady progression of a machine or
conveyor line, that tedium and fatigue arise to
reduce the sense of satisfaction inherent in produc-
tive work. [11]
As later discussed in Future Directions, engag-
ing mind, body, and spirit is essential to under-
standing a comprehensive integrated delivery
process, which is addressed in the lean produc-
tion model.
By the 1950s, Eiji Toyoda and Taiichi Ohno
at the Toyota Motor Company determined that
mass production was an inappropriate approach
for their organization and, borrowing from the
United States and their initiatives to rapidly
train an unskilled workforce during WWII, set
about on a different path, which would eventu-
ally become synonymous with lean production.
Considered by many as the next significant
organizational/production model, lean produc-
tion finds its roots in an integrated approach to
improvement. The mainstays of the Toyota Pro-
duction System are “continuous improvement”
and “respect for people,” both of which require a
strong interconnection between the process, the
products, and the people creating them.
The key to the Toyota Way and what makes Toyota
stand out is not any of the individual elements. . ..
But what is important is having all the elements
together as a system. It must be practiced every
day in a very consistent manner – not in spurts. [12]
Though revolutionary in its conception, lean
production is a philosophy of evolution. It is an
attitude toward innovation that is focused on con-
tinuous and incremental improvements, not in
breakthrough transformations. It is a process that
values generational learning.
558
After in-depth observation of their processes in
action, Liker [12] derived 14 management princi-
ples that characterize the “Toyota way,” all stem-
ming from the fundamental commitment to “respect
for people” and “continuous improvement”:
I. Long-Term Philosophy
1. Base your management decisions on long-
term philosophy, even at the expense of
short-term financial goals.
II. The Right Process Will Produce the Right
Results
2. Create continuous process flow to bring
problems to the surface.
3. Use “pull” systems to avoid overproduction.
4. Level out the workload (heijunka). (Work
like a tortoise, not a hare.)
5. Build a culture of stopping to fix problems,
to get quality right the first time.
6. Standardize tasks as the foundation for
continuous improvement and employee
empowerment.
7. Use visual control so no problems are
hidden.
8. Use only reliable, thoroughly tested technol-
ogy that serves your people and processes.
III. Add Value to the Organization by Devel-
oping Your People and Partners
9. Grow leaders who thoroughly understand
the work, live the philosophy, and teach it
to others.
10. Develop exceptional people and teams
who follow your company’s philosophy.
11. Respect your extended network of part-
ners and suppliers by challenging them
and helping them improve.
IV. Continuously Solving Root Problems
Drives Organizational Learning
12. Go and see for yourself to thoroughly
understand the situation (genchi genbutsu).
13. Make decisions slowly by consensus,
thoroughly considering all options;
implement decisions rapidly.
14. Become a learning organization through
relentless reflection (hansei) and continu-
ous improvement (kaizen).
Liker cautions others away from rigidly apply-
ing these principles to their own organizations and
Sustainable Design and Construction
encourages others to develop their own principles
appropriate to their own situation. In the same
way that indigenous design solutions are derived
from the culture and the place, it is important that
the principles that define an organization’s pro-
cesses are similarly culture- and place-based.
Lean Design and Construction
Koskela, Howell, Ballard, and Tommelein [13]
suggest that lean construction is both inspired
and challenged by the theory of lean production.
The Lean Construction Institute is an evolutionary
framework of individuals and organizations (both
theorists and practitioners) involved in a conver-
sation on the application of this theoretical frame-
work in the construction field.
Like lean production, lean construction seeks to
eliminate waste while maintaining or adding value,
a measure of productivity in product per person-
hour. Data from the US Department of Commerce
illustrate the decrease in productivity within the
design and construction industry as compared to
other industries in recent decades (Fig. 4).
Those involved in the lean construction move-
ment continue to explore the benefits of lean
thinking on traditional design and construction
processes. From its roots in production manage-
ment, lean principles have been applied to and
studied on large, complex, and short-schedule
building projects. Lean construction is a project
delivery system that emphasizes the reliable and
timely delivery of value. It does not hold to the
notion that there is a trade-off between quality,
time, and cost on a project but believes that all can
and should be achieved, relying on implementa-
tion of the “Five Big Ideas” addressed in a later
section. A fundamental difference between
manufacturing and construction processes exists,
however, whereby manufacturing is most com-
monly understood as the fabrication of component
pieces separate from their ultimate use, while
building construction involves the assembly of
many fabricated pieces at a particular location
(job site). Methodologies and/or tools that have
been developed to work within a lean design and
construction environment can be categorized into
lean production management, lean design, lean
supply, and lean assembly [14]:
Sustainable Design and Construction 559

Construction & Non-Farm Labor Productivity Index (1964–2003)

Constant $ of contracts / workhours of hourly workers
Sources: US Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of Labor Statistics
250.00%

Construction Productivity
Index (1964 = 100%)
200.00% Non-Farm Productivity
Index (1964 = 100%)

150.00%
Index

100.00%

50.00%

0.00%
1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000

Sustainable Design and Construction, Integrated Department of Commerce, Bureau of Labor Statistics illus-
Delivery Processes, and Building Information Model- trating the decline in productivity in the design and con-
ing, Fig. 4 Declining productivity. Data from the US struction industry as contrasted with other fields

Lean production Lean work structuring
management: Scheduling
Last planner system
Look-ahead planning
Lean design: Cross-functional teams
Set-based strategies
Structured design work
Optimization of design
iteration
Design production control
Building information
modeling (BIM)
Communication flow
protocols
Big room
Target value costing
Reliable promising
A3 reports
Lean supply: Communication flow
protocols
Information transparency
Lean product supply
Supply chain design and
control
Reliable promising
Lean assembly: Lean installation
Continuous flow
In direct response to the fragmented infrastruc-
ture of the traditional delivery models in design and
construction, the Lean Production Delivery System,
as illustrated in Fig. 5, reconsiders traditional linear
phasing of production with a more integrated
approach of overlapping processes. Not unlike
other fields, such as quantum physics, social model-
ing, and software networks, those studying lean
design and construction have been recognizing the
significance of interconnectedness rather than sepa-
ration between individual components.
Integrated Delivery Processes
Integrated Form of Agreement
In 2005, Sutter Health, a not-for-profit
community-based healthcare and hospital system
in California developed a contracting model that
supports Lean Project Delivery [15]. This model
was based on the research of the Lean Construc-
tion Institute, including an attempt to address
management of workflow, team relationships,
and contractual relationships. “Five Big Ideas”
560
emerged as a framework that focused on the con-
cept of maximizing value to the customer (in this
case, Sutter Health):
1. Collaborate, really collaborate (throughout
design, planning, and execution)
2. Increase relatedness among all project
participants
3. Consider projects as networks of commitments
4. Optimize the project, not the pieces of the
project
5. Tightly couple action with learning
Not unlike Toyota’s lean production model, the
foundation of an integrated delivery approach
resides in a team’s mutual trust and respect for
the knowledge and expertise brought by each
team member. For this reason, prior experience
working together is a significant benefit, another
access point to multigenerational wisdom. While
collaborative skills of the team can be developed
between newly congregated team members,
design
purposes
concept(s)
design process
criteria design
project definition lean design
Product Control
Work Structuring
Learning Loops
Sustainable Design and Construction, Integrated
Delivery Processes, and Building Information Model-
ing, Fig. 5 Lean project delivery system. From project
Sustainable Design and Construction
intentional work is required upfront to build the
mutual trust and respect and therefore take advan-
tage of meaningful integration. Integrated project
delivery is not simply getting everyone in a room
together but rather practicing a deep and signifi-
cant collaboration of individuals, their knowledge
and wisdom, and shared values – as suggested
above by the first big idea: “Collaborate, really
collaborate.” Though not required to achieve inte-
grated delivery, an integrated form of agreement
as a relational contractual model can beneficially
support this desired type of team behavior.
Integrated Project Delivery (IPD)
In 2007, the American Institute of Architects
(AIA) and AIA California Council introduced
integrated project delivery (IPD) as a “project
delivery approach that integrates people, systems,
business structures and practices into a process
that collaboratively harnesses the talents and
insights of all participants to optimize project
results, increase value to the owner, reduce
alteration
product fabrication commission-
and decom-
design and logistics ing
missioning
operations
detailed
installation and mainten-
engineering
ance
lean supply lean assembly use
definition through to product use, project phases overlap
and a learning loop is introduced to reflect the goal of
continuous improvement
Sustainable Design and Construction
DESIGN-BID-BUILD DESIGN-BUILD
owner
owner
design-build team
design-build
entity
designer constructor
designer
contracts contracts
communications communications
Sustainable Design and Construction, Integrated
Delivery Processes, and Building Information Model-
ing, Fig. 6 Project delivery models. As compared with
traditional delivery system models of design-bid-build and
waste, and maximize efficiency through all phases
of design, fabrication, and construction.” In this
model, the multiparty agreement shifts dramati-
cally from the traditional design-bid-build or
design-build contracts to a focus on shared
responsibilities for project delivery by the three
primary players: owner, designer, and constructor
(Fig. 6).
Connection to Sustainable Design and
Construction
A critical tenet of sustainable design is collabora-
tive decision-making in the early design stages to
ensure that preliminary decisions strategically
support sustainability goals and do not compro-
mise the ability of later decisions or actions in
meeting those goals. Fig. 7 illustrates the time
and cost benefits of early design collaboration,
with the promise of an even greater benefit of
increased quality in the final building product.
Numerous recent publications document the
shift toward a more integrated approach in the
building delivery process and the value of inte-
grated design for high-performance buildings
[16–18]. The changes in the building delivery pro-
cess, especially with respect to when various project
participants are brought on board, are illustrated in
Fig. 8. One of the larger challenges of this approach
is the justification of having more team members at
561
MULTI-PARTY
owner
*
designer constructor
constructor
contracts + communications
*
design-build, a multiparty relational agreement is one con-
tract signed by owner, architect, and contractor (plus any
additional key project partners), indicating the shared risk
and reward nature of the relationship
the table throughout the course of the project, which
tends to translate to additional fees/costs. The ben-
efit of this investment, however, is to ensure the
long-term benefits of a high-performance building,
which has been demonstrated to offer high-level
return on the investment. (Refer to Fig. 9 as one
example of such a study.)
Since the introduction of integrated design pro-
cesses was not codified until LEED develop-
ments, the benefits to building performance and
sustainability are just beginning to be quantified.
Through integrated decision-making early in the
design process, measurable gains in energy and
water efficiency, material, and land conservation
have been recorded in new buildings, major ret-
rofits, interior retrofits, and existing building oper-
ations [16, 18–20]. The key is to integrate, really
integrate. The advent of building information
modeling as a mainstream design and construc-
tion tool is helping to facilitate an integrated team
and therefore an integrated design process.
Building Information Modeling to
Support Integrated Project Delivery
CAD to BIM
Building information modeling (BIM) moves
well beyond traditional computer-aided drafting
562
Macleamy Curve
1 ability to impact cost and functional capabilities
2 cost of design changes
3 traditional design process
4 IPD design process
Design Effort/Effect
traditional Predesign
integrated Conceptualization
Sustainable Design and Construction, Integrated
Delivery Processes, and Building Information Model-
ing, Fig. 7 The case for informed decisions in early
design. MacLeamy Curve comparing design effort, project
(CAD) by tying component properties and char-
acteristics to a geometric model that supports
parametric changes by each expert in the building
delivery process. Parametric modeling takes its
name from the project parameters or variables
that are modified as work progresses. It also refers
to the model’s content as interconnected compo-
nents and views, all of which are updated when
modifications are made to one component in any
view. Parametric design was common practice in
the shipbuilding, automotive, and airplane indus-
tries decades before digital modeling was more
commonly adopted within the architectural pro-
fession. Famously, Antoni Gaudi adopted analog
methods of parametric modeling through con-
struction of physical models in the early 1900s,
but the integration of modern digital parametric
modeling within the architectural design process
is relatively recent, emerging as late as the mid-
Sustainable Design and Construction
4 3
Schematic Design Construction Agency Permit/ Construction
Design Development Documents Bidding
Criteria Design Detailed Design Implementation Agency Coord/ Construction
Documents Final Buyout
phase, and impact on costs. The implication of this diagram
is that it is highly beneficial to the overall project success
for key stakeholders to be at the table early in the design
process making informed decisions
1980s with substantial adoption occurring in the
early 2000s. With significant investment by soft-
ware developers such as Autodesk, Bentley,
Graphisoft, and Vectorworks, BIM now supports
integrated design development by architects,
engineers, and contractors, generating as-built
documents that can be updated and modified by
building managers.
BIM in the Design Phase
The most obvious benefit of BIM use in the design
and construction industry comes in the form of
three-dimensional design visualization. Three-
dimensional models (be they physical or elec-
tronic) convey a better sense of the final project
than two-dimensional representations of abstract
views of the building. Site, floor, ceiling, and roof
plans and interior and exterior elevations are com-
plex abstractions of the actual building, often
Sustainable Design and Construction
Traditional design process
WHAT
Predesign Schematic
Design
Owner
Designer
Design Consultants
Integrated design process
WHAT
HOW
WHO
Conceptualization Criteria Design
Agency
Owner
Designer
Design Consultants
Constructors
Trade Constructors
Sustainable Design and Construction, Integrated
Delivery Processes, and Building Information Model-
ing, Fig. 8 Project team integration. Comparison of team
unintelligible to those that need to understand
them the most, from the client to future occupants.
Three-dimensional models afford a much greater
opportunity to understand the building during
design, before construction begins, when key
decisions are being made. Not only is this benefi-
cial with the client and user groups in making
informed decisions; it is also valuable in commu-
nicating the design intent to officials of regulatory
agencies (code, zoning, public utilities, etc.),
neighborhood groups, and any other stakeholders
that would benefit from fully understanding the
project. So, in its most basic form, BIM affords
real integration with the client and ultimate occu-
pants/users of the building.
To support an integrated design and construc-
tion team, another critical difference between
BIM models and CAD models is the parametric
nature of the model information. Because the
model is being updated concurrently by various
members of the design team, lag time of sharing
information between the various disciplines
responsible for the design of the project is dramat-
ically reduced. Discrepancies within the separated
563
HOW
REALIZE
WHO
Design Construction Agency Permit/ Construction Closeout
Development Documents Bidding
Agency
Constructors
Trade Constructors
REALIZE
Detailed Design Implementation Agency Coord/ Construction Closeout
Documents Final Buyout
member involvement for a traditional design process and
an integrated design process as illustrated within AIA’s
Integrated Project Delivery Guide
two-dimensional drawings of the building are also
minimized, and because two-dimensional draw-
ings are actual views of the BIM model, inconsis-
tencies that have typically been coordinated
across drawing sets are minimized. Design
options can be rapidly generated for study and
review to afford quick and informed decision-
making and to ensure that the latest decisions are
communicated to the entire team. Cost estimating
and construction review can occur iteratively and
quickly (reminiscent of rapid prototyping or small
batching in the lean world), rather than waiting
until a benchmark set of documents is produced.
Manufacturers and trade partners, including
curtain wall, mechanical, electrical, plumbing,
furniture, and other manufactured products, have
the potential to contribute key information regard-
ing constructability and cost implications during
design. Experience with BIM models in design
does reveal that these are still “models,” and so a
critical eye is needed when balancing level of
detail with level of abstraction. Thoughtfulness,
experience, and collaboration are required as
these decisions are made early in the project. It
 564

Sustainable Design and Construction, Integrated Delivery Processes, and building program, each representing various levels of sustainable design and construction,
Building Information Modeling, Fig. 9 Packard Sustainability Report illustrating including market, four levels of LEED and a living building. 30-, 60-, and 100-year cost
long-term financial impacts. The project team evaluated six conceptual designs for the same models were developed to demonstrate the long-term benefits of sustainable thinking
Sustainable Design and Construction
Sustainable Design and Construction
has not proved beneficial, for example, to consider
the model as a virtual mock-up of every detail of
the building; this is not the most effective use of
the design team’s time and talents. The use of BIM
in the design stage does, however, support a level
of iterative and early collaborative decision-
making that is critical in the integration of the
more rigorous design goals for sustainability.
BIM in the Construction Phase
Contractor input is becoming a valuable component
of the design process, at times contributing to early
design decision-making, cost estimating, and con-
structability assessments, pulling construction plan-
ning up into the design phases. In some instances,
the BIM model is further used by the general con-
tractor as well as trade partners for staging and
sequencing and as an effective communication tool
to “see” the construction workflow in advance.
Clarity of this kind of information eliminates waste
at multiple levels, from early interference checking
of building systems to the timing of on-site con-
struction equipment (tower cranes, etc.) – allowing
team members to coordinate their work effectively.
A highly beneficial feature of a BIM model is its
capacity for interference checking. When all of the
building’s systems – structure, enclosure, mechan-
ical, plumbing, and others – coexist in the same
three-dimensional space, the team can collectively
and virtually see space constraints and interfer-
ences, often called clash detection. This requires
integration of multiple disciplines and cultural inte-
gration of project team members from the owner,
design, and builder teams. Resolving such condi-
tions virtually rather than out in the field eliminates
waste at multiple levels – in time, materials, and
cost. The economic, human, and environmental
costs of change orders are significant, and inte-
grated design practices combined with the use of
BIM have the potential to measurably reduce these
costs. This process blurs the line between design
and construction phases as design modifications
are made ahead of construction, informed by phys-
ical/construction realities.
BIM in the Manufacturing Phase
Reducing short-term or long-term costs, however,
is not ambitious enough for the sustainable design
565
community. There is a longstanding and built-up
need for improving installed performance of inte-
grated systems, with the least amount of
resources, which might also be enhanced through
BIM. When the design team’s BIM model is
developed with the manufacturers and fabricators
(direct-to-fabrication), an iterative “design assist”
model is initiated. Instead of fabricators redrawing
the design documents and submitting for approval
(in the traditional delivery model), the fabricator
takes over the BIM design model or one portion of
it and makes adjustments for improved perfor-
mance for the design team to review and approve
for fabrication.
Kieran and Timberlake’s explorations in
“refabricating architecture” are a vivid illustration
of this approach [21]. In this model, BIM geom-
etry and data are sent direct to fabricators for off-
site fabrication or manufacturing in controlled
environments where tolerances and performance
can be optimized. In lieu of on-site construction,
on-site assembly is maximized, shortening overall
construction time and improving quality of work-
manship. The migration of BIM models into the
CAD/CAM arena offers significant gains in inte-
grated design decision-making across the profes-
sional disciplines and through the building
delivery process. Through this shift in process,
how compensation is reallocated for shifted
labor efforts must be considered.
BIM and Building Performance Simulation
As discussed in Chapter ▶ “Sustainability Perfor
mance Simulation Tools for Building Design”,
BIM models are beginning to support building
performance simulation directly. Thermal, light-
ing, acoustic, structural, energy, and other perfor-
mance simulation models have been advancing
rapidly over the past decades. However, in almost
every case, these models have needed indepen-
dent geometric and performance specification
profiles to be built in customized computer
models before the simulation could be completed.
Today, we see the first instances of the direct use
of BIM models for performance simulation. Since
geographical coordinates are resident in most
BIM models, solar access and sunshading studies
can be performed directly. More extensive
566
modeling for daylighting and energy studies still
require separate interfaces, but progress in the
interoperability of software packages is gradually
allowing the original BIM model to be exported
directly to the analysis software. While still imper-
fect, in recent years there has been a larger focus
on interoperability between tools to translate
models between software. This means that fewer
separate interfaces are required, as results of ana-
lyses can be embedded back into the model. For
example, there has been an increase in access to
better tools, including open-source/free tools, for
analysis, quantification, and collaboration, which
enable architects to run basic analysis to guide
their initial ideas prior to engaging experts to run
more detailed analysis. This is especially relevant
for energy analysis software in early design when
a broad spectrum of options is generated and
when comparative analysis and quick turnaround
times are needed. As the design develops and
more detailed material and component specifica-
tions are required for real projections of energy
use or natural ventilation effectiveness, for exam-
ple, the interoperability of software has been
improving. Many of the physical material proper-
ties (thermal resistance, reflectivity, light emissiv-
ity for glass) are being built into the BIM
elements, so when a project is more developed,
this information is transferred to the analysis tool
along with the geometry.
Beyond energy simulation, BIM models can be
instantly mined for area and material calculations to
support the planning of other sustainable strategies,
such as rainwater harvesting, material savings, and
recycled content [22]. Interoperability advances
beyond spreadsheet calculations are still needed,
however, as is discussed in Future Directions.
BIM and Life Cycle Cost Analysis (LCA)
While BIM is often perceived to be simply a
three-dimensional model, it has the capacity to
accommodate additional dimensions by
addressing systems integration in 3-D, design-
construction-use phasing in the fourth dimen-
sion, performance outcomes in the fifth, costing,
and more. One of the more important yet com-
plex opportunities for building information
modeling is the incorporation of material life
Sustainable Design and Construction
cycle properties. Wall, door, hardware, finish,
and window schedules are all generated and
updated automatically as the model is built with
carefully chosen component libraries. Additional
information about project materials embedded in
the model – from raw materials to assembly and
transport and from physical properties of compo-
nents to those of assembled systems – would be
even more helpful in iteratively assessing the life
cycle impact of design decisions. The most
immediate benefit of this database is the ability
to report out material quantity takeoffs normally
handled by a contractor or cost consultant. In
addition to pure quantities, material qualities
can also be embedded in the model. To ensure
that manufacturers offer reliable and clear spec-
ifications for these BIM libraries, national stan-
dards are being created by the National Building
Information Model Standard (NBIMS) Project
Committee, under the National Institute for
Building Sciences (NIBS) buildingSMART alli-
ance™ with a broad constituency of industry
partners [23]. As the material and product spec-
ification libraries become populated with reliable
data, the design and construction teams will be
able to make more environmentally sound deci-
sions, driven first by simpler goals of recycled
content and recyclability, cost, and physical per-
formance (or durability/life expectancy). As the
inventory is populated with data about the full
life cycle assessment of components, decisions
for the most sustainable built environment will
be better informed. This may be most powerfully
realized in the material transparency movement,
which remains one of the more inefficient pro-
cesses on sustainability projects today. As mate-
rial properties are linked to elements within the
model, reporting on material content can become
more automatic.
The David and Lucile Packard Foundation
Sustainability Report and Matrix is an early tool
developed by the BNIM project team for a new
headquarters building in Los Altos, California. It
reflects an extensive study in understanding not
only the first costs of sustainable design and con-
struction but also long-term (generational) cost
benefits, examined over 30-year, 60-year, and
100-year cost models [24].
Sustainable Design and Construction
BIM and Computer-Aided Facilities Management
(CAFM)
CAFM is a communication and tracking tool for
ongoing operations and maintenance of a building
and assets inside it, such as fixtures, furnishings,
equipment, and people. To consider that the build-
ing information model has expended its useful-
ness at the time of construction completion is to
miss a significant opportunity for further integra-
tion of the BIM model into the project delivery
process as it relates to its stored data. As noted in a
2004 NIST study on the costs of inadequate inter-
operability in the facilities industry:
Owners and operators have the largest interoperabil-
ity costs of all the stakeholders: over $10.6 billion, or
about 68 percent of the total $15.8 billion of inade-
quate interoperability costs calculated for the capital
facilities supply chain . . . This is because owners
and operators carry the burden of ongoing interop-
erability costs during the operations and mainte-
nance phase . . . Eighty-five percent of owners and
operators’ interoperability costs are incurred during
the operations and maintenance phase. Quantified
costs were estimated at approximately $9 billion in
2002. Although inefficient business process man-
agement costs are significant during this phase
($1.6 billion), the costs related to facilities manage-
ment and maintenance are even larger. [25]
To address these losses, use of the project’s
BIM model for facilities management, once the
owner or tenant begins occupancy of the building,
is emerging. Activities such as employee tracking
(moves/adds/changes) and asset management
(spaces, equipment, furniture) are being handled
within CAFM systems, yet it is rare for the BIM
model that was built during design and modified
during construction to be carried through to the
facility management phase. BIM holds the com-
ponent information for building materials, sys-
tems, and components, while CAFM holds the
ongoing operations and maintenance information.
The current goal in bridging this interoperability
divide is the successful communication between
asset knowledge (BIM) and asset maintenance
(CAFM). Like the development of compatible
software for daylight and energy modeling that
seamlessly accept appropriate data from a BIM
model, bridging the BIM-CAFM means allowing
the BIM and CAFM models to directly influence
each other via data transfer, data such as
567
manufacturers data on building materials and sys-
tems, including fixtures, furnishings, and equip-
ment (especially mechanical) and the subsequent
history of ongoing maintenance.
Workflow Transformation
Advancing sustainable design with integrated
project delivery and building information model-
ing requires a traditional project team to funda-
mentally change the way the work is performed
and compensated. Traditional sequential relation-
ships between architects, engineers, manufac-
turers, contractors, and facility managers are
eliminated, as teams rely on each other’s expertise
throughout the entire process to ensure higher-
quality outcomes. When project goals are met, all
team members benefit, including the owner. When
projects encounter unforeseen conditions or when
oversight errors occur, the team solves the problem
together rather than wasting energy assessing
blame. Within an integrated project team, a full
client and building delivery team is at the same
table early in the process and collectively accepts
risks and responsibilities for the entire project (see
Fig. 8). Performance goals are set and building
design processes are established collectively to
ensure integrated decision-making and collabora-
tive problem-solving required to meet those goals.
A compensation model is similarly set up in
advance so that established and unforeseen efforts
are accommodated in the fee structure.
In this model, architects, engineers, manufac-
turers, and builders work within the same BIM
environment to ensure the virtual building is coor-
dinated prior to work on-site. To ensure high-
performance buildings, critical building science
consultants are engaged from project kickoff, par-
ticipating in the generation and evaluation of design
alternatives. As noted above, recent software devel-
opment has allowed design teams to engage in basic
studies to test early ideas, which then complement
the expertise of building scientists by narrowing the
range of potential options to enable the team to
reach finer detail sooner. The collaboration is fun-
damental because the integration of diverse ideas
and feedback is critical to a more sustainable pro-
cess and product. If the call for a sustainable built
environment is real, this kind of fundamental
568
transformation in how the design and construction
industry works together must also be real.
Future Directions
Toward Interdependence
In the spirit of learning from indigenous cultures
to help western civilization regain its connection
to nature, reference to the term “ubuntu” from the
Bantu language group is appropriate. This term
has been translated in various ways, all with the
common thread of interdependence – one among
others rather than one separate from others. Its
simplest translation – “I am because we are” –
suggests a fundamental understanding of self as
inseparable from community. This embodies the
spirit of what has been lost in our culture and what
is required to achieve true sustainability of
humanity and planet. This first principle of
interdependence underpins all conversations on
sustainable design and integrated delivery.
Connecting Data and Decisions
There are some basic and solvable ways that inte-
grated practice and building information model-
ing can be enhanced from its current forms to
catalyze project teams toward better decision-
making. On the one hand, strong benefits are
gained by a project team that engages individuals
who are local to a place – who bring some mea-
sure of historical wisdom and/or knowledge –
particularly if that knowledge is multi-
generational. Similarly, in-depth research on the
environmental and ecological characteristics of a
place is invaluable to design efforts geared toward
sustainability and restoration (Fig. 10).
Other solutions are technological in nature and
solvable over time. BIM software is available
today that alerts teams when a design conflicts
with local codes and ordinances. BIM parametric
data can provide the design team with live LEED
documentation as the design evolves – not all
credits yet, but those that are dependent on quan-
tities and dimensions, such as the percent of occu-
pied spaces that have seated views and access to
daylight. BIM models tie material data to product
specifications, which support pricing models and
Sustainable Design and Construction
alert the team when LEED material credits are
met. These are all highly beneficial uses of a
BIM model to automatically and parametrically
calculate design-related performance outcomes as
the design evolves.
Critical to the next generation of parametric
modeling is the ability of the model to be
geospatially located in order to support extensive
data acquisition from external sources. As a pro-
ject model is initiated, project site parameters
would immediately connect live external data to
the project. Imagine a model that pulls detailed
data regarding rainfall expected at a project site –
not just annual rainfall expectations based on his-
toric data but information that includes estimated
expectations of future rainfalls based on a more
global understanding of climate change implica-
tions. Imagine a model that is linked to a product
database that monitors product data and availabil-
ity within close proximity to the site or that iden-
tifies appropriate building systems or materials
based on the project location as well as reports to
the team on the health aspects of material selection
as part of material transparency efforts (such as
Living Building Challenge “Red List” and
“Responsible Industry” requirements and indoor
air quality best practices). Imagine a model that,
once “placed” within its geographical coordi-
nates, identifies not only expected solar access
and informs the team on appropriate orientation,
massing, and sunshading but also pulls available
data on solar products and calculates anticipated
solar income available at the building based on the
efficacy of those products. Imagine a model that is
more computational in nature and that monitors
and reports back to the team in real time on a
multiplicity of criteria: incidents of clashes, com-
parison to performance goals, conflict with local
code requirements, estimated construction costs,
impact on carbon footprint, and conflict with any
parametric constraints defined within the model
(geometric or otherwise). The potential of BIM
models to support data and analysis input from a
diverse set of sources begins to bridge the sustain-
ability gaps previously described from a techno-
logical perspective, but the barriers that block
teams from sustainable solutions are not just
technological.
 Sustainable Design and Construction

Sustainable Design and Construction, Integrated Delivery Processes, and data minimally include solar, temperature, wind, psychometric data, moisture, and
Building Information Modeling, Fig. 10 Climate data chart. A sample collection ecosystems (Courtesy of BNIM)
569

of basic environmental data collected for work in a specific locale. Primary categories of
570
Reconnecting Nature and Human Nature
Integrated design practice methodologies and BIM
tools have emerged to challenge and transform
design thinking. It is not clear, however, if they
will be adequate for understanding nature’s princi-
ples of interconnectivity and interdependence or
for actively contributing to this regenerative loop.
Native cultures throughout time have spoken out
on the wisdom of nature and have given warnings
against ignoring her interconnectedness or “consil-
ience” as E.O. Wilson would suggest [26]. John
Muir left us with his observation, after spending
extended time in the wilderness, that “When we try
to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to
everything else in the universe.” Similarly, the
David Suzuki Foundation, in preparation for the
1992 United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de
Janeiro, issued their own Declaration of
Interdependence [27], one they hoped would be
adopted by all (italics mine):
Declaration of Interdependence
This we know
We are the earth, through the plants and animals
that nourish us.
We are the rains and the oceans that flow
through our veins.
We are the breath of the forests of the land, and
the plants of the sea.
We are human animals, related to all other life as
descendants of the firstborn cell.
We share with these kin a common history,
written in our genes.
We share a common present, filled with
uncertainty.
And we share a common future, as yet untold.
We humans are but one of thirty million species
weaving the thin layer of life enveloping the world.
The stability of communities of living things
depends upon this diversity.
Linked in that web, we are interconnected –
using, cleansing, sharing and replenishing the fun-
damental elements of life.
Our home, planet Earth, is finite; all life shares
its resources and the energy from the sun, and
therefore has limits to growth.
For the first time, we have touched those limits.
When we compromise the air, the water, the soil
and the variety of life, we steal from the endless
future to serve the fleeting present.
This we believe
Humans have become so numerous and our
tools so powerful that we have driven fellow crea-
tures to extinction, dammed the great rivers, torn
down ancient forests, poisoned the earth, rain and
wind, and ripped holes in the sky.
Sustainable Design and Construction
Our science has brought pain as well as joy; our
comfort is paid for by the suffering of millions.We
are learning from our mistakes, we are mourning
our vanished kin, and we now build a new politics
of hope.
We respect and uphold the absolute need for
clean air, water and soil.We see that economic
activities that benefit the few while shrinking the
inheritance of many are wrong.
And since environmental degradation erodes
biological capital forever, full ecological and social
cost must enter all equations of development.
We are one brief generation in the long march of
time; the future is not ours to erase.
So where knowledge is limited, we will remem-
ber all those who will walk after us, and err on the
side of caution.
This we resolve
All this that we know and believe must now
become the foundation of the way we live.
At this turning point in our relationship with
Earth, we work for an evolution:
from dominance to partnership;
from fragmentation to connection;
from insecurity to interdependence.
Important to note is Suzuki’s final imperative,
that we work from “insecurity” – not to “secu-
rity”– but rather to “interdependence,” suggesting
the stronger alternative to security.
In a similar fashion, Benyus [5] provokes the
designers of today to reconsider their source of
inspiration and to look deeply into nature to find
the “genius of place,” the “biological beginning,”
by inviting a biologist to the design table.
Biomimicry – a call to both study and absorb
nature’s principles for the purposes of design – is
the other side of Carson’s Silent Spring coin, a call
in response to the warning. Benyus identifies a
new science that views nature as model, measure,
and mentor, searching for wisdom instead of
knowledge to inform innovation in agriculture,
energy, textiles, medicine, computation, business,
and architecture.
Reconnecting Mind, Body, and Spirit
While it may be unorthodox to incorporate the
notion of spirit within an academic text, it is
precisely the separation of spirit from mind and
body that has distorted our thinking and has taken
humanity out of alignment with nature. To under-
score the need for integration, or reintegration in
the case of the twenty-first-century condition, one
Sustainable Design and Construction
must reengage the spirit. The incorporation of new
technological tools (such as BIM) and delivery
models (such as integrated practice) falls short if
a cultural shift of will is not simultaneously
adopted. While interest in lean construction and
integrated delivery is growing worldwide, the
design and construction industry in the United
States is far from adopting this cultural shift.
Chrisna du Plessis, at the first national conven-
tion of the US Green Building Council in 2002 in
Austin, Texas [28], shared what indigenous cul-
tures can offer the rest of humanity in terms of
sustainable thinking:
In lieu of mastery of nature, consider mastery
of self.
In lieu of progress above all, consider humanity
above all.
In lieu of pursuit of knowledge, consider pursuit
of wisdom.
As technology such as BIM bridges the knowl-
edge gap, humanity’s recognition of its
interdependence with nature can bridge the
wisdom gap, leading back to an integrated
whole: the integration of human-climate-place
honored and practiced by indigenous populations,
the integration of nature-human ecosystems rec-
ognized by Rachel Carson, and the integration of
diverse disciplines that are central to introducing
buildings and communities that are sustainable.
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 overall credibility of the assessment process but
Rating Systems for invariably brings additional layers of constraints,
Sustainability bureaucracy, and costs.
Environmental (or green) assessment As-
Raymond J. Cole sessment of resource use, ecological loadings,
School of Architecture and Landscape and indoor environmental quality.
Architecture, University of British Columbia, Framework Organization or classification of
Vancouver, BC, Canada environmental performance criteria in a struc-
tured manner with assigned points or
weightings.
Article Outline Green buildings Those that have a higher envi-
ronmental performance compared to that of
Glossary typical buildings with reduced resource use
Definition of the Subject and emissions and higher indoor environmen-
Introduction tal quality.
Building Environmental Assessment Methods Imported assessment method The use of any
Proliferation of Building Environmental non-domestic system to evaluate building
Assessment Methods environmental performance.
Sustainability Assessment Methods Rating (labeling) Extended output from the
Cross-Scale Assessment assessment process, typically in the form of a
Voluntary and Regulatory Mechanisms singular, easily recognizable designation, for
Building Valuation example, “Gold” or “Excellent.”
Standardization Sustainability assessment Assessment that
Green Building Councils expands the range of performance criteria to
Internationally Used Building Assessment include social and economic considerations.
Methods Weighting Assigning the relative significance of
Future Directions the environmental criteria to permit their
Acknowledgments aggregation into an overall single score.
Bibliography

Glossary Definition of the Subject

Building environmental assessment method Voluntary building environmental assessment

(system or scheme) Technique that has envi-
ronmental assessment as one of its core func-
tions but may be accompanied by third-party
verification before issuing an overall perfor-
mance rating or label.
Assessment process Use of assessment methods,
including deployment by the design team and
engagement of other stakeholders as the basis
for making informed decisions.
Certification Third-party verification and scrutiny
of a performance assessment that adds to the
methods have emerged as a legitimate means to
evaluate the performance of buildings across a
broad range of environmental considerations –
most typically resource use, ecological loadings,
and indoor environmental quality. An underlying
premise of these voluntary assessments is that, if
the market is provided with improved information
and mechanisms, a discerning client group can
and will provide leadership in environmental
responsibility and that others will follow suit to
remain competitive.

© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020 573

V. Loftness (ed.), Sustainable Built Environments,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-0684-1_417
Originally published in
R. A. Meyers (ed.), Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology, © Springer Science+Business Media LLC 2018
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2493-6_417-3
574
Building environmental assessment methods
are considered the most effective mechanism to
transform building markets and have profoundly
influenced the range of considerations deemed
important in design and are now embedded within
the parlance of building procurement, design and
construction, and operation. They have played a
significant role in mainstreaming green building
practices and the major systems have been
increasingly referenced and adopted by institu-
tions and authorities as a required building envi-
ronmental performance “standard.” Current green
building assessment methods are checklist based,
and now almost three decades after their introduc-
tion, design practice has largely assimilated this
approach into decision-making processes.
The increase in development and application of
building environmental assessment methods has
provided considerable theoretical and practical
experience on their contribution in furthering envi-
ronmentally responsible building practices. An
important indirect benefit is that addressing the
broad range of issues incorporated in environmental
assessments requires greater communication and
interaction between members of the design team
and various sectors with the building industry.
That is, environmental assessment methods encour-
age greater dialogue and teamwork.
Although the developers of assessment tools
continue to refine their scope, structure, and metrics,
key issues are the interpretation placed on the final
environmental profile or label by the “market,” its
significance alongside other design requirements,
and the changing relationship between voluntary
and regulatory mechanisms to improve building
environmental performance. Moreover, while the
term “sustainable” building is increasingly used
and social and economic criteria are being added
to the performance criteria, few current assessment
methods have been designed and structured from
the outset to embrace these considerations.
Introduction
Until the release of the Building Research Estab-
lishment Environmental Assessment Method
(BREEAM) in 1990 [1], little, if any, attempt
Rating Systems for Sustainability
had been made to establish an objective and com-
prehensive means of simultaneously assessing a
broad range of environmental considerations.
Building environmental rating methods offer a
means to demonstrate that a building has been
successful at meeting an expected level of perfor-
mance in a number of declared criteria. They
provide building owners with a credible and
objective means to communicate to prospective
tenants the environmental qualities of the building
they are leasing, and, by emphasizing more
demanding performance goals and the benefits
over typical practice, they offer the potential for
reframing expectations.
Assessment implies measuring how well or
poorly a building is performing, or is likely to
perform, against a declared set of criteria. Most
current building assessment methods are techni-
cally framed and attempt to measure improve-
ments in the environmental performance of
buildings relative to current typical practice or
requirements. Importantly, almost all assess
design intentions and potential as determined
through prediction rather than actual real-world
performance.
Although initially introduced to perform a spe-
cific assessment role as a means to counteract
unverified claims of building performance –
“green-wash” – building environmental assess-
ment methods play a qualitatively different role
in today’s context. There are several emerging
issues that increasingly frame the use of building
assessment methods:
• Assessment methods have moved beyond vol-
untary market place mechanisms. Performance
thresholds in the assessment methods (e.g.,
LEED® Gold) are increasingly being specified
by public agencies and other organizations as
performance requirements and are being con-
sidered as potential incentives for development
approval, bonus density, and other concessions.
• Building environmental assessment is increas-
ingly being recognized by banking, financial,
and insurance companies as a basis for risk and
mortgage appraisals and real estate valuations.
• With more widespread adoption of assessment
tools, compliance with performance requirements
Rating Systems for Sustainability
increasingly affects associated manufacturing
industries. While some industries use this as an
opportunity to re-evaluate production pro-
cesses, some become increasingly resistive.
• The range of building types seeking certifica-
tion is increasing, and this, in turn, is creating
the need either to develop generic systems that
can recognize distinctions on an as-needed
basis for specific situations or to create a suite
of related methods and tools, each of which
uniquely addresses a particular building type.
• The need to permit easy access to tools and
methods, and to enable assessments to be
made quickly and cheaply, is spurring the
increased deployment of Web-based methods
and electronic submission processes to attain
certification.
• The aggregate effect of individual buildings
has enormous consequence for community
infrastructure design and operation. This,
together with the inherent limitation of analyz-
ing individual buildings as the basis to under-
stand ecological impacts, has generated
interest in creating and linking assessment
methods and tools across a variety of scales.
• Increased awareness of the inevitability of cli-
mate change has extended the approach from
solely one of mitigation to now embrace adap-
tation to changing conditions and the con-
scious restoration of previously degraded
natural systems.
Building Environmental Assessment
Methods
The scope of building environmental assessment
methods represents their developer’s understand-
ing and priorities of environmental performance
issues but all typically consist of three major
components:
• A declared set of environmental performance
criteria organized in a logical fashion – the
structure
• The assignment of a number of possible points
or credits for each performance issue that can
575
be earned by meeting a given level of
performance – the scoring
• A means of showing the overall score of the
environmental performance of a building or
facility – the output
Deriving a final aggregate “score” invariably
requires some form of “weighting” – either
implicitly or explicitly – being applied to the
constituent criteria to reflect their relative signifi-
cance within the overall measure of performance.
This weighting process, which can profoundly
influence the final overall building performance
designation, has consistently represented a key
part of discussions on building environmental
performance. Key issues here relate to need to
establish a more rational basis for the derivation
of weightings, how these reflect regional priori-
ties, and whether they should be implicit or
explicit in the scoring process.
The development of assessment methods has,
for the main part, been driven by the scoping and
structuring of performance criteria. Although it is
generally accepted that environmental criteria
must be organized in ways that facilitate mean-
ingful dialogue and application, the structuring of
criteria within the assessment method is most
important during the output of the performance
evaluation, when the “story” of the performance
must be told in a coherent and informative way to
a variety of recipients. Gann et al. [2] indicate that
the “methods by which results are depicted has a
direct bearing on how the indicators are used and
understood – and by whom.” The Japanese Com-
prehensive Assessment System for Built Environ-
ment Efficiency (CASBEE) [3], for example,
explicitly distinguishes between the way that per-
formance information is organized during the
assessment process and how it is transformed to
communicate a variety of different outputs. It uses
a variety of different output formats, providing the
opportunity to tell different “stories” about a
building’s performance – an overall performance
as well as more detailed descriptions. Moreover,
CASBEE, while employing an additive/weighting
approach, breaks away from the simple addition
of points achieved in all performance areas to
derive an overall building score, which has been
576
the dominant feature of all previous methods. It
distinguishes between the environmental loading
(resource use and ecological impacts) and envi-
ronmental quality and performance (indoor envi-
ronmental quality and amenities), scoring them
separately to determine the building environmen-
tal efficiency, that is, the ratio of environmental
quality and performance to environmental load-
ing. As such, the structure of the CASBEE itself
conveys an eco-efficiency view of assessment.
Given that assessment methods function as vol-
untary, market place mechanisms, ensuring that the
methods are simple, practical, and inexpensive in
both use and maintenance is deemed paramount.
This simple characterization of building environ-
mental issues has both positive and negative
impacts on building design. For owners and design
teams beginning to address environmental issues,
the simplicity provides a straightforward means of
discovering what is important and what is not
important. As such assessment methods can be an
instrument for changing design practice by identi-
fying a new standard of performance that encour-
ages architects and engineers to break old habits
and design norms. However, building environmen-
tal methods may, indirectly, detract from a more
fundamental professional commitment to environ-
mental responsibility. Currently, design teams and
owners use assessment methods to collectively
establish an overall desired “score” – a BREEAM
“Excellent” or “Very Good” or a US Leadership in
Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) [4]
“Gold” or “Silver” rating – and then review the
range of individual performance criteria to identify
those seen as being attainable. There is concern that
“checklist” type environmental assessment
methods may drive the product and process
where simply achieving a high score, with many
important gains, may prove more important than
aspiring to the best overall product.
Further key characteristics of green building
assessment tools have been articulated by Cole
[5], Birkeland [6], and others and include:
• Individual performances are evaluated relative
to a benchmark, either implicitly or explicitly,
rather than in their absolute consequence on
human and natural systems.
Rating Systems for Sustainability
• Criteria are technically framed and based on
metrics that are quantifiable, measurable, and
comparable and which, in aggregate, are
assumed to offer an accurate measure and
understanding of overall green building
performance.
• The need for clear, unambiguous assessment
and avoiding double-counting has required the
assessment criteria to be kept discrete.
• Process-related criteria (e.g., commissioning)
are incorporated alongside performance issues
(e.g., percentage reduction in operating
energy).
• While assessing the performance of green
buildings has received considerable and
increasing scrutiny over the past 5 years and
remains controversial, there is still the funda-
mental belief that long-term performance can
be predicted with some certainty.
• Although maintaining or enhancing the health
of natural systems is implicit in many of the
performance criteria, the conceptual underpin-
nings and structure of the assessment tools do
not typically emphasize or communicate it.
• They are primarily aimed at forging broad
market transformation and, as such, are pre-
mised on creating gradual, incremental change.
• By being generic in their formulation, they
have struggled to adequately accommodate
regional priorities.
• Just as technology is not value-free, all assess-
ment methods carry the values and priorities of
their developers, either implicitly or explicitly.
This raises important questions regarding the
ways and extent that – without significant
adaptation – they can be meaningfully adopted
by other countries or directly used by overseas
building owners.
Building environmental assessment is now a
distinct and important realm of research and
inquiry that seeks to develop greater refinement
and rigor in performance indicators, weighting
protocols, and, where appropriate, the potential
incorporation of life cycle assessment (LCA)
approaches to refine the constituent measures.
Moreover, it has provided numerous side-by-side
comparisons of the more notable methods and
Rating Systems for Sustainability
tools (e.g., BREEAM, LEED ®, CASBEE, and the
Australian Green Star) to illustrate areas of con-
vergence and distinction, typically as a starting
point for generating applicable methods in other
regions or countries seeking to develop new
assessment schemes.
A significant literature exists on the major
building environmental assessments in use world-
wide as well as comparisons of their various
scopes, emphases, structure, strengths and weak-
nesses, etc. [7–10]. Such comparisons continue
and have been increasingly rigorous [11,
12]. Within this debate, the scope of comparison
and analysis is typically based only on technical
content (e.g., the framework), and little or no
reference is made to the organizational or market
context within which the methods operate, that is,
comparisons are made indiscriminately between
tools and methods. Less also well discussed are
their origins and evolution and, whereas
published documents on the systems are accessi-
ble, the roles and contributions of the individuals
and organizations that created and shaped them is
often unrecorded and subsequently lost. This rep-
resents a serious problem since the context within
which an assessment method has been designed to
operate profoundly affects the effective scope,
emphasis, and rigor of an assessment.
Proliferation of Building Environmental
Assessment Methods
The field of building environmental assessment
has matured remarkably quickly since the intro-
duction of BREEAM in 1990, and the interim
period has witnessed a rapid increase in the num-
ber of methods either in use or being developed
worldwide. Within this period, successive gener-
ations of systems have evolved as a result of
accumulated experience, new conceptual insights,
and theoretical propositions. Different systems
have greater strengths and weaknesses than
others, and later systems draw on these to include
features and elements that permit more effective
use. The late 1990s to early 2000s witnessed a
proliferation of building environmental assess-
ment methods by countries worldwide for
577
application within their respective domestic mar-
kets (see Table 1). Many of these systems have
made considerable conceptual advances over
early, more established methods. To date, how-
ever, with the exception of four or five systems,
the number of assessed buildings in many coun-
tries using the domestic systems remains modest.
This lack of traction is primarily due to the lack of
the organizational and financial resources
required to support the necessary educational,
management, and certification programs.
Assessment methods are managed by and oper-
ate within known organizational contexts (e.g.,
BREEAM is owned by the UK Building Research
Establishment’s BRE Global and the Leadership in
Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) rating
system by the US Green Building Council). The
organizations and their affiliations are responsible
for maintenance, continued development, educa-
tional programs, professional accreditation, third-
party certification of projects, and, of significance
here, promotion of their use. Importantly, of
course, is that the organizations must have suffi-
cient capability to operate as national certifications
systems and to offer supporting educational pro-
grams and accredited professionals programs.
Assessment methods have enjoyed consider-
able success and their widespread awareness has
created the critical mass of interest necessary to
cement their role in creating positive change.
“Success” is used here in reference to the way
that assessment methods have entered the par-
lance of the building industry rather than the num-
ber of actual “assessed” and “certified” projects –
which is still relatively low compared to the total
number of buildings constructed annually [5].
A number of factors collectively generated the
early momentum of assessment methods:
• The prior absence of any means to both discuss
and evaluate building performance in a com-
prehensive way left open a distinct niche
within an emerging European and North Amer-
ican “culture of performance assessment.”
• The simple, seemingly straightforward decla-
ration of the requirements of a discrete number
of performance measures presented a complex
set of issues in a manageable form.
578 Rating Systems for Sustainability

Rating Systems for Sustainability, Table 1 Building environmental assessment methods and tools developed
worldwide
Region Country Name Owner/management
Europe France HQE method HQE (Haute Qualité
Environnementale)
Finland PromisE VTT (Technical Research Centre of
Finland)
Germany Sustainable Building Certificate DGNB (Deutsche Gesellschaft für
Nachhaltiges Bauen)
Italy Protocollo ITACA iiSBE Italia
Norway Envir. Programming of urban development SINTEF (Skandinavias største
uavhengige forskningsorganisasjon)
Portugal LiderA (Leadership for the Environment in Instituto Superior Técnico,
Sustainable Building) Lisbon
Spain VERDE Spanish GBC
Sweden EcoEffect Royal Institute of Technology
Netherlands BREEAM-NL Dutch GBC
UK BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Building Research Establishment
Environmental Assessment Method)
Europe LEnSE (Label for Environmental, Social and Belgian Building Research Institute
Economic building)
N. America United States LEED ® (Leadership in Energy and United States GBC
Environmental Design)
Green Globes Green Building Initiative
Canada LEED-Canada Canada GBC
Green Globes ECD Canada
Mexico SICES Mexico GBC
Asia China GHEM (Green Housing Evaluation Manual) Ministry of Construction
GOBAS (Green Olympic Building Ministry of Science and Technology
Assessment Scheme)
ESGB (Evaluation Standards for Green Ministry of Housing and Urban-
Building) Rural Construction
Hong Kong BEAM Plus HK-BEAM Society
CEPAS (Comprehensive Environmental HK Building Department
Performance Assessment Scheme)
India TERI-GRIHA (Green Rating for Integrated TERI (The Energy and Research
Habitat Assessment) Institute)
LEED-India Indian GBC
Japan CASBEE (Comprehensive Assessment Japan Sustainable Building Consort.
System for Built Environment Efficiency)
Korea GBCC (Green Building Certification Korean Korea Institute of Energy
Criteria) Research
Singapore Green Mark Singapore Building & Construction
Authority (BCA)
Taiwan EEWH (Ecology, Energy Saving, Waste ABRI (Architecture and Building
Reduction, and Health) Research Institute)
Vietnam LOTUS Vietnam GBC
(continued)
Rating Systems for Sustainability
Rating Systems for Sustainability, Table 1 (continued)
Region Country Name
Southern H. Australia Green Star
NABERS (National Australian Building
Environmental Rating Scheme)
Brazil LEED-Brazil
HQE
New Zealand Green Star NZ
S. Africa Green Star SA
SBAT (Sustainable Building Assessment
Tool)
Generic GBTool/SBTool
SPeAR (Sustainable Project Appraisal
Routine)
• By offering a recognizable structure for envi-
ronmental issues, they provided a focus for the
debate on building environmental performance.
• Public sector building agencies have used them
as a means of demonstrating commitment to
emerging environmental policies and directives.
• Manufacturers of “green” building materials
and products have been given the opportunity
to make direct and indirect associations with
the relevant performance criteria, to support
the sales of “high” performance products. The
range of environmental goals has led to the
engagement of diverse professional expertise
early in the design process with collaborative
decision-making processes emerging.
Building environmental assessment methods
have dwarfed all other mechanisms for instilling
environmental awareness within the building
industry. Indeed, over the past two decades, they
have been positioned as the most potent mecha-
nism for affecting change.
Green building assessment methods cover a
broad range of performance issues, including
indoor environmental quality as one of their key
categories. The WELL Building Standard™
579
Owner/management
Australian GBC
GBC Brazil
Fundação Vanzolini
New Zealand GBC
South African GBC
CSIR (Council for Scientific and
Industrial Research)
iiSBE (International Initiative for a
Sustainable Built Environment)
Arup Ltd.
launched in 2014 by the US-based International
WELL Building Institute (IWBI) concentrates
solely on health and well-being of inhabitants of
buildings [13]. WELL has a third-party certifica-
tion process with Silver, Gold, and Platinum
levels and an Accredited Professional (WELL
AP) credential program. [Importantly, IWBI col-
laborates with the Green Business Certification
Inc. (GBCI), the same organization that adminis-
ters LEED certification.] A competent, the Fitwel
System, created by the US Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC) together with the
General Services Administration (GSA), was
launched in 2017 [14]. As with green building
assessment methods, comparisons between
WELL and Fitwel are emerging [15].
Sustainability Assessment Methods
The majority of current building environmental
methods assess environmental performance
improvements relative to typical practice, either
implicitly or explicitly. They are also set within
the parlance of marketing practice, and the inten-
tions for such systems and the individual assess-
ment credits that comprise them are
580
understandable by all the stakeholders. Since its
introduction in 1987, “sustainability” has
emerged as a widely held and necessary overarch-
ing notion to frame and guide all future human
activity and enterprise. An emerging debate on
building assessment relates to shift from environ-
mental or “green” performance to this larger goal
of sustainability.
The need to develop methods of deliberation
and decision-making that actively engage the rel-
evant interests of stakeholders will become
increasingly important to infuse sustainability
considerations into day-to-day conduct and prac-
tice. Robinson [16] suggests that the “power of
sustainability lies precisely in the degree to which
it brings to the surface these contradictions and
provides a kind of discursive playing field in
which they can be debated” and subsequently
encourages the “development of new modes of
public consultation and involvement intending
multiple views to be expressed and debated.”
Sustainability relates to a suite of concepts and
embraces notions other than environmental per-
formance and as such is open to wider interpreta-
tion. However, it has two implicit requirements.
Firstly, within the constituent dimensions of
sustainability – environmental, social, and
economic – is a responsibility to inter- and
intragenerational equity. Secondly, sustainability,
and any discussion of it, requires thinking long-
term and assuming responsibility to the future.
However, the ideal of the principles of sustain-
ability is one thing; their assimilation and practice
within the building industry is somewhat differ-
ent. Whereas it is possible to define “green” and
even “greener” as well as the incremental process
for improving performance, it is currently difficult
to envision and articulate a sustainable future –
either in general terms or as related to the config-
uration of human settlement. It is therefore diffi-
cult to have confidence in the design of effective
assessment systems when it is not possible to link
them to final results.
In North America, the Living Building Chal-
lenge [17], launched in August 2006, emerged as
a recognized demanding and complementary per-
formance aspiration to LEED ®. The Living Build-
ing Challenge embodies several key features:
Rating Systems for Sustainability
• All of its 20 performance issues are presented
as prerequisites that must be met before the
designation of Living Building is granted.
This stands in contrast to LEED ® where, par-
ticularly for the Certified Silver and Gold
levels, it is possible to select (or “cherry-
pick”) the credits to attain the necessary overall
performance level.
• The performance requirements are, individu-
ally and collectively, significantly more
demanding than those of LEED ® Platinum.
• The certification and designation as a “Living
Building” is only possible after 12 months of
operation after the submission and verification
of attained performance data.
• The attributes of “beauty and inspiration” have
been included in the requirements wherein the
project must “include design features intended
solely for human delight and the celebration of
culture, spirit and place appropriate to the func-
tion of the building.”
While the Living Building Challenge refer-
ences natural systems and uses a flower/petals
metaphor, there is no recognizable organization
of the issues based on ecological and social sys-
tems theory.
A number of other assessment tools have been
introduced that expand on the range of perfor-
mance issues to explicitly include social and eco-
nomic criteria and thereby attempt to provide a
measure of “sustainable” performance:
• Arup’s Sustainable Project Assessment Routine
SPeAR ® [18]: Functions as a project assess-
ment methodology within Arup’s consulting
projects to enable a rapid review of the sustain-
ability of projects, plans, products, and organi-
zations. Performance criteria are organized in
four general sustainability categories: environ-
ment (air quality, land use, water, ecology and
cultural heritage, design and operation, and
transport); natural resources (materials,
water, energy, land utilization, and waste hier-
archy); economic (social benefits and costs,
transport, employment/skills, competition
effects, and viability); and societal (health
and welfare, user comfort/satisfaction, form
Rating Systems for Sustainability
and space, access, amenity, and inclusion). The
SPeAR ® diagram combines, in a graphical for-
mat, the diverse issues that need to be consid-
ered in sustainable design, including social,
economic, natural resource, and environmental
issues, acknowledging both negative and pos-
itive results. SPeAR ® can be used to highlight
areas where a project/design/development per-
forms poorly in terms of sustainability princi-
ples and to identify opportunities to optimize
performance, integrate best practice, or utilize
new technology. SPeAR ® provides a basis for
evaluating a project’s sustainability perfor-
mance not in comparison with that of other
buildings, but relative to strengths and weak-
nesses within a particular context. This permits
a greater level of subjectivity in the definition
of performance criteria and their interpretation
during scoring.
• iiSBE’s Sustainable Building Tool (SBTool)
[19]: SBTool is arranged in seven performance
issues: site selection, planning, and develop-
ment, energy and resource consumption, envi-
ronmental loadings, indoor environmental
quality, service quality, social and economics
aspects, and cultural and perceptual aspects,
whereas previous versions had focused on
three distinct building types – office buildings,
multiunit residential buildings, and schools –
SBTool allows a more generic description of
buildings with multiple occupancies. A critical
feature of SBTool is the explicit requirement
and ability to customize the weightings of the
performance criteria and categories in response
to regional prioritize. Importantly, SBTool is
uniquely designed from the outset to permit
regional customization.
• South African Sustainable Building Assessment
Tool (SBAT) [20]: Since the social and eco-
nomic concerns in developing countries are far
more pressing than those in developed coun-
tries, domestic constraints on environmental
progress are therefore qualitatively different.
SBAT explicitly introduces performance criteria
that acknowledge social and economic issues
[21]. A total of 15 performance areas are iden-
tified, equally divided within the overarching
sustainability framework of environmental,
581
social, and economic categories, each described
through 5 performance criteria. Further, SBAT
considers how it could become an integral part
of, and subsequently influence, the building
production process by relating its application
to a nine-stage process based on the typical
life cycle of a building: briefing, site analysis,
target setting, design, design development, con-
struction, handover, operation, and reuse/refur-
bish/recycle.
• German Sustainable Building Council’s Cer-
tificate Program [22]: Five general sustainabil-
ity “quality” categories are assessed and they
form the overall aggregate building score: eco-
logical, economic, sociocultural and func-
tional, technical, and process. A sixth quality
with six sub-criteria – location – is evaluated
and presented separately. Criteria within these
performance areas are evaluated individually
and aggregated to determine an overall perfor-
mance designation of gold, silver, or bronze.
The assessment reference reflects the local con-
text and basic requirements in a broad set of
criteria ensure that minimum standards are
met. The method has a life cycle perspective,
permits customization for specific contexts,
and offers advice to the design team.
As with green building assessment methods,
each of the above sustainability tools has recog-
nizable frameworks that convey their scope, struc-
ture, and organization, but sustainable design
frameworks are typically presented graphically.
Whereas SPeAR ®, SBTool, and SBAT frame per-
formance issues within a circle segmented into the
key performance areas, the German certificate
program distinguishes between the three “sustain-
ability” quality categories from the technical and
process criteria which cut across them.
There are a number of characteristics associ-
ated with these “sustainability” tools:
• The representation of the criteria within a cir-
cular framework as distinct from the list format
common to many green assessment tools is,
presumably, seen as evoking potential links
and synergies between the various perfor-
mance criteria. However, as with current
582
green building assessment methods, they still
remain discrete and weighted scores are again
simply aggregated.
• The segmentation of the framework into the
domains of environmental, social, and
economic – typically in equal proportions –
conveys that they are of equal significance.
• The range of performance criteria is clearly
greater than those included in green building
assessment methods, thereby increasing the time
and effort required to perform an assessment.
• Expanding the framework to include social,
cultural, and economic considerations moves
the assessment into areas where there is greater
difficulty and less consensus regarding perfor-
mance metrics.
Robinson [16] suggests that if sustainability is
to mean anything, “it must act as an integrating
concept” and will require “new concepts and tools
that are integrative and synthetic, not disciplinary
and analytic; and that actively creates synergy, not
just summation.” When judged against these
criteria, most current assessment methods and
tools are left wanting in their ability to provide
either insights or effective guidance on sustain-
ability. A sustainable building is likely to be
judged by the way that various systems fulfill
multiple functions, and, indeed, it is typically
only possible to achieve high environmental per-
formance within demanding cost and time con-
straints through the creative integration of
systems. Similarly, while the three domains of
environmental, social, and economic are typically
used to frame sustainability, it is their points of
intersection that are equally critical, that is, the
ways and extent to which they positively or neg-
atively influence each other. Simply adding social
criteria to the current mix of environmental per-
formance measures may not necessarily expose
the way that one influences and is influenced by
others. It can only do so if the method or tool is
used as part of the deliberations between various
stakeholders, that is, synergies are achieved
through active, cross-disciplinary use of the tool,
rather than simply the structure of the tool itself.
That stated, it is important to ensure that environ-
mental and social goals are not, yet again,
compromised within this process.
Rating Systems for Sustainability
Cross-Scale Assessment
At a more pragmatic level, the notion of assessing
the sustainability of an “individual” building is
clearly problematic. Although one can assess the
relative extent to which measures have been taken
in an individual building to reduce resource use
and ecological loadings, it is not possible to iden-
tify their effectiveness at addressing or furthering
economic and social progress by relating them to
regional or national indicators. Indeed, Gibberd
suggests that “there is no such thing as a sustain-
able building – only buildings that enable people to
live and work in sustainable ways” [23]. Assessing
the ways and extent that buildings contribute pro-
gress toward sustainability will require understand-
ing linkages across a range of scales.
Existing environmental assessment methods
were primarily conceived to assess individual
buildings, and performance issues are bounded
by those factors that influence and are influenced
by them. Many of the major building environmen-
tal assessment methods offer a suite of products
each targeted at a specific building type or situa-
tion. The sequence in the development of assess-
ment methods is important in revealing the
increasing acknowledgment of a broader context.
The majority began with a version for new office
buildings and then subsequently expanded the
range of products to include existing office build-
ings, multiunit residential buildings, and then
other broader applications – schools, homes,
etc. Several existing systems have recently intro-
duced versions that address a broader context, for
example, USGBC’s LEED for Neighborhood
Development (LEED-ND ®), CASBEE for Urban
Development (CASBEE-UD), and BREEAM
Communities. The fact that these were developed
after gaining experience with assessing individual
buildings is remarkably telling – development has
been from the scale of individual buildings
upward to that of a neighborhood scale rather
than setting building performance within the over-
arching context of a neighborhood, community,
or city.
The recently released EcoDistricts Protocol
[24] engages and accommodates both process
and assessment. The protocol places social, eco-
nomic, and environmental sustainability “at the
Rating Systems for Sustainability
center of neighborhood initiatives” through what
it considers three key overarching Imperatives:
Equity, Resilience, and Climate Protection. This
sustainability agenda is declared and made mani-
fest through addressing six Priorities: Place, Pros-
perity, Health + Wellness, Connectivity, Living
Infrastructure, and Resource Protection, each hav-
ing a set of objectives and indicators. Importantly,
a framework is offered that “sets the conditions for
sustained, scalable outcomes that address the Pro-
tocol’s Imperatives and Priorities and which meet
the specific needs of the district or neighborhood
over time: Formation, building the necessary
leadership, collaboration, and governance condi-
tions to support effective implementation of a
shared vision for future developments; Roadmap,
creating a performance baseline, establishing tar-
gets, and prioritizing investments; and the Imple-
mentation of the roadmap, measuring and
reporting performance and adapting and facilitat-
ing ongoing enhancements. The EcoDistricts Pro-
tocol thus represents another variation of a new
generation of tools that not only recognizes and
makes distinction between process and perfor-
mance but also accommodates aspects of green
performance tools and regenerative development.
Voluntary and Regulatory Mechanisms
Given the pressing timescale of anticipated signif-
icant climate change, it is difficult to imagine that
a sustainable system of production and consump-
tion will emerge from simply tweaking current
practice. A key issue, therefore, lies in the consid-
erable difference between the levels of change that
the scientific community is advocating and those
that are considered socially and politically accept-
able. Similar arguments relate to the difficulties of
making significant leaps forward in achieving
widespread sustainable building practices within
the acknowledged conservative and cost-sensitive
context of the building industry. The majority of
current “green” environmental assessment
methods are voluntary in their application and
have the primary objective of stimulating market
demand for buildings with improved environmen-
tal performance. Indeed, the “acceptance” of cur-
rent assessment methods currently derives largely
583
from their voluntary application. However, the
voluntary nature of existing methods significantly
compromises both their comprehensiveness and
rigor. Voluntary building environmental assess-
ment methods must serve two conflicting
requirements – they must function as an objective
and sufficiently demanding metric to have credi-
bility within the environmental community while
simultaneously being attractive to building
owners who wish to have something positive to
show for any effort that they have placed on
environmental performance. Satisfying these
twin requirements invariably compromises both
the number of criteria that are assessed, where the
benchmarks are set before performance points are
earned and what is presented as the most demand-
ing performance target.
Higher environmental performance requirements
are increasingly being mandated, bringing into
question the ways that voluntary assessment
methods will have to be cast within a broader array
of mechanisms for creating necessary change.
Given the practical (and incentive) constraints on
setting demand targets and dependency on market
acceptance, it is uncertain whether voluntary mech-
anisms will ultimately be sufficient to create the
necessary improvements in environmental perfor-
mance of buildings needed to meet broader national
environmental or sustainability targets. As such, the
relationship between building environmental assess-
ment methods and other change instruments, both
regulatory and incentive based, will gain in impor-
tance [25]. Historically, regulation provided mini-
mal acceptable performance requirements, and the
voluntary mechanisms offer the complementary
high performance aspiration. Recently, the mandates
of far-reaching performance requirements such as
carbon neutrality will profoundly change these
roles. In Europe, for example, demanding energy
and carbon emission standards for buildings are
now being introduced requiring phased reductions
to net-zero energy performance [26, 27]. In North
America, ASHRAE 189.1-2009 [28] developed
jointly by the American Society of Heating, Refrig-
eration, and Air Conditioning Engineers
(ASHRAE), the Illuminating Engineering Society
(IES), and the US Green Building Council
(USGBC) set green building performance criteria
within a more regulatory-ready framework.
584
Building Valuation
The need to establish a business case for the
development of “green” or/and sustainable com-
mercial properties within the real estate industry
has paralleled the technical development and
application of building environmental assessment
methods [29]. Although the possible capital cost
premiums associated with attaining higher build-
ing environmental performance have been a recur-
ring issue over the past 25 years, the emphasis of
these economic considerations has changed con-
siderably. Initially, the business case was framed
around the added benefit and reduced revenue
costs to the building owner. Today, however, the
business case is increasingly rooted in the added
value associated with higher building environ-
mental performance and the demonstration that
green buildings may be “worth more” to inves-
tors, owners, and tenants [30].
Whereas the cost arguments have consistently
referenced building environmental assessments,
for example, the cost of LEED [31, 32], very little
attention has been directed at connecting green
rating to value. CASBEE is the first system to
introduce a version explicitly linking building
environmental performance assessment with real
estate appraisal. CASBEE for Property Appraisal
[33] is an “appraisal support tool that measures the
impact degree of [design for the environment] on
the property value” that when widely applied will
significantly increase the demand for green
buildings.
Standardization
The BRE was instrumental in the establishment of
the Sustainable Building Alliance (SBA) and the
International Sustainability Alliance (ISA). The
SBA, launched in April 2008, had the aim of
establishing common metrics for key issues so as
to provide transparency between rating while the
ISA was initiated in late 2009 to “drive the devel-
opment of common international standards for
real estate” by providing an international gover-
nance structure that “join forces with international
companies, Green Building Councils, research
Rating Systems for Sustainability
institutes and other stakeholders in the real estate
chain toward an international sustainability stan-
dard for the built environment.” [34] BREEAM
was central within the ISA’s ambition of a
“pan-European sustainability standard.” ISA
stated goals include driving toward one single
European certification standard, adaptable to
local market conditions, and expanding on the
current BREEAM system and creating a third-
generation system for the market and industry.
Given the proliferation of domestic assessment
systems worldwide over the past 15 years, a num-
ber of developments are now pushing toward
increased standardization. A primary driver for
this development is organizations seeking a com-
mon international vocabulary for building envi-
ronmental assessment that can then facilitate
communication between stakeholders and inter-
building and intercountry comparisons [35]. The
Sustainable Building Alliance (SBA) [36] and the
International Sustainability Alliance (ISA) [33]
were established in Europe in 2008 and 2009,
respectively. The French Centre Scientifique et
Technique du B^ a timent (CSTB), UK Building
Research Establishment (BRE), and others
launched the Sustainable Building Alliance
(SBA) in April 2008 with the aim of establishing
common metrics for key issues so as to provide
transparency between rating systems while,
importantly, still recognizing regional and
national differences.
Green Building Councils
Methods are owned and operated by a wide range
of private and public sector organizations. How-
ever, one of the most significant developments
regarding the organizational context for building
environmental assessment methods is the increase
in the number of Green Building Councils, their
linkage through the World Green Building Coun-
cil (WorldGBC) [37], and their sharing experi-
ences with using assessment methods. Two
aspirations with the World GBC’s mission are to
ensure Green Building Councils are successful
and have the tools necessary to advance and to
support effective green building rating systems.
Rating Systems for Sustainability
Clearly there are considerable benefits associated
with increased cooperation and sharing associated
with the encouragement and capability building
provided by these initiatives as well as the harmo-
nizing of tools and metrics. The presence of a
GBC clearly has an influence on the uptake of
green building certification and market transfor-
mation in their respective countries. The ways and
extent to which the various member Councils
favor certain assessment tools remain uncertain
at this time.
Internationally Used Building
Assessment Methods
A number of developments are now pushing
toward increased standardization of assessment
methods, the absence of which Dixon et al. [38]
suggest has made it increasingly difficult to under-
stand differences between markets. This, in turn,
has created complications for investors purchas-
ing buildings in different countries. Reed et al.
[39] similarly argue that “[i]n an era of interna-
tional property investment where it is possible to
directly compare values of individual buildings in
different countries with a view to potential acqui-
sition, unfortunately rating tools do not exhibit the
same level of comparability due to their unique
characteristics and focus” (p. 16). This, they con-
tinue, may hinder the take-up rate of rating tools
and be a barrier to increasing the knowledge.
The primary drivers here include:
• Organizations seeking a common international
vocabulary for building environmental assess-
ment that can then facilitate communication
between stakeholders and inter-building and
intercountry comparisons
• Multinational companies who have building/
development projects worldwide and who are
expected to adhere to numerous domestic envi-
ronmental assessment methods
• Corporations/companies that need to acquire
green buildings when they are operating inter-
nationally to fulfill their corporate sustainabil-
ity requirements
585
• Government agencies seeking consistency in
their environmental assessment of their
portfolios
• The global nature of contemporary building
design and construction practice wherein con-
sultants practice internationally and have expe-
rience with specific environmental assessment
tools
• The desire of building owners to have exem-
plary green projects assessed by more than one
assessment method
There is a clear shift to the support for a few
international “brand-name” systems. Such
“branding” the assessment methods domestically
is also obviously a necessary process for their
promotion and adoption.
The desire for international standards and the
motivation of the owners of the systems to expand
the adoption of their assessment systems abroad
are among many of the forces driving toward the
increased international use of the two most
established methods – BREEAM and LEED ®.
These are two of the most mature and widely
internationally recognized systems with the
greatest number of assessed buildings/accredited
professionals and, by virtue of their associated
“brand” recognition, have the greatest presence
outside their respective countries of origin.
LEED ® and BREEAM have, as Rivera [40] sug-
gests, “become the forerunners in the race to
become the internationally recognised sustainable
building certification scheme.” They are also
being increasingly positioned as being in compe-
tition within a global market [41, 42].
• BREEAM Abroad: Early in the development of
BREEAM, there was a declared aspiration that
it would have an international presence. Since
1999, the Building Research Establishment
(BRE) has certified and approved products
through BRE Certification. This was renamed
BRE Global in 2006 in recognition of its offer-
ing of its services worldwide and environmen-
tal certification and rating – including
BREEAM initially launched in 1990 – were
also brought under the BRE Global brand at
this time. All BREEAM assessments outside
586
the UK are provided under the umbrella of
“BREEAM International” including “one-off”
tailored assessments, regional standard
schemes, and country-specific schemes.
BREEAM is currently having considerable
influence internationally through the use of
BREEAM Bespoke that can be used to assess
any building type or adapted to develop
schemes for particular countries and regions.
Versions of BREEAM have been created:
BREEAM Europe; BREEAM Gulf introduced
in the late 2008 covering the UAE, Oman,
Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait
(although this was withdrawn from operation
on 1 May 2011 [40]); and a country-specific
version for the Netherlands (BREEAM-NL)
with others likely in the future.
• LEED Abroad: The US Green Building Coun-
cil (USGBC) was founded in 1993. A critical
development was the creation of the Green
Building Certification Institute (GBCI) in
2008. The GBCI became responsible for the
administration of LEED and professional
credentialing, permitting the USGBC to focus
on developing and refining the LEED stan-
dards. While adapted versions of LEED have
been created under license with the USGBC
(LEED-Canada in 2004, LEED-India in 2007,
and LEED-Italia in 2009), the majority of
LEED-certified projects are certified centrally
through the GBCI. This contrasts with
BREEAM certifications wherein the assessors
operate independently under a BREEAM
International License. The USGBC developed
a set of Global Alternative Compliance Paths
(Global ACPs) to make LEED more accessible
for projects outside of the USA and provide a
more flexible method for international projects
to demonstrate compliance with LEED.
The environmental performance assessment of
buildings is now a major business, with significant
revenues generated through the certification pro-
cess, licensing of the systems, training and educa-
tion, and the accrediting of professionals. Such
revenues are not solely gained through the orga-
nizations themselves but also those offering
supporting services, particularly in education
(exam preparation course/materials, etc.). Clearly
Rating Systems for Sustainability
BRE Global and the USGBC/GBCI equally real-
ize the considerable opportunity in expanding the
use of their respective systems internationally.
The ways that the two major environmental
assessment methods – BREEAM and LEED –
are being used beyond their countries of origin is
complex and varied. Moreover, given the rate at
which developments are unfolding, the implica-
tions of their widespread use on global green
building performance remains unclear. The larger
issue of concern is the ability to nurture or retain
approaches to green building assessment that sup-
port culturally and climatically appropriate design
practices within an emerging context of globally
deployed “brand” systems.
Future Directions
Many countries around the world have domestic
methods that will remain the sole or dominant sys-
tem within their respective markets, e.g., Green Star
in Australia and New Zealand, CASBEE in Japan,
and Green Mark in Singapore. However, there are
many other countries and regions where both
BREEAM and LEED® are likely to expand their
presence as a result of both increased demand and
active promotion. Market forces and “branding”
will, in the fullness of time, invariably play a role
in dictating the extent to which voluntary systems
become de facto international approaches and how
domestic systems will evolve.
While existing voluntary building environmen-
tal assessment methods were initially conceived to
provide a distinct role, their scope and application
are increasingly being expanded. Today they must
accommodate the larger scale issues of community
and urban design and infrastructure planning and
this evolution will continue. The primary role of
providing a comprehensive and objective assess-
ment of building’s or larger scale development’s
performance and guide design by communicating
what are deemed priority environmental issues will
likely remain for the foreseeable future.
A significant development is the emergence of
regenerative approaches [44, 45]. Green building
and existing assessment methods largely focus on
reducing resource use and adverse environmental
impacts of buildings. Regeneration, in contrast,
Rating Systems for Sustainability
carries the positive message of considering that the
act of building can give back more than it receives
and thereby over time building social and natural
capital. This overall positive framing will likely
prove more attractive to clients, designers, and
other stakeholders. With this new emphasis to
design, new tools are emerging to begin to represent
the key characteristics of regenerative approaches
and assist practitioners and stakeholders.
Plaut et al. [46] argue that current green build-
ing tools “offer little guidance in the way of guid-
ing people through the creation, implementation,
and operation of projects” and by focusing on
“measuring the performance of an end result or
product” can be described as “product-based.” By
contrast, the Living Environments in Natural,
Social, and Economic Systems (LENSES) tool
and the other regenerative frameworks are best
described as what Plaut et al. call “process-
based” and are primarily directed at guiding
design. Moreover, whereas the product-based
tools keep individual environmental performance
requirements discrete, the graphic organization of
the emerging regenerative design tools expand the
issues to include social, cultural, economic, and
ecological systems and processes but also empha-
size the relationship between them. In short, they
accept the built environment as a complex socio-
ecological system and attempt to offer guidance to
designers and other stakeholders in situating pro-
jects within it. As the notion of regenerative
design and development gain increased momen-
tum, it is anticipated that there will be a commen-
surate demand for support tools to assist those
practitioners wishing to engage it.
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Sustainability Performance
Simulation Tools for Building
Design
Khee Poh Lam
Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics,
School of Architecture, Carnegie Mellon
University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
School of Design and Environment, National
University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
Article Outline
Glossary
Introduction
Brief History of Building Performance Simulation
Principles of Sustainable Building Design
Modeling and Simulation
Building Energy Simulation Tools
Integrated Building Design and Operation
Process Modeling
Conclusion and Future Trends
Appendix 1: Summary of Contractual Provisions
in the AIA Contract Document for Conducting
Energy Studies in Architectural Practice
Appendix 2: Summary of a Survey of Existing
Energy Modeling Tools
Appendix 3: List of Selected Energy Modeling
Tools for Experimental Evaluation
Appendix 4a: Selected Energy Modeling Tools:
Matrix of Features
Appendix 4b: Definition of Items in the
Evaluation Matrix
References
Glossary
Algorithm: It is a step-by-step procedure
expressed as a finite set of well-defined instruc-
tions for calculating a mathematical function
related to data processing and system analytics.
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
V. Loftness (ed.), Sustainable Built Environments,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-0684-1_349
Originally published in
R. A. Meyers (ed.), Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology, © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC,
part of Springer Nature 2018, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2493-6_349-4
Behavioral model: It is virtual model that aims
to abstractly represent a real-world system
through one-to-one mapping of parameters
that can reproduce the behavior of the original
analyzed system. A validated model can
uniquely predict the future system states
based on past system states.
Building energy modeling (BEM): It is a
physics-based software for simulating building
energy use, taking as inputs the building
description including geometry, construction
materials, lighting, HVAC, refrigeration, water
heating, renewables, and control strategies.
Building life cycle: A comprehensive overview
of a building delivery process that takes into
account the design, construction, commission-
ing, operation, and decommissioning phases.
Building performance: A set of qualitative and
quantitative metrics that characterizes the
behavior of a building, which includes spatial,
thermal, air quality, acoustical, visual, building
integrity, and energy efficiency considerations.
Building Information Model (BIM): It is a dig-
ital representation of physical and functional
characteristics of a facility based on a standard-
ized representation schema to facilitate collab-
oration by different stakeholders at different
phases of the life cycle of a facility.
Energy conservation measure (ECM): It is a
measure that is applied to buildings that
improve energy efficiency and includes but is
not limited to energy conservation, renewable
energy sources, improvements in operations and
maintenance, or any other retrofit activities.
Interoperability: It is a property of a product or
system that conforms to a certain established
standard framework, with clear interface con-
nections to other products or systems, present
or future, without any restricted access or
implementation.
Ontology: It is a formal explicit representation
of knowledge as a set of related concepts
within a certain domain.
589
590 Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design
Taxonomy: It is the practice and science of clas-
sification of things or concepts as well as prin-
ciples underlying such classification.
Semantics: It is the study of meaning and inter-
pretation of human forms of expressions in
terms of words, phrases, signs, and symbols
in communication.
Stochastic model: It is a representation of a sys-
tem whose behavior is intrinsically non-
deterministic, such that the probability of the
outcome of a future state is affected by both the
process’s predictable actions and by a random
element.
Introduction
Sustainable building, also commonly known as
high-performance or green building, is the prac-
tice of creating structures and using processes that
are environmentally responsible and resource-
efficient throughout a building’s life cycle from
siting to design, construction, operation, mainte-
nance, renovation, and deconstruction [1]. This
practice expands and complements the classical
building design concerns of economy, utility,
durability, and comfort. Historically, there have
been many well-established theoretical frame-
works that relate building design with its environ-
mental as well as human occupant performance
within those buildings [2–5]. Design decision
support tools, both physical and computational,
have invariably been developed in accordance
with the needs of these respective design pro-
cesses and, in some instances, directly linked to
meeting various building code and standard
requirements. Therefore, such tools must be
understood and appreciated in the context of the
building delivery processes adopted in contempo-
rary practices or are being advocated in response
to certain prevailing industry-wide mission (such
as sustainable design) in a particular historical
milieu.
The building delivery process has commonly
been regarded as a discrete and sequential set of
activities. This state of affairs is the result of a
historical evolution driven by many factors. As
building design becomes ever increasingly
complex due to changing perceptions and
demands of developers in a competitive global-
ized real estate market, specialist professional
communities have emerged, bringing specific
knowledge input to the building delivery process
beyond the capabilities of the conventional archi-
tectural and building engineering professions.
While this might seem a rational step toward
addressing the complexity involved, it also inev-
itably and fundamentally transforms the originally
integrated process to one of fragmentation and
compartmentalization. This in turn necessitated
the development of communication frameworks
based on the organization of activities for the
purpose of establishing a professional fee struc-
ture that is commensurate with the scope of work
and level of accountability or responsibility at
various project phases. The quest for more effi-
cient communication methods has gradually
evolved into a circulus vitiosus, whereby
advances in communication and dissemination
technologies continuously struggle to cope with
unprecedented rate of information growth glob-
ally while continuing (if not intensifying) the
trend toward process disintegration. Superficial
attempts to patch the current decision-making
approaches often lead to miscommunication of
intentions resulting in unsatisfactory solutions
which are costly to remedy in terms of time and
resources.
The capabilities of design decision support
tools are nonetheless expanding, but they still
fall short of anticipating or challenging the very
logic of the industry processes they are supposed
to support. Among the major industries in any
national economy, it is often observed that the
building industry is one that is traditionally most
resilient to structural change. In particular, its
uptake and exploitation of advanced technology
of any form are conservative and slow – the com-
mon reason given being cost constraint. The avail-
ability and affordability of powerful computer
systems and software have transformed the way
business is conducted in many other fields. Yet the
building industry still tends to deploy this tech-
nology in a comparatively rudimentary way.
However, over the past decade, the sustainable
development movement has been gaining
Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design
unprecedented momentum globally and is begin-
ning to exert a profound influence on coevolution-
ary development of the building delivery process
and building performance simulation tools.
More elaborate discourse in this matter can be
found in [6, 7]. These authors further address the
necessary conditions under which significant
structural changes in the building delivery process
can evolve and the related implications for future
development of decision support tools. They also
explore hidden potentials of existing tools and
propose enhancements to facilitate effective
knowledge transfer and process management.
Brief History of Building Performance
Simulation
Building simulation as a discipline can be traced
back to the 1960s with the US government’s pro-
jects to evaluate the thermal environment in fall-
out shelters by an hour-by-hour simulation of heat
and moisture transfer process between human
occupants and shelter walls under limited ventila-
tion conditions [8]. The author Kusuda offered an
interesting historical account of the building sys-
tem simulation focusing on the thermal perfor-
mance domain. Since then, building simulation
has been constantly evolving as a vibrant disci-
pline that produced a variety of tools that are
scientifically validated across different climatic
domains.
According to Clarke [9], there are four rela-
tively distinct generations of energy simulation
tools over the past four decades. The first genera-
tion of tools tends to be handbook oriented that
adopt disparate simulation techniques to address
piecemeal design exercises. These tools are easy
to apply, but the results are difficult to interpret.
The second-generation tools of the mid-1970s
began to focus on the temporal aspects of energy
simulation through implementing response func-
tions to derive analytical solutions. HVAC system
modeling was confined to steady-state assump-
tions. The third generation tools of the mid-
1980s recognized the importance of system inte-
gration in the simulation approach, whereby all
other system parameters are linked and solved
591
numerically, while only space, time, and climate
remain independent variables. The first graphical
user interfaces (GUIs) began to emerge at this
time. Fourth-generation tools of the mid-1990s
continued to pursue and expand the integration
framework. The increasing scale and complexity
of such integrated design functionalities necessi-
tate the development of a modeling platform (now
commonly referred to as Building Information
Model or BIM), to organize, manage, and provide
seamless exchange of data between various dis-
crete and yet related building system domains.
The GUIs became more user-centered, providing
support through embedded knowledge bases in
the form of data libraries and design task-oriented
guidance.
Meanwhile, other building performance-
related simulation tools, e.g., in lighting, air flow
in and around buildings, moisture flow, and
acoustics, have also emerged in the 1980s and
are continually being refined. One of the most
comprehensive sources of literature that docu-
ment the evolution of the building performance
simulation world can be found in the publication
archives of the International Building Perfor-
mance Simulation Association (IBPSA)
[10]. The collection of papers dates back to 1985
when the IBPSA held its inaugural conference in
Seattle, Washington, USA. The conference pro-
ceedings are organized thematically that covered
in the early years a limited range of topics on
research and development, validations, applica-
tions in industry, and user interface design. As
the field continues to evolve, the range of topics
have expanded significantly to include detailed
simulation of advanced building materials, com-
ponents and systems, control technologies, occu-
pant behavior, health and comfort, code
compliance, as well as macro-level studies of
climates and microclimates, landscape and urban
heat island effects, and zero or low-carbon sus-
tainable developments.
In 2008, IBPSA launched its Journal of Build-
ing Performance Simulation [11]. At about the
same period, another journal titled Building Sim-
ulation: An International Journal [12] was also
established. These are important milestones that
signify the maturation of building performance
592 Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design
simulation into a recognized and indispensable
discipline for all professions involved in the
design, engineering, operation, and management
of buildings. In the twenty-first century, the sim-
ulation evolution is dominated by two key pro-
cesses, namely, (1) attaining an increased level of
quality assurance and (2) offering efficient inte-
gration of simulation expertise and tools in the
overall building process, according to Augenbroe
[7]. His paper on Trends in Building Simulation
offers a detailed overview of the achievements
and imminent challenges faced by the profession.
It also provides a glimpse into the changing
“appearance” of simulation tools that is brought
about by the Internet revolution, as exemplified by
new forms of ubiquitous, remote, collaborative,
and pervasive applications. There are also exper-
imental attempts to blur the distinction between
real and virtual simulation with the deployment of
augmented reality, as described in [13]. This tech-
nology can potentially allow an observer to inter-
act with a running simulation of himself and his
environment while being immersed in the real
environment. The results of the simulation can
be overlaid in real time on the sensory input of
the immersed observer, e.g., via computer gener-
ation of an image on a transparent visor.
Principles of Sustainable Building
Design
Four fundamental human-related elements should
be contemplated in discussing the process of
human involvement in the creation of our built
environment: theory and practice – knowledge
and experience. These elements are always pre-
sent, but the degree of engagement varies within
individuals as well as collectively within a build-
ing design team.
Theory and Practice
Theories can be regarded as analytical tools for
understanding, explaining, and making predic-
tions about a given subject matter, be it in the
arts or sciences. Theoretical constructs are partic-
ularly helpful when dealing with complex systems
involving multidimensional and multi-domain
interactions. It should be noted that a theory is
syntactic in nature and is only meaningful when
given a semantic component by applying it to
some content (i.e., facts and relationships of the
actual historical and physical world as it is
unfolding) [14]. Green building design is a good
case in point.
Green building, also commonly known as sus-
tainable or high-performance building, is the prac-
tice of creating structures and using processes that
are environmentally responsible and resource-
efficient throughout a building’s life cycle from
siting to design, construction, operation, mainte-
nance, renovation, and deconstruction [1]. This
practice expands and complements the classical
building design concerns of economy, utility,
durability, and comfort. There are many “tradi-
tional” theories that relate building design with
its environmental as well as human occupant per-
formance within those buildings [2, 4].
A specific example of the performance-based
approach to design is a well-established model
based on the concept of Total Building Perfor-
mance and Diagnostics (TBPD) [15] (Fig. 1).
This concept was originally advocated by a
research team at Carnegie Mellon University,
USA, in the early 1980s. TBPD is an integrated
and holistic knowledge-based framework for con-
ceptualizing, specifying, designing, analyzing,
and commissioning a building project. It can pro-
vide a comprehensive brief for a client and the
project team who are committed to quality and
high-performance goals throughout the project
duration, from inception to completion, and can
even extend to post-occupancy management and
maintenance. It can facilitate optimization of the
design performance, avoidance of conflicts, elim-
ination of omissions and abortive work, and wast-
age of resources.
It embraces six principal performance man-
dates, namely, spatial, acoustical, thermal, visual,
indoor air quality, and building integrity. Each
mandate comprises a set of performance targets
and pertinent diagnostic tools. The targets are
occupant-oriented deliverables that pertain to the
environmental or physical attributes of the build-
ing which impact the physiological, psychologi-
cal, social, and economic well-being of the
Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design 593

BUILDING DELIVERY PROCESS

Systems People-

Mech & Elec Systems

External/Landscape
and

Structural System

Envelope System
centric

Interior System

Psychological
Physiological
Process

Sociological

Economical
Goals
Total Building

TBP Commissioning and POE

Integration TBP Design and Procurement Limits of
Suitability, Performance Accept-
Reliability, ability
Flexibility
Mandates

Spatial
Diagnostic
Framework ensures Thermal methodology for
comprehensive and measuring
integrative design Indoor Air Quality building
consideration for performance,
high performance Visual evaluating
and sustainable impacts and
solutions Acoustical establishing
benchmarks
Building Integrity

Knowledge-based Knowledge
Design Production

Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design, Fig. 1 Total Building Performance and
Diagnostics Concept

occupants. The diagnostic tools are methodolo- building design over the ages and in different
gies developed for the appraisal of the building geographical, climatic, sociocultural, and even
design in terms of the various performance political contexts. Such efforts in the realm of
indices. history and theory of architecture tend to focus
TBPD is not just about the application of “hi- predominantly on the arts and humanistic aspects.
tech” building systems and/or materials. It seeks Literature that rigorously records the building-
to rationally and systematically exploit the syn- related sciences and technologies of the times is
ergy of the various relevant technologies and comparatively rare. Occasionally, it is possible to
management know-how to bring about desirable get a glimpse of the work of the ancient master
building performance at a reasonable cost. builders and the incredible technical ingenuity
Knowledge and experience of an integrated team that created architectural masterpieces that is “sus-
are clearly essential ingredients within the strate- tainable” in every sense by today’s [re]definition
gic framework. The ultimate success of a sustain- of the term. Knowledge and experience are pro-
able and high-performance building may be duced, preserved, and transmitted through the
assessed by considering how well it meets the generations often by long-suffering apprentice-
following four principal criteria: (1) occupant sat- ships. Arguably, life was simpler and the palette
isfaction, (2) organizational flexibility, (3) techno- of options was limited in comparison to our mod-
logical adaptability, and (4) environmental and ern globalized world; yet that was not necessarily
energy effectiveness. a disadvantage and certainly did not hamper the
creative and innovative spirit that existed during
Knowledge and Experience those times.
Louis Sullivan defines architecture as the crystal- Witnessing phenomenal advances in science
lization of the thoughts and feelings of a civiliza- and technology in the world, the building industry
tion. There is a long tradition in the architectural at large remains very slow in responding to or
world of tracing and documenting the changes in capitalizing on the tremendous potentials and
594 Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design
opportunities offered compared to other industries
or businesses. Building performance-related
research is not particularly valued by the industry
and society, and consequently, support for such
endeavors is dismal. Despite the circumstance,
there have been research activities that generated
a significant body of knowledge over the past
three to four decades, way before green design
became a contemporary buzzword. However, this
knowledge is invariably lodged within highly
technical publication archives that continue to
serve the academic and research communities
but rarely touch the practice world in any mean-
ingful or impactful way. As the knowledge base
continues to expand, it is inevitable that the chasm
between what is known and what is done becomes
increasing wide.
Recognizing this state of affair, the building
industry then attempts to ameliorate the conse-
quences by simplifying the inherently complex
relationships and interactions between humans
and the environment in the form of prescriptive
solutions that get codified into standards and reg-
ulations. Simplification and prescriptive
approaches are not inherently bad in themselves
and they do provide a cost-effective means of
setting certain critical performance benchmarks
in building. However, there are always limits of
applicability and embodied assumptions that are
not often immediately apparent to designers who
are increasingly more likely to operate in a glob-
alized practice.
This then leads to the final human element of
experience in this discussion. Even in this realm,
the building industry is unbelievably weak in
“professionalizing” this valuable human resource.
The medical and the law industry, two rather
diametrically different professions one may add,
share a common unifying practice of systemati-
cally and meticulously documenting their
“experiences” – both the good and the bad as
well as the success and the failures. These become
the tangible and valuable industry assets that soci-
ety has come to accept and somehow has to pay
for. Whether it is attributable to the educational
system or a deeply entrenched business structure,
the building industry is highly fragmented and
often adversarial rather than collaborative in
nature. For the fear of professional and financial
liability, cases of failure are often buried through
private settlement. Experiences gained from such
events therefore reside only with the parties
involved and not generally accessible for the
industry to share and learn from. Even if there is
no catastrophic encounter, there is currently no
widely adopted practice of monitoring and mea-
suring the performance of buildings in use and
comparing the empirical results with the predicted
design performance targets. Much can be learned
from such provisions, and they can also open up
new innovation pathways into the field of real-
time intelligent sensing and predictive optimal
building control. Unless there is some fundamen-
tal paradigm shift in professional practice, espe-
cially to address the specific challenge of green
building design and operation, the industry may
well be condemned to the “Sisyphean task” for a
long time to come.
Prerequisites for Building Performance
Modeling
An effective process of sustainable building design
requires engaging the elements of theory, practice,
knowledge, and experience through integrative
inputs from multidisciplinary professional teams.
Effective communication through information
exchange is an important success factor. A study
from US National Institute of Standards and Tech-
nology shows that 30% of the construction cost is
lost due to the information interoperability problem
among the building delivery team [16] (Figs. 2 and
3). There is national interest in the USA to strate-
gically address this issue that affects the quality of
buildings being designed and constructed as well
as productivity loss in the industry.
A multipronged strategic approach has to be
adopted to revolutionize the building industry and
to change the “business-as-usual” mindset. It must
concurrently address the processes and products
involved in green building delivery and the nature
of the hardware, software, and human resources
associated with the respective functions. Educa-
tion is perhaps the most critical starting point to
address the fragmented infrastructure as illus-
trated by Mattar [17] (Fig. 4) and effect lasting
change. While architecture is traditionally
Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design 595

Cost of Inadequate Interoperability by Stakeholder Group and

Cost Category (NIST 2004)
Avoidance Costs Mitigation Costs Delay Costs
$7,000

$6,000

$5,000
US$ Millions

$4,000

$3,000

$2,000

$1,000

$0
Architects and General Specialty Fabricators Owners and
Engineers Contractors and Suppliers Operators

http://www.bfrl.nist.gov/oae/publications/gcrs/04867.pdf

Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/gcr/2004/NIST.GCR.04-867.pdf

Building Design, Fig. 2 Cost of inadequate interopera- Accessed on 25 Mar 2018
bility by stakeholder group and cost category. https://

Cost of Inadequate Interoperability by Stakeholder Group and

Building Life-Cycle Phase (NIST 2004)
Architects and Engineers General Contractors
Specialty Fabricators and Suppliers Owners and Operators
$12,000

$10,000

$8,000
US$ Millions

$6,000

$4,000

$2,000

$0
Planning, Engineering, Construction Phase Operations and Total
and Design Phase Maintenance Phase US$15.82b

http://www.bfrl.nist.gov/oae/publications/gcrs/04867.pdf

Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/gcr/2004/NIST.GCR.04-

Building Design, Fig. 3 Cost of inadequate interopera- 867.pdf Accessed on 25 Mar 2018
bility by stakeholder group and building life cycle phase.

regarded as “the art and science of building,” firm foundation in both the qualitative and quan-
architectural education around the world is still titative elements of design creativity. The sustain-
seeking the balanced curriculum that provides a ability movement has yielded new and widely
596
ural
Mechanical
Structural
l
trica
itect
Elec
Arch
Professional and Trade
Responsibilities
(Functional gaps)
Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design, Fig. 4 Fragmentation of the building industry
infrastructure (cp. Mattar [17])
recognized building performance standards (e.g.,
LEED) that are leading building developers to
demand design teams to achieve such standards
in order to remain competitive in the real estate
market. Industry drivers are in motion to hasten
the curricula and pedagogical change in schools of
architecture and engineering.
Modeling and Simulation
Simulation is the process of designing a model of a
real or imagined system and conducting experi-
ments with that model. The purpose of simulation
experiments is to understand the behavior of the
system or evaluate strategies for the operation of
the system. Assumptions are made about this sys-
tem, and mathematical algorithms and relationships
are derived to describe these assumptions – this
constitutes a “model” that can reveal how the system
works [18]. Simulation is deployed when the real
system cannot be engaged, because it may not be
accessible, or it may be dangerous or unacceptable
to engage, or it is being designed but not yet built, or
it may simply not exist [19]. It can be used to
demonstrate the eventual “real” effects of a system
when subjected to alternative conditions and courses
of action.
Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design
Prelim. design
Detail design
Working drawings & specs
Tender (bidding)
Planning & scheduling
Construction operations
Commissioning
Building Delivery Process Operational Islands
(Management (Ineffective coordination;
discontinuities) poor communication)
Building performance models are developed
by reducing real-world physical entities and phe-
nomena to an idealized form on some desired
level of abstraction. A classic overview of model-
ing tasks in the building physics domain can be
found in Clarke [9]. Design analysis supported by
simulation involves the creation of a behavioral
model of a building in a given stage of its devel-
opment, e.g., reflecting its “as-designed” or “as-
built” or “as-operated” specification. The actual
simulation involves executing this model on a
computer, analyzing its observable states, and
mapping these observations to suitable quantifi-
cations of performance indicators, e.g., by suit-
able post-processing of the outputs of the
simulation runs [7].
Critical Elements of Integrated Process and
Product Modeling
Data Sharing and Interoperability
It is encouraging to note that, in the past decade,
the building industries in many countries have
begun to seriously adopt IT within an integrated
and systematic framework that covers the build-
ing life cycle, from inception to design, construc-
tion, post-occupancy operations, and eventually
demolition and recycling of building materials.
Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design
A significant catalyst of this movement is the
establishment of the International Alliance for
Interoperability (IAI), which originated from the
USA in 1993. IAI changed its name to
buildingSmart on 11 Jan 2008 [20]. It currently
has 19 chapters in North America, Europe, and
Asia. Its mission is to define, publish, and promote
standard specifications for Industry Foundation
Classes (IFC) as a basis for information sharing
throughout the project life cycle (including facil-
itating e-procurement of project-related goods and
services) and across all disciplines and technical
applications in building industries worldwide.
IFC, essentially an object-oriented data model
schema, enables interoperability – an environ-
ment in which IFC-compliant computer programs
of any kind (e.g., CAD, specification documenta-
tion, building performance simulation, and facil-
ity management software) can share and exchange
data, regardless of where the data may be residing.
They are information-rich, comprising physical
and other attributes that can be shared throughout
the supply chain. Data pertaining to a project can
be seamlessly organized and linked for ease of
communication during the design and construc-
tion process and subsequently archived for future
reference by building owners and operations man-
agement. Such a data schema forms the core of
what is now commonly known as Building Infor-
mation Modeling or BIM.
Building Information Modeling
In the USA, a National Building Information
Modeling Standard (NBIMS) was first published
in 2007. The current version is NBIMS-US-V3
which was released on 22 Jul 2015. This standard
is intended to provide the framework and founda-
tion to encourage the flow of information and
interoperability between all phases of facility’s
life cycle. It defines BIM as “a digital representa-
tion of physical and functional characteristics of a
facility,” and its overall scope is to facilitate “col-
laboration by different stakeholders at different
phases of the lifecycle of a facility to insert, extract,
update, or modify information in the BIM to sup-
port and reflect the roles of that stakeholder” [21].
The key attribute of a BIM is its ability to
organize and relate information for both users and
machine-readable approaches. However, to enable
597
interoperability between applications and data-
bases, the inherent semantics of the underlying
taxonomy and ontology have to be unambiguous
and nonredundant. One of the primary roles of the
NBIMS is to provide the ontologies and their asso-
ciated common languages that will allow informa-
tion to be machine readable across different but
related domains. NBIMS presents an excellent
conceptual model of information exchange in
AEC industry. The question then is what approach
can be adopted to develop an operative IT platform
to realize and implement this conceptual model in
practice. Current BIM development work tends to
be focused on the design and construction phases
(and with minimal interoperability for integrative
performance simulation support) but not yet
extended to consider ongoing performance moni-
toring and diagnostics throughout the life cycle of
the building. Particularly for complex buildings,
effective operations have significant impacts on
ensuring that the predicted design performance is
actually achieved and sustained throughout the
building life cycle. Therefore, a comprehensive
Dynamic Life Cycle Building Information Model
for the “Total Building Performance and Diagnos-
tics” approach is advocated to address the entire
building delivery process and ongoing commis-
sioning of high-performance buildings. The
model structure is based on the Industry Founda-
tion Class (IFC) schema (as endorsed by NBIMS)
that will capture:
(a) “Static” building information generated during
the design and construction process and shared
among the design architects and engineers par-
ticularly to support building performance pre-
dictions using various building simulation
tools, benchmark evaluations (e.g., LEED),
and advanced design optimization
(b) “Dynamic” (operational) building information
generated from large-scale occupancy detec-
tion and environmental sensing network for
ongoing commissioning, whole building per-
formance monitoring, and advanced adaptive
controls based on occupant behavioral studies
This integrated model will also serve as a rich
repository of comprehensive evidence-based case
studies for ongoing research and development as
598 Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design
Energy Lighting
Computational
CFD Design Acoustics
Decision
Support
Control Economy
Construction
Management
Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for
Building Design, Fig. 5 Dynamic Life Cycle Building
Information Model (DLC-BIM) in support of an Integrated
well as education of professionals for the building
industry in the long term (Fig. 5).
Building Performance Modeling
While the BIM development work continues,
many well-established advanced “stand-alone”
performance modeling tools are readily available
for use by design teams. The following discussion
highlights some of the critical areas of input espe-
cially from the architect working within the team.
Whether or not the architect personally conducts
the modeling work, these points of considerations
are vital and must be clearly established for the
team. Otherwise, the age-old ugly truth of comput-
ing will prevail – garbage in, garbage out (GIGO).
Determining Occupancy Schedule Building
performance simulation aims to support sustain-
able design and the creation of healthy, comfort-
able, and productive habitats for human activities
while minimizing resource utilization and waste
generation. Ironically, defining such human activ-
ities “accurately” as input factors in performance
modeling remains probably the single most com-
plex and challenging task. For example, research
has shown that for a variety of reasons, actual
occupancy rate in modern office buildings is fre-
quently only 40–60% of the design assumption.
Occupancy Predictive
Detection Control
Computational
Sensor- Performance
Operation
Andrew Benchmark
Decision
Support
Renewable Data
Energy Visualization
and Sustainable Building Delivery and Operation Process
(Architecture, Engineering, Construction, Operation –
AECO – the “genetic DNA” of DLC-BIM)
This has consequences not only on energy con-
sumption but also the maintenance of comfort
conditions in buildings. Mismatch between
designed and actual operating conditions results
in excessive provision of heating/cooling and dif-
ficulty in optimizing control of building systems.
This challenge lies squarely with the architect,
whose responsibility is to thoroughly understand
the client’s operational requirements and translate
that “qualitative” descriptive brief into an archi-
tectural design solution, accompanied by appro-
priate quantitative parameters that can be
communicated to the engineering design team
members for producing concurrent technical solu-
tions. Recognizing this crucial communicative
role should prompt architects to play a more pro-
active leadership role in building performance
modeling.
Configuring Thermal Control Zoning Archi-
tects and HVAC engineers typically have quite
different notions about “zoning” in a building.
One views these zones as formal, spatial, and
functional demarcations which may be subject to
certain design codes such as fire compartmen
talization, while the other regard them as volumes
that require conditioning according to a desired
set-point temperature. The usual HVAC design
Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design
objective is to size the systems and configure the
layout so as to meet peak load conditions while
minimizing number of discrete control zones as
far as possible to save on cost. It is not uncommon
to witness inadequacies and conflicts in operation
al control of the systems when there is a lack of
cross-disciplinary understanding and commun
ication during the design stage. Coupled with the
uncertainties of occupancy schedule mentioned
above, the systems may not be able to respond
optimally, resulting in energy inefficiency and un
comfortable indoor environment.
The theoretically ideal approach is to map the
“architectural” zones which are subjected to dif-
ference location-based exposures according to
orientations (e.g., perimeter versus internal core
zones) with the thermal control zoning configura-
tion in the building. Possible design solutions can
then be generated through parametric energy sim-
ulations, and an “optimal” decision can be derived
through systematic analysis and evaluation of the
quantitative results.
In reality, any simulation result is only as good
and reliable as the assumed input values for the
various parameters. However, if the model is
constructed based on “first-principle” integrated
approach mentioned above, there would be built-in
capabilities in the systems for further fine-tuning of
the controls when the completed building is in oper-
ation. Looking beyond current practice, there are
already R&D efforts to “automate” such fine-tuning
based on continuous concurrent sensing of the
indoor environment and monitoring the system per-
formance as well as microclimatic conditions
throughout the life cycle of the building. The empir-
ical data acquired is the “real deal,” and when used
as input into a predictive control model, further
realistic optimization of the system can be achieved
with even greater energy saving. This subject will be
further elaborated in the section on Integrated Build-
ing Design and Operation Process Modeling.
Concurrent Modeling of the Building and the
Surrounding Physical and Environmental
Context Traditional environmental performance
modeling tends to focus mainly on active systems
within a “closed” building that rely completely on
energy to provide some form of conditioning all
year round. Green building design calls for a
599
radical departure from that rigid approach and
encourages the exploration of multimodal environ-
mental control systems in buildings. These would
include passive systems that require no energy for
operation (e.g., sunshades for solar control, opera-
ble windows for natural ventilation, light shelves
for daylighting enhancement, etc.), the common
active systems, as well as mixed-mode condition-
ing that selectively combines the passive and par-
tially active systems for optimal effects.
Furthermore, the concern also extends beyond the
performance of the building itself to its potential
impact on the surrounding ecological and environ-
mental conditions. The critical consideration for
such a holistic design approach necessitates the
design team to be fully cognizant of the physical
and microlevel environmental conditions sur-
rounding the proposed building, whether present
or anticipated (to the extent possible) in the future.
The model should then include every object
within the physical domain that will conceivably
impact the overall performance outcome. Given
that external climatic conditions are naturally
dynamic, the parametric study should be carefully
structured in order to provide design decision sup-
port performance data that sufficiently represent
the probabilistic occurrence under the varying con-
ditions over the year or seasons or even at a higher
periodic resolution as each case may demand.
Modeling examples of two performance
domains (daylighting and natural ventilation) are
presented here. Figure 6 shows the sunshine avail-
ability and temporal distribution analysis on a
multi-block residential development in the Tianjin
Eco-City in China. Figure 7 shows the concurrent
analysis of daylight factor and daylight illumi-
nance for the same development in meeting
China’s GB/T 50378: 2006 Evaluation Standard
for Green Buildings.
Figure 8 illustrates the concurrent computa-
tional fluid dynamics modeling of site and building
interiors for the same residential development in
Tianjin Eco-City. Figure xx shows the resulting
velocity fields, temperature profiles, and air change
rates under different wind directions at an assumed
wind speed of 2 m/s. Figure xx shows the compar-
ative analysis of air flow patterns, assuming same
window opening configurations but different inte-
rior door opening conditions, under the same
600 Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design

9:00am, Jan. 20 12:00pm, Jan. 20 3:00pm, Jan. 20

Shadows Temporal Distribution

A1
A2
A3
A4
A5
Building Number

A6
A7
B1
B2
B3
B4
B5
B6
B7
8:00 9:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00
Time of Big Chill Day (Jan.20)
No Shading Half Shading Shading

Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design, Fig. 6 Sunshine availability and temporal
distribution analysis of a multi-block residential development in Tianjin Eco-City, China (K P Lam & R P Zhang)

external wind conditions. As would be intuitively
expected, the results clearly illustrate the impor-
tance of considering not only the “static” physical
building layout but the inclusion of the “dynamic”
configurations under different in-use conditions.
Allocating Resources for Modeling in Early
Design Stage The predominant factor in the
decision-making process in practice is still based
on cost, more specifically first cost. Traditional
processes often ignore the operational and occu-
pancy implications while emphasizing first cost
despite the fact that tools are available for evaluat-
ing cost benefits of a performance-oriented
approach to the building delivery process over the
life cycle of a project. Yudelson notes that
increased economic benefits are the prime driver
for change for green buildings. The business case
for green development should be based on a com-
prehensive view of benefits that include economic,
financial, productivity, risk management, public
relations and marketing, and funding [5]. It is
well acknowledged that decisions at the early pro-
ject phase can have significant impact on
subsequent alternatives and design solutions. But
the unwillingness to invest in preliminary investi-
gative design studies in order to keep costs low
would invariably result in remedial or even abor-
tive work, thereby increasing the overall costs
toward the end of the project phase. The range
and nature of existing design support tools that
are being applied in practice clearly reflect this
scenario, whereby they are almost exclusively
developed for the back end of the design and
construction process, primarily for design verifica-
tion rather than design generation. It is therefore of
strategic advantage to reassess the relative impor-
tance of early conceptual design within the whole
and to allocate adequate resource toward this stage
of work and to utilize the potential of computer-
aided information processing tools to support a
more comprehensive design/construction strategy.
Performance-Based Versus Prescriptive-Based
Design
There is a trend in building design toward a
performance-based rather than the conventional
prescriptive-based approach [22]. Advances in
Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design 601

Sustainability
Daylight Factor Analysis on the Rooms with Daylight
Performance Simulation Classification Level IV
Tools for Building 6.00%
Design, Fig. 7 Concurrent
analysis of daylight factor
and daylight illuminance for 5.00%
the multi-block residential

Minimum Daylight Factor

Requirements of Codes*
development in Tianjin 4.00%
Eco-City in China in
satisfying China’s GB/T
3.00%
50378: 2006 Evaluation
Standard for Green
Buildings (K P Lam & R P 2.00%
Zhang)
1.00%

0.00%
Type A Type B Type C1 Type C2 Type D1 Type D2
Unit Type
Living Rooms Bedrooms Study Rooms

Interior Daylight Illuminance Analysis on the Rooms

with Daylight Classification Level IV
300.00
Minimum Interior Daylight Illuminance

250.00

200.00

Requirements of Codes*
150.00

100.00

50.00

0.00
Type A Type B Type C1 Type C2 Type D1 Type D2
Unit Type
Living Rooms Bedrooms Study Rooms

computer technology and, perhaps more impor- requirements to performance-based solutions has
tantly, the affordability of such powerful technol- taken place over the last 10 years or so in countries
ogy have made it feasible and cost-effective to use such as Australia [23]. Though the traditional
computational design support tools to conduct prescriptive approach is relatively simple to
parametric performance studies of various design understand, and the requirements are treated as
options, even at the preliminary design phase. “rules” to be compiled with, its provisions are
To further encourage the use of performance- often regarded as “cumulative, conservative in
based simulation tools, it is essential to shift the nature and in reality only suitable in relation to
current regulatory systems from prescriptive to ‘standard’ building configurations” [24].
performance-based approach. This shift is not a On the other hand, the basic concept of a
recent phenomenon as the evolution of building performance-based approach is not to prescribe
legislation from the practice of prescriptive solutions but rather to demonstrate that the proposed
602 Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design

b 23-story unit B3
Velocity(m/s) Temperature (K)
NW

ACH

78.0

SW

ACH

15.4

SE

ACH

33.1

Fig. 8 (continued)
Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design
Scenario 1: All internal doors are opened.
Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for
Building Design, Fig. 8 (a) Concurrent computational
fluid dynamics modeling of site and building interiors
(Lam and Zhang). (b) Velocity fields, temperature profiles
and air change rates under different wind directions at
design meets defined objectives. This approach may
result in alternative designs which are more flexible,
rational, innovative, and cost-effective. This
approach can also be multidisciplinary, consciously
taking into consideration the implications and syn-
ergistic effects of the various performance man-
dates. A comprehensive performance-based
approach necessitates the ability to translate the
objectives into quantifiable parameters, to set limits
for these parameters, and to have means of estimat-
ing performance of proposed design to validate
compliance with the required performance parame-
ters [25]. In this respect, simulation tools should be
able to play vital roles in achieving such objectives.
Building Energy Simulation Tools
One of the best overviews of the currently avail-
able tools can be found on the Building Energy
Software Tools, which is hosted by the Interna-
tional Building Performance Simulation Associa-
tion (IBPSA) – USA. The website to access this
list is https://www.buildingenergysoftwaretools.
com [26]. The list reveals that the emphasis has
expanded from an early focus on energy con-
sumption to many other related building perfor-
mance characteristics.
Majority of the tools are developed to address the
increasingly complex requirements of the design
and evaluation of commercial buildings. Such
603
Scenario 2: Only the Living Room doors are opened.
assumed wind speed of 2 m/s. (c) Air flow patterns assum-
ing same window opening configurations but different
interior door opening conditions under same wind
conditions
complexity arises from the changing perception
and demands of building owners, facility managers,
and tenants with regard to green/sustainable devel-
opments and life cycle operating costs (concerning
energy use, in particular) as well as a growing
awareness of the potential impact of buildings on
human productivity, health, and security.
It is well recognized that the key to influencing
the building costs and its performance standards
(including energy performance) lies in the early
stages of a building project’s life cycle [27,
28]. Given the complexity involved, there is a
need for effective and efficient tools to assess
energy impacts early in the conceptual design
phase of a new commercial building design pro-
cess. Some tools currently exist in various stages
of development and targeted for different types of
applications and users. There is a need to assess
what are currently available and, where necessary,
make recommendations for improvements to the
tools to facilitate their use in the industry.
Application of Energy Modeling Tools in
Industry
An industry survey by Wong et al. [29] of the use
of performance-based simulation tools for build-
ing design and evaluation concluded that usage of
tools remains very limited due to several factors:
(1) inherent technical limitation of the software,
(2) emphasis on initial or capital cost by clients,
(3) a fragmented building delivery process that
604 Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design
does not routinely include quantifiable assessments
of design options by the design team, and (4) the
prescriptive nature of current building codes and
design guidelines that do not promote analytical
use of these tools. The paper also provides a com-
prehensive list of the well-known simulation tools
for energy and HVAC system analyses available in
the building industry, providing brief descriptions
of the program features and result output. How-
ever, commonly deployed energy-related software
tools in industry have been dominated by those
used for the analysis of energy consumption, selec-
tion, and sizing of HVAC equipment by the HVAC
designers. Most of these tools are, as mentioned
previously, developed for the purpose of design
verification and to meet building code require-
ments at the end of the design phase. They do not
necessarily provide “active support” particularly
for the early design process.
These points are also echoed in an internal study
by the Public Works and Government Services
Canada [30]. The study included eight building
energy simulation tools (namely, Energy-10,
RETScreen, EE4 CBIP, Visual-DOE, BLAST,
DOE-2, EnergyPlus, and ESP-r) which focused
mainly on their functionalities. The purpose was
“to contribute to an increased understanding of
energy techniques and consequently, to more ratio-
nal decision-making in building design” among the
designers and engineers at PWGSC.
With the increasing consciousness and demand
for sustainable building design solutions, the US
Green Building Council has provided a national
standard for what constitutes a “green building” –
the Leadership in Energy and Environmental
Design (LEED™) Green Building Rating System.
It contains a prerequisite requirement of minimum
energy performance for new construction and major
renovations. Recommended potential technologies
and strategies include the use of a computer simu-
lation model to assess the energy performance and
identify the most cost-effective energy measure and
quantify energy performance compared to the base-
line building. The latest release of LEED V4 is
designed with a more flexible, performance-based
approach that calls for measurable results through-
out a building’s life cycle. It also allows for a more
streamlined user experience and more goal-oriented
credits. Administered by the Green Building
Certification Institute (GBCI), there is a new plat-
form called “Arc” (https://www.arcskoru.com.
Accessed 25 March 2018) that allows projects to
measure, monitor and score building performance
across five categories: energy, water, waste, trans-
portation and human experience [31]. This is a
major impetus in promoting the use of energy
modeling tools in design.
Besides LEED, there are also other commercial
sector endeavors that work to streamline the pro-
cess of energy ratings for both commercial and
residential buildings. One such well-established
program is the Residential Energy Services Net-
work (RESNET) [32]. The Commercial Energy
Services Network (COMNET), is another quality
assurance program for assessing the energy effi-
ciency of commercial and multifamily buildings.
It offers guidance to building energy modelers,
ensuring technically rigorous and credible assess-
ment of energy performance of commercial and
multifamily residential buildings. It provides a
streamlined process that can be used with various
existing modeling software and systems to show
compliance with energy standards and other
beyond-code programs [33]. The guidelines can
also be used in calculating percent energy savings
for point eligibility for green building rating sys-
tems and in modeling annual energy consumption
for use with building energy labels.
Definition of Early Design Phase and
Application of Tools
Whilst the term “early design phase” is very com-
monly used in discussing the building design pro-
cess, it invariably refers to the stage of work where
initial design ideas are being conceptualized in
tandem with the formulation of the building pro-
ject requirements. It is generally recognized that
this is an adaptive-iterative process [6]. However,
it is often not clear in practice when this phase
ends and the next begins.
One essential reference to establish a profes-
sional practice definition of early design is the
American Institute of Architects Contract Docu-
ments. The AIA standard form of contract (see
Appendix 1) includes the provision for Energy
Studies and Report under the category of planning
and evaluation services. The description of sup-
plementary services further details Energy Studies
Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design
consisting of special analyses of mechanical sys-
tems, fuel costs, on-site energy generation, and
energy conservation options for the owner’s con-
sideration. The description of Schematic Design
Document also includes electronic modeling.
There are also considerations of copyright of elec-
tronic documents associated with computational
modeling work. These are covered in the Owner-
Architect Agreement shown in Appendix 1.
Given these contractual provisions and the
drive toward greener designs, it is envisaged that
the use of energy modeling tools will become
more pervasive in due course. The critical chal-
lenge then is to ensure the available tools are
indeed effective in supporting the design process.
Many energy modeling tools have been devel-
oped over the years by research and development
teams in academia, public agencies, as well as the
private sectors around the world. The conceptual
approaches adopted and technical implementation
of these tools vary significantly. Some tools
employ “simplified” methods that address specific
perceived needs of the early design phase, while
others adopt complex first-principle-based engi-
neering algorithms that can meet detailed design
requirements. The potential for continuous devel-
opment of any of these tools depends largely on
the software engineering paradigm adopted,
which should consider both data modeling and
activity modeling for the entire design process.
In building performance modeling, the funda-
mental data required may be categorized as con-
textual (e.g., geographical and climatic), formal
(e.g., geometric configuration and orientation),
semantic or attributive (e.g., dynamic material
properties), and performance indices (e.g., energy
consumption targets and code requirements).
Activity modeling should recognize the growing
necessity to support multidisciplinary collabora-
tive design as building projects become more
complex [34]. With increasingly affordable com-
puting power, it is argued that energy modeling
tools should adopt rigorous physics and
engineering-based algorithmic principles in the
computational prediction of energy performance
to ensure acceptable results.
The different functions within a particular
design phase can be met through the user interface
design which could progressively reveal different
605
levels of pertinent information input demands
with associated library support, and generate
appropriate output information to assist in deci-
sion making at that particular stage. For example,
at the early design phase, the architect may
explore various building geometries, orientations,
and fenestration configurations and be provided
with recommended input parameters derived from
an extensive contextual case-based library support
in terms of materials, construction, performance
targets, etc. The output required at this phase may
just be building loads without detailed consider-
ations of mechanical systems and actual energy
consumption. As the design progresses, the
design team can then be exposed to greater
degrees of freedom, with commensurate applica-
tion support, in modifying the input parameters,
not only in terms of the data model but also in
computational algorithmic options that aim
toward increasing levels of accuracy and resolu-
tion as well as performance details in the result
output.
Literature Survey of Some Existing Energy
Modeling Tools
As part of a research project titled “Energy Model-
ing Tools for Early Design Phase” [35], a litera-
ture review was conducted on the more well-
known energy modeling tools that exist. These
tools vary tremendously in many respects.
A comparison of the 22 tools was made based on
the following criteria:
User interface
CAD interface
Ease of use
Manuals
Computer platform
Expertise required
Input flexibility
Output capability
Functionality
Technical approach
Validation
Audience
Customer support
Price
Usage
606 Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design
Details, including contact information for the
respective tools, are given in Appendix 2. The
definitions of the items in the evaluation matrix
are given in Appendix 4b.
Five tools are subsequently selected for
conducting detailed evaluation of their use in the
context of early design support. These are (1)
Ecotect, (2) TAS, (3) Green Building Studio, (4)
eQUEST and (5) Energy Scheming. Energy
Scheming no longer exists and is replaced with
an evaluation of DesignBuilder. These tools are
selected because they are relatively known and
considered to hold particular promise for use in
schematic design. This selection may be regarded
as representative of the broad categories of tools
that exist in industry. The same information
contained in Appendix 2 has been extracted and
tabulated for these five tools for convenient com-
parison in Appendix 3.
Evaluation of Selected Tools for the Early Design
Phase
The evaluation of the five selected tools is struc-
tured to address the following themes in compu-
tational design modeling and analysis:
Usability
System requirements
Interoperability with other tools, import/export
capabilities
User interface
Learning and training time required
Effort required in updating model/conducting
parametric studies
Processing time
Functionality
Comprehensiveness of geometric and system
modeling
Types of energy calculations (e.g., load estima-
tion, HVAC systems performance, etc.)
Types of data analysis and presentation
Availability of other environmental domain
simulations (e.g., lighting)
Reliability
Consistency of results
Accuracy of results
Prevalence
Compliance with industry standards
Documentation
User support
Pricing and licensing
The exercise involves two major tasks:
(1) development of a comprehensive classification
schema for comparing the five selected tools and
(2) application and experimental testing of the
tools in “simulated” architectural practice scenar-
ios conducted by graduate students and selected
practicing architects under controlled conditions.
A detailed matrix of features is developed to
enable a comprehensive comparison of the five
selected tools according to the major themes
stated above and represented by the following
specific criteria:
I.System
II.Extension
III.Functionality
IV. User
V. Modeling
(a) Project information
(b) Building modeling
(c) HVAC modeling
VI. Result output
Detailed description of these features is given
in Appendix 4a.
Modeling Tools Summary
Research by Lam et al. [36] has demonstrated the
web-based service approach to energy modeling
tool design has distinct advantages of being plat-
form independent, allowing distributed collabora-
tions, ease of maintenance and updates, better
resource support and availability, and arguably
lower costs. The development of GBS as a web-
based service has shown the same benefits.
The user interface should be designed such that
it is familiar and cognitive and compliments the
concepts and processes of architectural design and
energy modeling. With respect to operation within
the Windows environment, Ecotect has been
exemplary in providing a well-designed user
interface that is easy to use.
Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design
Technical help, guidance, and documentation
are important to the usability of software. Ecotect
has comprehensive help files and tutorials and the
user forum was very useful. TAS and GBS have
taken a new approach to providing guidance by
providing videos. Only eQUEST provides
detailed technical documentation, which is con-
sidered to be important given the nature of energy
modeling, but may not be a dominant issue during
the early design phase.
Geometric acquisition for energy modeling has
traditionally been a tedious and error prone pro-
cess. The advances of Ecotect in allowing 3D
CAD model import and fully automatic geometric
acquisition from imported CAD files by GBS are
heartening.
Different technical approaches have different
semantic and spatial limitations. It is important
that the user receives timely and detailed feedback
on the correctness of the geometry that he/she has
defined. This should be the case even if the geom-
etry acquisition is totally automated.
In general, extensive library support and
appropriate recommendations for constructions
and materials are important for the designers,
especially in the early design phase. Comprehen-
sive weather data should also be made available.
The post-processing functionalities in the
selected tools are limited to conventional numer-
ical and graphical reports of values such as loads
and temperatures. It would be desirable to develop
visualizations that would better facilitate a quali-
tative understanding of the design performance to
the user and provide appropriate guidance in the
context of early design decision making.
With respect to the early design phase as an
adaptive-iterative process, energy modeling tools
should ideally be able to support parametric stud-
ies. This is generally lacking in contemporary
energy modeling tools.
The information content provided by the vari-
ous tools varies tremendously. There is a need to
clarify the information needs of the early design
phase and to match the provisions accordingly.
For a tool to be beneficial and remain relevant
throughout the building delivery process, it would
be advantageous if it is developed based on com-
prehensive and fundamental principles in
607
modeling the building-environment interactions.
The tendency to adopt abstraction and rule-of-
thumb approaches in an attempt to meet the time
and resource constraints encountered in early
design should be avoided. By offering different
sets of user interfaces that automate and reveal
parameters on different levels of granularity, it is
possible for a tool to support various design
phases effectively.
Integrated Building Design and
Operation Process Modeling
Notwithstanding the advancement in modeling
tool developments, it can be argued that any
model that is created during the design phase
will never be able to truly and accurately represent
the as-built and operational realities of a building.
There are simply too many variables involved in
the building delivery process and the building
operation phase that are difficult to assure that
the specified properties are achieved and assumed
occupational schedules are indeed maintained.
However, if the model is created with high fidelity
and solidly based on first-principle physical con-
structs, it can in fact be continuously used in the
operational phase of the building as part of the
integrated building management and control sys-
tem. With the emergence of Internet of Things
(IoT) and as more sensors get deployed in build-
ings, the assumed values of parameters used in the
original design for predicting the building perfor-
mance can now be replaced by real operational
data acquired through an environmental sensor
network (both indoor and outdoor) and from the
building management system. The model can thus
be empirically recalibrated and then used to con-
duct advanced predictive control of building
operations.
Matching Model Predictions to
Measured Data
To ensure a model’s reliability, model calibration
is an essential part of the overall analysis. Model
calibration is the process of tuning input parame-
ters to bridge the gap between model predictions
and actual performance using measured data. The
608 Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design
calibrated model can then be used to support
recommendations of energy conservation mea-
sures (ECMs) [37], measurement and verification
(M&V) [38, 39], as well as model-based predic-
tive controls [40]. However, there is currently no
standardized method or guidelines for carrying
out model calibration. To date, only standardized
guidelines for evaluating calibration accuracy
have been established. A model is usually consid-
ered calibrated when its predetermined statistical
index falls below the threshold that has been spec-
ified by a particular guideline (Table 1). There are
three notable guidelines and they are:
• ASHRAE Guideline 14 [38]
• International Performance Measurement and
Verification Protocol (IPMVP) [39]
• M&V guidelines by the US Department of
Energy Federal Energy Management Program
(FEMP) [41]
Calibration Approaches
Clarke et al. [42] proposed four main categories of
calibration approaches, which have been adopted
in a literature review [37]. The four approaches
are:
• Calibration based on manual, iterative, and
pragmatic intervention
• Calibration based on informative comparative
displays
• Calibration based on special tests and analyti-
cal procedures
• Calibration based on analytical/mathematical
methods
These four approaches can be further general-
ized to be either (1) manual approaches or (2) auto-
mated approaches. Both manual and automated
approaches may employ analytical or graphical
techniques to aid the calibration process, but auto-
mated approaches also employ analytical/mathe-
matical methods to meet the calibration
target [43].
Manual approaches refer to calibration
methods or frameworks that require the energy
modeler to tune model parameters iteratively,
until the model prediction matches the measured
data reasonably well. The main advantage of man-
ual approaches is that the calibration is guided by
heuristics that are based on the expertise of an
experienced modeler as well as information or
data about the building that is obtained from
(1) building energy audits [44], (2) intrusive tests
[45], (3) detailed monitoring, [42] and/or
(4) short-term end-use monitoring [46]. Although
shown to be successful in several case studies,
procedures for manual calibration are time-
consuming and labor-intensive. Additionally,
manual approaches depend heavily on the exper-
tise and experience of the modeler, making it
subjective and its reproducibility questionable.
To overcome the limitations in manual calibra-
tion approaches, there has been increasing research
toward the development of automated calibration
approaches. Unlike manual approaches, automated
approaches typically involve the use of analytical
or mathematical techniques to identify and select
the parameters that would be adjusted and the
amount they would be adjusted by. Current auto-
mated calibration approaches typically involve the
use of optimization algorithms or Bayesian
approaches to reach the calibration target. To auto-
mate the calibration process, a pattern-based
approach has been used [47]. To reduce computa-
tion cost, metamodeling is also often used as a
surrogate or an emulator of the computationally
expensive building energy simulation within
these automated calibration frameworks.
Approaches that employ optimization algo-
rithms require an objective function to be defined,
typically minimizing CVRMSE and/or MBE
because these are the statistical indexes specified
by well-established international bodies (Table 1).
To prevent unreasonable parameter values, pen-
alty functions can be introduced to penalize solu-
tions that differ substantially from the preferred
value [48]. A recent calibration framework that
uses optimization is the Autotune project [49] lead
by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The
Autotune framework uses an evolutionary meta-
heuristic optimization algorithm to calibrate
model inputs, leveraging on large databases of
simulations to learn about the correlations
between simulation inputs and outputs.
Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design 609

Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design, Table 1 Statistical indexes for evaluating
model accuracy. MBE: mean bias error; CVRMSE: coefficient of variation of the root-mean-square error
Monthly criteria [%] Hourly criteria [%]
Standard/guideline MBE CVRMSE MBE CVRMSE
ASHRAE Guideline 14 [38] 5 15 10 30
IPMVP [39] – – 5 20
FEMP [41] 5 15 10 30

Recent years have also seen an increasing
interest in Bayesian approaches because of its
ability to naturally incorporate uncertainties in
the calibration framework. Uncertainty in build-
ing energy models can be placed into four catego-
ries [50]:
• Specification uncertainty: uncertainty arising
from incomplete or inaccurate specification of
the building or system being modeled, such as
uncertainty in specifying a chiller’s efficiency
due to insufficient measurements or missing
specification.
• Modeling uncertainty: uncertainty arising from
simplifications and assumptions of complex
physical processes. These simplifications and
assumptions could be explicit to the modeler
(e.g., thermal zoning) or hidden within the tool
(e.g., simplifications in model algorithm).
• Numerical uncertainty: uncertainty arising
from errors introduced in the discretization
and simulation of the model.
• Scenario uncertainty: uncertainty arising from
external conditions imposed on the building,
such as outdoor weather conditions and occu-
pant behavior/schedule.
With these uncertainties and the fact that high
resolution and good quality data is seldom avail-
able as the installation of large number of sensors is
prohibitively expensive or even impractical, it is
not surprising that uncertainty quantification is an
important process to increase model confidence. To
better account for these uncertainties, the Bayesian
calibration framework proposed by Kennedy and
O’Hagan [51] has been applied to building energy
simulation in several case studies [52–54]. This is
because the formulation explicitly models uncer-
tainty in the model parameters, the discrepancy
between the model and the actual building perfor-
mance, as well as observation errors. Kennedy and
O’Hagan’s [51] Bayesian calibration framework
was first applied to building energy models by
Heo et al. [53], where the quasi-steady-state ISO
13790 [55] model was calibrated against monthly
gas energy consumption. To extend its application
to hourly dynamic simulation, Chong et al. [52]
used information theory, and a more efficient algo-
rithm to improve computation efficiency. Table 2
provides a summary of studies in the field of build-
ing energy simulation that has employed Bayesian
calibration approaches.
Role of Building Control in Energy
Consumption Reduction
Buildings are responsible for at least 40% of
energy use in many countries, mostly derived
from fossil fuels. Worldwide building energy con-
sumption is expected to grow 45% over the next
20 years [66]. In the USA, commercial buildings
consume almost 17% of national energy use. Sev-
enty percent of the services used by buildings
(e.g., heating, cooling, lighting, etc.) are powered
by electricity, and these account for 35% of the
total electricity consumed nationally
[67]. Heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning
(HVAC) systems in commercial buildings account
for nearly 37% of the total building energy.
According to the market surveys conducted by
Brambley et al. [68], building controls can poten-
tially reduce energy consumption significantly in
commercial buildings. Table 3 demonstrates how
a traditional energy management and control sys-
tem (EMCS) can save between 5% and 15% of a
building’s energy with an 8- to 10-year return on
investment for the system, while occupancy sen-
sors for lighting control can save 20–28% energy
with 1–5 years of payback on the initial
610 Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design

Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design, Table 2 Summary of studies that employ
Bayesian calibration to building energy simulation
Calibration resolution Simulation tool Emulator/surrogate Reference
Hourly Detaileda Yes [52, 56, 57]
No [58]
Simplifieda Yes [59]
No –
Monthly Detaileda Yes [60–63],
No [64, 65]
Simplifieda Yes [53, 54]
No [65]
a
Detailed simulation tools are dynamic models such as EnergyPlus, ESP-r, TRNSYS, etc.; simplified simulation tools are
quasi-steady-state models such as calculation methods found in ISO 13790 and EN 15603

Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design, Table 3 Summary of energy saving potentials
for different control approaches [68]
Technical Technical Market-
market Relevant energy Simple achievable
size primary Energy saving payback Remaining energy
[billions energy savings potential period market savings
Control technology ft2] [quads] [%] [quads] [years] penetration [quads]
Energy management 33 6.2 5–15% 0.3–0.9 8–10 5–10% 0.02–0.09
arid control system
(EMCS)
Commissioning 55 9.8(a) 5–15% 0.5–1.5 2–10 3–30% 0.015–0.5
Automatic fault 55 9.8(a) 5–15% 0.5–1.5 1–3 15–55%/ 0.07–0.8/
detection and 6–24% 0.03–0.35
diagnostics (AFDD)/
continuous
commissioning
Occupancy sensors 50 3.5 20–28% 0.7–1.0 1–5 0–45% 0–0.45
for lighting control
Photosensor-based 55 3.9 20–60% 0.8–2.3 1–7 8–55% 0.08–1.3
lighting control
Demand-controlled 55 5.4 10–15% 0.5–0.8 2–3 15–30% 0.08–0.25
ventilation (DCV)

investment. In addition, one of the objectives of
control system is to improve the indoor environ-
mental performance (e.g., thermal, lighting, air
quality, etc.). Figure 9 further illustrates that
HVAC controls have potentially the biggest
impact on the building energy consumption, yet
there are relatively few installations in multi-
family residential developments [69]. Further-
more, the Building Investment Decision Support
Tool developed by the Center for Building Perfor-
mance and Diagnostics at Carnegie Mellon Uni-
versity has identified 20 studies that link improved
temperature control to productivity gains, with an
average 5.5% productivity increase within a range
of between 1.2% and 24% [70].
Typical control functions in buildings can be
divided into two categories: local control and
supervisory control. Local control provides basic
control and automation functions, such as on/off
control and proportional-integral-derivative (PID)
control that allow building services to operate
properly. Many studies show that local controls
can provide thermal comfort and satisfy goals for
indoor air quality [71–73]. Supervisory control
Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design
15
Fenestration
Installed units, 2050 millions
Insulation
Small plug loads
10
Large plug loads
Envelope
Solar thermal
5
Lighting equipment
Water heating
0
0 20,000 40,000 60,000 80,000 100,000 120,000 140,000
Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design, Fig. 9 Energy saving potentials for a range of
measures highlighting HVAC control (cp. World Business Council for Sustainable Development [69])
functions are higher-level controls that include
local control functions while considering whole
system characteristics (both active HVAC and
passive systems), interaction, and energy optimi-
zation for total building energy saving. Supervi-
sory control functions are developed using the
physical model-based method, hybrid method,
performance mapping method, and data learning
approach [74]. In the last decade, research has
increasingly focused on supervisory control to
expand the opportunities for greater energy
savings.
Modeling Building Control Design and
Operation
Building control design and operation need con-
sistent and reliable static and dynamic information
from various resources to feed into the set of
fundamental governing thermal dynamic equa-
tions. Table 4 summarizes the informational
requirements for the design and operation of a
model-based building control system.
Model-based predicted control can help opti-
mize energy use while maintaining the appropri-
ate indoor set-point temperature when the spaces
are occupied. However, several barriers in many
of the current approaches of building control
design and operation impede the full achievement
of this goal. For instance, (a) dynamic data are not
readily available such as real-time site weather
(e.g., temperature, wind speed, and solar
611
kWhr
HVAC controls
Subsystem impact (kWhr/bldg)
radiation) and occupancy status (number as well
as duration in the space); (b) a comprehensive
whole building energy model is not fully inte-
grated into advanced controls for accuracy and
robustness; (c) real-time implementation cases of
such control on indoor thermal environment
are rare.
Dong [75] published his PhD dissertation to
address some of these limitations in implementing
integrated building control. A comprehensive lit-
erature review was conducted on the topics of
(1) model-based supervisory control and optimi-
zation techniques for building HVAC systems and
(2) occupancy detection and behavior prediction
in buildings.
Model-Based Supervisory Control and
Optimization Techniques
A summary of primary optimization techniques
used in building HVAC supervisory controls is
given in Table 5.
Occupancy Detection and Behavior Prediction
Occupant presence and behavior in buildings have
been shown to have large impacts on space
heating, cooling and ventilation demand, energy
consumption of lighting and space appliances,
and building controls [90]. Several stochastic
models have been developed to model occupant
presence and interactions with space appliances
and equipment. Fritsch et al. [91] proposed a
612 Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design

Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design, Table 4 Information requirements for the
design and operation of a model-based building control system
Information Information
type elements
Input parameters during control design stage
Geometry Static Wall, door, and window surface areas
information information Number of thermal zones and volumes
External surface orientation, tilt, and azimuth
Construction Static External/internal wall, window, and door construction type
information information Material properties: thickness, thermal conductivity, specific heat, solar
transmission, etc.
Internal zone Dynamic Internal gains: occupancy number and schedule, equipment and use
information information schedule
Indoor temperature set-point, air flow rate, etc.
System information Static HVAC system type (chiller, heat pump, fan coil, etc.) and their physical
information parameters
Duct or pipe physical parameters such as length
Dynamic Designed operation information
information
Weather information Dynamic Outdoor temperature, solar radiation, wind velocity, etc.
information
Data resources during operation
Static information CAD MEP drawings, construction, and material specification
Predefined schedules for HVAC systems, occupancy, lighting, etc.
Dynamic Real-time HVAC system performance from sensors in systems such as supply air temperature,
information supply air flow rate, return air temperature, relative humidity
Real-time indoor environmental measures from sensors such as temperature, RH, CO2, air flow,
etc. and dynamic occupancy information from sensors
Dynamic usage of internal equipment from power metering
Historical/simulated weather information, on-site weather measurements

model based on Markov chains to model the ran-
dom opening of windows by occupants.
Degelman [92] developed a Monte Carlo model-
ing approach for space occupancy predictions
based on survey statistics. Reinhart [93] deter-
mined occupant presence for lighting simulation
by using a simplified stochastic model of arrival
and departure. Wang et al. [94] applied Poisson
distributions to generate daily occupancy profiles
in a single-occupied office. Bourgeois et al. [95]
integrated an occupancy model based on
Reinhart’s algorithm into ESP-r to investigate
lighting application. Most of these occupancy
presence models were either tested on a single-
person office or presented as a specific application
such as lighting control. More recently, Page et al.
[90] targeted individual occupancy behaviors by
developing a generalized stochastic model for the
simulation of occupant presence with derived
probability distributions based on Markov chains.
However, such a stochastic model was based on
the assumption that occupants will interact with
different appliances in the space, and the valida-
tion was conducted in single-person occupied
offices. Other current approaches to occupancy
detection take place mostly in commercial build-
ings through the use of passive infrared (PIR)
motion detectors. Motion detectors have inherent
limitations when occupants remain relatively still.
Moreover, motion detectors alone only provide
information regarding the presence or absence of
people in a space rather than the number of occu-
pants, information which is highly useful for
building control tasks such as demand-controlled
ventilation [96].
Video cameras have also been used to detect
human movements in buildings. Trivedi et al. [97]
conducted rigorous experimental investigations
on the processing and control modules for the
active camera networks and the microphone
Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design 613

Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design, Table 5 Summary of main optimization
techniques used in building HVAC supervisory controls
Research
Techniques studies Strength Weakness
Nonlinear Direct search Zaheer-uddin and Zheng [76]; Simple and easy Often fails to obtain an
local Xu and Haves [77] to optimal solution and
techniques be understood computationally less
and implemented. efficient
No
derivatives are
required
Sequential House and Smith [78]; Kota et al. Handle a large Has to start from initial
quadratic [79]; Sun and Reddy [80] number of guess values and the speed is
programming inequality affected by its initial values
constraints
efficiently
Lagrange Chang [81]; Sane and Guay [82] Easy to be Convergence is not always
method implemented guaranteed
since Lagrange
formula
does not depend
on the order in
which the nodes
are arranged
Nonlinear Simulated Flake [83]; Chang et al. [84] Relatively easy to High computational costs
global annealing be implemented and memory demands
techniques Evolutionary Henze et al. [85]; Wang and Jin With high Extensive computational
algorithms [86]; Xing [87]; Kummert ans generalities and costs and memory demands
and Andre [88]; Zhang and Hanby flexibilities, and due to high number of
genetic [73]; Coffey [89] they are also fitness evaluations
algorithm robust to find the
global minimum

array which are embedded in an intelligent room.
The integrated system has the functionality of
human tracking, active camera control, face rec-
ognition, and speaker recognition.
Lymberopoulos et al. [98] developed a system
called BehaviorScope for interpreting human
activity patterns using a camera network and its
application to elder monitoring in assisted living.
Notwithstanding the tremendous value of this
technique, video capture raises privacy concerns
and requires large amounts of data storage.
Other work has focused on the use of carbon
dioxide (CO2) sensors in conjunction with building
models for estimating the number of people gener-
ating the measured CO2 level [99, 100]. Research
on so-called smart environments involves the use
of a diverse set of sensors to monitor and infer
human activity in a building. Examples include
the MIT Intelligent Room [101], the University of
Colorado Boulder Neural Network Adaptive
Home [102], Georgia Tech Aware Home [103],
and the University of Texas at Arlington
MavHome [104, 105]. Most of these efforts focus
on behavioral modeling or mobility tracking and
do not exploit additional sensing capability for the
detection of occupancy numbers. In addition to
these test beds, Duong et al. [106] used hidden
semi-Markov models for modeling and detecting
activities of daily living such as cooking and eat-
ing, and Youngblood and Cook [105] introduced a
new method of automatically constructing hierar-
chical hidden Markov models using the output of a
sequential data mining algorithm to control a smart
environment. Other research endeavors investigate
HVAC preconditioning and device automation via
mined location and device interaction patterns, and
the energy saving potential is estimated through a
relatively simple consumption model [107].
614
A Demonstrative Case Study: The CMU Solar
Decathlon House 2005
Based on the above literature review and identifi-
cation of the apparent “gaps” in the current tech-
niques (see Table 6), Dong [75] introduces and
illustrates a novel methodology for integrated
building heating, cooling, and ventilation control
with the objective to reduce energy consumption
and maintain indoor temperature set-point, based
on the prediction of occupant behavior patterns
and weather conditions. Several advanced
machine learning methods such as adaptive
Gaussian process, hidden Markov model, episode
discovery, and semi-Markov model were modi-
fied and implemented. A nonlinear model predic-
tive control (NMPC) was designed and
implemented in real time based on dynamic pro-
gramming. The experiment test bed was set up in
the Solar Decathlon House (Fig. 10), with over
100 sensor points measuring indoor environmen-
tal parameters such as temperature, relative
humidity, CO2, lighting, motion and acoustics,
and the power consumption for electrical plugs,
HVAC, and lighting. The outdoor environmental
parameters such as temperature, relative humidity,
CO2, global horizontal solar radiation, and wind
speed are obtained from an on-site weather sta-
tion. The designed controller was implemented
through LabVIEW.
A first-principle physically based detailed and
integrated model of the test bed was constructed
Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design, Table 6 Comparisons of integrated HVAC
control approaches
Input information for control modeling
Author Local weather
forecasting
Wang and Jin [86]
Henze et al. [85, 108, 109]
Xu and Haves [77]
Xing [87]
Sun and Reddy [80]
Kummert and Andre [88]
Zhang and Hanby [73]
Sane and Guay [82]
Coffey [89]
Dong [75] √ √
Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design
which comprises the constituent models of the
building geometry, construction materials and
thermal zoning (Fig. 11), the energy supply and
demand (HVAC) systems (Fig. 12), as well as the
optimal building control schema (Fig. 13).
The models were validated through empirical
experiments, and studies were conducted for
two continuous months in the heating season and
for a week in cooling season. Some selected
results are presented below.
Figure 14 shows the measured results of
energy consumption profile of the NMPC model,
which integrates the weather forecasting and
occupant behavior pattern prediction. Due to the
thermal mass effect of the concrete floor slab,
there is no need for additional heating during the
daytime on most days during the experimental
period while maintaining the temperature within
the set-point bands (see Fig. 15).
It also shows the comparison of the energy
profile between the NMPC model and a “conven-
tional” scheduled set-point model. The scheduled
temperature set-point normally has a night set-
back, which is 17  C in this study. The heating
system remains off until the indoor temperature
drops below the setback temperature. Hence, the
heating system often starts after midnight and at
its full capacity in order to reach the desired set-
point in the morning. In addition, the actual occu-
pancy period often does not quite match with the
scheduled daily temperature set-point period.
Actual implementation
Dynamic Real- Fully High
occupancy patterns time model- computational
based speed
√ √
√
√ √
√
√
√ √
√ √
√ √
√ √ √
Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design
Sustainability
Performance Simulation
Tools for Building
Design, Fig. 10 The
Carnegie Mellon University
Solar Decathlon House
2005
These conditions result in more energy consump-
tion for scheduled temperature set-point control
compared with the proposed integrated control.
The energy saving from the integrated control is
illustrated in dashed boxes. The integrated control
can save 30.1% of energy compared with the
scheduled control. Furthermore, the temperature
set-point was not met only for 2 h for the inte-
grated control, while it was 8 h for the schedule
temperature set-point control (see Table 7). This is
because during some cold nights when the indoor
air temperature is around the night setback
(17  C), the daily set-point in the morning cannot
be met. Instead, the integrated controls keep the
indoor air temperature warm enough at night to
meet the set-point in the morning.
Figure 16 compares the energy consumption
between NMPC and scheduled set-points during
a week in the cooling season. The energy saving
mainly comes from the dynamic occupancy
scheduling, while the scheduled control set-
point method tries to maintain the set-point
regardless of whether there is any occupant in
the space.
Figure 17 provides a more detailed look at the
daily behavior and performance of the system on
July 1, 2010. The scheduled set-point maintains
the indoor temperature at the set-point, 25  C. The
NMPC dynamically controls the temperature
based on the actual occupancy level. In addition,
the scheduled set-point assumes the occupants
615
vacated the premise at 7:00 pm, while in reality
it happened at 5:30 pm. The NMPC cools down
the space in two time steps (30 min) before the
occupants arrive and allows the room temperature
to float during lunch time.
Table 8 compares the simulated energy con-
sumption of schedule set-points and measured
NMPC optimization. The total cooling energy
saving for the week is 17.8%. Although the
dynamic occupancy schedule varies with cooling
set-points in the space, the temperature of the
space changes quickly so that the energy saving
is only realized over a short duration of about an
hour (four 15-min time steps).
To investigate further energy saving possibil-
ities, a model with better building envelop per-
formance is conducted. The air infiltration rate
for the meeting room in the test bed is found to be
0.6 air change per hour (ACH). However, a good
benchmark of a tight envelop should be 0.3
ACH. With this improved value, there is a further
increase in energy saving, and the number of
hours whereby the set-point temperature is not
met is also reduced. While the precooling time
becomes slighting longer with three to four time
steps ahead of occupant’s morning arrival instead
of one time step, the cooling system shuts down
several time steps earlier before the occupants
leave the room.
In summary, it can be seen that NMPC-
based control of HVAC systems is an active
616 Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design

Solar House Sensor Key

C CO2 Sensor
Bosch Sensor Node
NREL Sensor Node
C6
P Pyranometer
A Anemometer
Dx Data Acquisition Unit
D1 D2 NREL Sensors S Data Server
NREL Sensors

BOSCH Mote 5
SP Room Set Point Controller

Zone 2: Zone 3: Zone 4:

Machinery Bathroom Office
Zone 1:
Entrance P A

SP2 C1 C6
SP1
Zone 7:
SP3
Library
BOSCH Mote 3 BOSCH Mote 3
S
C2
BOSCH Mote 6

NREL Sensors
C5 C4 BOSCH Mote 3,6

Zone 5: C3
Main Office/Meeting NREL Sensors
Room Zone 5:
Zone 3: Main Office
Bathroom

C3
NREL Sensors

Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design, Fig. 11 Building geometry, thermal zoning,
and sensor system layout
Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design 617

PV Array 1
PV Array 2
PV Array 3

Combiner
Box

Main Panel
240 VAC
Inverter w/ Power
Solar Thermal Meter

Heat Pump
Great Room Fan Coil 1
T1 IR1

CO2
Sensor

Radiant Floor Radiant Floor

Fresh Air

P3 Secondary Water
Differential Pump Loop 1
Controller

Instantaneous
P4
Radiant Floor

Water Heater
Office Room

Fan Coil 2
P1
Primary Water Loop

Secondary Water
Tank Loop 2
IR2 T2

City
Water SA ERV EA
Secondary P2 RA OA
TACO Pump
Controller
Water Loop 3
P1 P2 P3 P4

Radiant Floor
T1 T2 T3 Loft
Bathroom and Battery Room

T3 IR3

Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design, Fig. 12 Overview of the energy supply and
demand systems

“self-learning” process as compared to the pas- point temperature schedule. The integrated
sive conventional HVAC system which only HVAC control can dynamically predict the
responds to a rigid predetermined indoor set- control profile and state variables (e.g., indoor
618 Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design

Sensor
H.W.
Network
Actuator
Fan, Pump, Heater etc.
S.W. Raw
LabView
Sensor
Local HVAC Controller Data

S.W. MATLAB/SimuLink
(Zone Model, System Model, Optimal Control Modeling)

Virtual Model

H.W.
Measured data from S.W.
weather station Arranged Schedules + MATLAB
S.W. Predicted Schedules
Weather Forecasting Model

Weather Disturbances Predicted Occupancy Schedule

Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design, Fig. 13 Overview of integrated control
(NMPC) implementation schema

14 4.5

4
12
3.5
10 Energy Consumption (kWh)
Number of Occupants

8 2.5

6 2

1.5
4
1
2
0.5

0 0
Feb/01 Feb/02 Feb/03 Feb/04 Feb/05 Feb/06 Feb/07
Time (15 minutes)

Occ_Actual Energy_NMPC Energy Scheduled Setpoint Major Energy Savings

Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design, Fig. 14 Comparison of energy profiles
between NMPC and scheduled temperature set-points for the heating season in February 2010
Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design 619

30 Indoor Temperature (NMPC)

Outdoor Temperature
Indoor Temperature (Scheduled)
25

20
Temperature(C)

15

10

–5

Feb/01 Feb/02 Feb/03 Feb/04 Feb/05 Feb/06 Feb/07

Time (15 minutes)

Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design, Fig. 15 Indoor and outdoor temperature
profiles from February 1 to February 7, 2010

Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design, Table 7 Comparison of heating energy
consumption and number of hours when temperature set-points are not met
Energy consumption (kWh) Energy saving (%)
Scheduled temperature set-points 343 30.1
NMPC optimization 240
Temperature set-point not met while occupied (Hrs) Better set-point met time (%)
Scheduled temperature set-points 8 75
NMPC optimization 2

8 4.5

7 4.0
Energy Consumption (kWh)

3.5
6
Number of Occupants

3.0
5
2.5
4
2.0
3
1.5
2
1.0
1 0.5

0 0.0
Jul/05 Jul/06 Jul/07 Jul/08 Jul/09 Jul/10
Time (15 minutes)

Energy Scheduled
Occ_Actual Energy_NMPC Energy Savings
Setpoint

Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design, Fig. 16 Comparison of energy profiles
between NMPC and scheduled temperature set-points for the cooling season in July 2010
620 Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design

35.00 4.5
Temperature NMPC Temperature Scheduled Setpoint Energy
Occupancy
Savings
Energy_NMPC Energy Scheduled Setpoint
4.0
30.00

3.5

Energy Consumption (kWh)

25.00
3.0
Temperature (C)

20.00 2.5

15.00 2.0

1.5
10.00
1.0

5.00
0.5

0.00 0.0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
07/01/00:00 07/02/00:00

Time (15 minutes)

Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design, Fig. 17 Comparison of energy profiles
between NMPC and scheduled temperature set-points on July 1, 2010

Sustainability Energy consumption (kWh) Energy saving (%)

Performance Simulation
Scheduled temperature set-points 96.83
Tools for Building
Design, NMPC optimization 76.92 17.8
Table 8 Comparison of Simulated NMPC optimization with reduced 77.3 20.2
cooling energy infiltration
consumption and number of Temperature set-point not met while occupied (Hrs) Improved set-point met
hours when temperature set- time (%)
points are not met Scheduled temperature set-points 3
NMPC optimization 2 33%
Simulated NMPC optimization with reduced 1 66%
infiltration

air temperature) based on information derived
from the validated building HVAC and
weather forecasting models. With the predicted
information, the energy consumption of HVAC
system can be optimized. Furthermore, the
real-time occupant behavior patterns are inte-
grated with the HVAC controls. Hence, when
the space is unoccupied, there is no need to
maintain the conventional temperature set-
point. In addition, the operation of HVAC at
night is also integrated with the prediction of
occupants’ arrival time on the next day. The
ventilation rate can be adjusted according to
the number of occupants in the space. Such
control can operate the HVAC system dynam-
ically and result in energy saving while
maintaining desirable set-point temperature as
well as indoor air quality. The new features of
this integrated HVAC control contribute to the
next generation of building energy manage-
ment systems in both residential and commer-
cial buildings.
Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design
Conclusion and Future Trends
Future trends in the development and application
of simulation tools will continue to be driven by
the needs for knowledge-based design decisions,
as demanded by knowledgeable clients, and better
quality assurance of the performance assessments.
Multidisciplinary teamwork that draws upon rel-
evant expertise across geographical boundaries
and the adoption of integrative design approaches
to achieve high-performance buildings will be
critical factors of success in the design and con-
struction business, particularly in an increasingly
global and competitive world market.
The potential use of contemporary information
technology (e.g., for architectural and engineering
design) in the building industry is extensive, and
so are the potential performance benefits and cost
savings through more efficient and productive
processes. However, all the sophisticated IT in
the world will not guarantee a decisive transfor-
mation of the industry if it is not accompanied by a
new level of commitment from players in the
industry. The ultimate key to the successful
exploitation of IT is “professionalism” and “dis-
cipline” in the way our business is conducted in
the building industry to create a high-quality and
sustainable living environment.
Meanwhile, the capabilities of simulation tools
will continue to evolve to address, among others,
two major objectives: firstly to make simulation
tools more accessible to the architectural profes-
sion to support the open-ended nature of design
inquiry and secondly to enable effective “real-
time” sharing of design information between the
entire team through a web-based infrastructure.
The pervasive use of these tools will ultimately
depend on how they can effectively support the
design decision-making process (providing a
level of confidence on the predicted performance
of the solution) while reducing project overheads
such as time, manpower, training, and computa-
tional resources typically associated with
advanced performance simulations. If a model is
carefully created with high fidelity and solidly
based on first-principle physical constructs,
which are available in some advanced simulation
tools, there can be significant return on upfront
time investment by deploying the same model
621
continuously during the operational phase of the
building as part of the integrated building man-
agement of control system.
As a collaborative activity, the building deliv-
ery process relies heavily on the effectiveness of
communication structures and means. While it
was initially expected that the application of inno-
vative information technologies would qualita-
tively enhance the information transfer
mechanisms within this process, this has not
occurred, at least not to the desired extent. To
facilitate better understanding of this evolving
circumstance, continuous critical review of the
status quo and thoughtful theoretical reflections
on the complex relations between process evolu-
tion and tool development is necessary.
Appendix 1: Summary of Contractual
Provisions in the AIA Contract Document
for Conducting Energy Studies in
Architectural Practice
Architect’s Services
B141–1997 (Owner-Architect Agreement).
Identifying the services needed for the project:
Under the Categories of Planning and Evaluation
Services Energy Studies and Report.
Design Service Articles 2.4.2.1 (p.896): Sche-
matic Design Document may include study
models, perspective sketches, electronic modeling
or combination of these media. Preliminary selec-
tions of major building systems and construction
materials shall be noted on the drawings or
described in writing.
B163 - Part2 (Description of Designated Ser-
vices for Owner-Architect Agreement)
Article 2.3 – Description of Designated
Services:
Project Administration and Management
Services – 0.01 Project Administration – 02 –
Research
Design Services – 0.23 Architectural Design/
Documentation – 0.07 Study model(s)
Design Services – 0.25 Mechanical Design/
Documentation – 0.01 (Schematic Design
Phase) – 0.01 Energy sources, 0.02 Energy con-
servation and 0.02 (Design Development Phase) –
0.07 Energy conservation measures
622 Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design
Design Services – 0.31 Materials Research/
Documentation 0.01 (Schematic Design
Phase) – 0.02 Investigation of availability and
suitability of alternative architectural materials,
systems and equipment.
Article 2.4 – Description of Supplemental
Services:
Supplemental Services – 0.54 Special Studies
consisting of investigation, research and analysis
of the Owner’s special requirements for the Pro-
ject and documentation of findings, conclusions
and recommendations for: – 0.01 Master planning
to provide design services relative to future facil-
ities, systems and equipment which are not
intended to be constructed as part of the Project
during the Construction Phase. 0.02 Providing
special studies for the project such as analyzing
acoustical or lighting requirements, record reten-
tion, communications and security systems.
Supplemental Services – 0.68 Energy Studies
consisting of special analyses of mechanical systems,
fuel costs, on-site energy generation and energy
conservation options for the Owner’s consideration.
Supplemental Services – 0.78 Computer Appli-
cations consisting of computer program develop-
ment and/or computer program search and
acquisition, plus on-line computer time charges,
for: 0.08 Architectural analysis and design; 0.10
Mechanical analysis and design; 0.11 Electrical
analysis and design.
Copyright of Electronic Document
B141–1997 (Owner-Architect Agreement)
(P.2) Terms and Conditions
Articles 1.3 contain the “ground rules” of
B141, and embodies a number of notable changes
from earlier editions. One such change involves
the architect’s drawings, specifications and other
documents, now defined as “Instruments of Ser-
vice,” which specifically includes documents in
electronic form. The owner’s right to the use of
such documents (and architect’s consultant’s
rights in documents they have prepared) have
been clarified by means of nonexclusive licenses.
In place of “basic” and “additional” services, cir-
cumstances are identified that may give rise to
change in the architect’s services, thereby enti-
tling the architects to additional compensation or
additional time for performance. Provisions for
dispute resolution now include mediation. Provi-
sions for dispute avoidance include a waiver of
consequential damages. The waiver is intended to
prevent the escalation of dispute by limiting
parties to direct damages resulting from a breach.
Finally, grounds for termination are clarified, and
the owner is given the right to terminate for
convenience.
(P.18) Technological advances, such as
computer-aided design, have and will continue
to have an impact on the architect’s services and
the manner in which they are provides. The archi-
tect’s services are reflected in instruments of ser-
vice, such as drawings, specifications, electronic
data and interpretive sketches which help the
owner to reach the final result, a building project.
Because the use or misuse of the architect’s instru-
ments of service affects specific rights and obliga-
tions of the owner, the construction team and the
public, the architect as a licensed professional
retains ownership of, control over and responsi-
bility for these documents.
(P.19) 1.3.2 Instrument of Service: 1.3.2.1
Drawings, specifications and other documents,
including those in electronic form, prepared by
the Architect and the Architect’s consultants are
Instruments of Service for use solely with respect
to this Project. The Architect and the Architect’s
consultants shall be deemed the authors and
owners of their respective Instruments of Service
and shall retain all common law, statutory and
other reserved rights, including copyrights.
(P.20) Given the rapid pace of technological
changes, it is not practical to address all the vari-
eties of electronic documentation in a standard
form document. The parties may wish to develop
a separate, written agreement on how to deal with
the electronic formats they may use.
(P.21) 1.3.2.4
Prior the Architect providing to the Owner any
Instruments of Service in electronic form or the
Owner providing to the Architect any electronic
data for incorporation into the Instruments of Ser-
vice, the Owner and Architect shall by separate
written agreement set forth the specific conditions
governing the format of such Instrument of Ser-
vice or electronic data, including any special lim-
itations or licenses not otherwise provided in this
Agreement.
Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design 623

Appendix 2: Summary of a Survey of Appendix 4a: Selected Energy Modeling

Existing Energy Modeling Tools Tools: Matrix of Features

See Table 9. See Tables 11 and 12.

Appendix 3: List of Selected Energy

Appendix 4b: Definition of Items in the
Modeling Tools for Experimental
Evaluation Matrix
Evaluation
See Table 13.
See Table 10.

Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design, Table 9

ApacheSim (part of
VE of IES) BSim COMFIE Autodesk Insight 360
User Graphical user SimView graphical Graphical user Autodesk Large
interface interface user interface and interface (Pleiades) Model Viewer (LMV)
model editor
CAD Yes Yes No No
interface
Ease of use 2 days training is Courses available Easy (according to the Easy
recommended for the developer)
basic modules
Manuals User’s guide User’s manual Case studies, set of
tutorial videos
Computer Windows 7/8/10 Windows Vista/7/8/10 PC or Macintosh Web/SAAS
platform (32 or 64 bits)
Expertise Training is General knowledge of High level of No expertise is
required recommended for the building design and computer literacy not required to use Insight
basic modules, with how buildings behave required 360
additional courses thermally
available for specific
applications
Input Input data include Unlimited rooms and Readable and Project location and
flexibility construction, load- zones structured input file geometry are required;
related parameters, generated by Pleiades geometry can be
external environment user interface created in Revit or
conditions, air FormIt
movement, and HVAC
systems. Also include
manufacturer tools
such as Daikin VRV
systems, Monodraught
Windcatchers, and
TermoDeck
Output Various formats of 3D Tabular or graphic Heating and cooling Interactive sensitivity
capability geometric output of any of the load, system sizing analysis for energy use
visualizations, fully calculated parameters information, hourly and energy cost
populated reportage to on hourly, weekly, indoor temperature
match LEED/ monthly, or periodical profile, and
BREEAM/building basis, numeric output temperature
regulations and is also available histogram
statistical output for
(continued)
624 Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design

Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design, Table 9 (continued)

ApacheSim (part of
VE of IES) BSim COMFIE Autodesk Insight 360
energy, daylighting,
and solar shading
Functionality Hourly simulation of Simultaneous thermal Heating and cooling Heating and cooling
solar shading and and moisture load calculation, loads, daylight and
penetration (SunCast), simulation, dynamic system sizing, hourly lighting illuminance
HVAC systems and solar and shadow temperature profile, based floor plans,
control (Apache simulation, comfort evaluation solar insolation
HVAC), natural daylighting visualized on model
ventilation and mixed- calculation, building surfaces, predicted PV
mode systems integrated PV system energy generation
(MacroFlo) calculation
Technical Based on first- Finite time step, finite Finite volume method DOE-2.2 simulation
approach principle models of difference on building for building engine, EnergyPlus
heat transfer and is envelope simulation, simplified engine for load
driven by real weather mechanical system calculation
data modeling
Validation Independent testing by Thermal simulation Empirical validation DOE-2 and
other companies and core has been validated and inter-model EnergyPlus are
institutions shows in the IEA Task comparison with subject to BESTEST
good results. 12/Annex 21 ESP-r validation procedure
Development is
supported by current
research.
Audience Engineers, architects, Engineers, researchers, Architectural Architects, engineers,
sustainability and and students engineers, energy consultants
energy consultants, consultants, architects
building owners,
facility managers, and
contractors
Customer Available from the Available from the Available from the Forum support
support developer, online developer, peer developer, users’ club
support forum support forum
Price Depends on retailers Free to try, reduced for Approx. $1000 for Free to try and free for
noncommercial or new installations noncommercial/
academic use, 5000 academic use
EUR annual for up to
5 users/PCs
Usage Many throughout 650 licenses (most of 100+ Unknown
Europe which in Denmark and
Germany)
Contact Don McLean Danish Building Bruno Peuportier Autodesk Insight
IES Ltd. Research Institute, 60, Bd St Michel 360 Web: https://
Helix Building, West Aalborg University, 75,272 Paris Cedex 0 insight360.autodesk.
of Scotland Science kbw@sbi.aau.dk France com/oneenergy
Park Kelvin Campus +4599402379 http:// Tel: +33 1 40 51 9151
Glasgow G20 0SP UK www.sbi.dk Fax: +33 1 46 34 24
Tel: +44 91
(141) 945 8500 Email:
Fax: +44 peuportier@cenerg.
(141) 945 8501 ensmp.fr
Email: don. Web: http://www-
mclean@iesve.com cenerg.ensmp.fr/
Web: http://www. english/themes
iesve.com
Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design 625

Sefaira (architecture
and systems) EnerCAD 2010 ENER-WIN eQUEST
User Sefaira interface Graphical interface Graphical interface Graphical interface,
interface (zone sketch schematic design
interface) wizard, design
development wizard
Cad interface No No No Yes
Ease of use Easy User interface Easy to use Knowledge-based
structured to facilitate default values make
error-free inputs the tool easy to use
Manuals Blog, case studies, User’s guide User’s manual/web Tutorials, online help
training, webinars, and documentation
set of tutorial videos
Computer Web/SAAS Compatible WIN, Mac Windows XP, Vista, Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7,
platform OS, Linux and 7, 8.1, and 10 XP
Expertise No specific expertise is None required Knowledge of Understanding of
required required building thermal basic concepts of
properties and energy building and HVAC
concepts system design
Input Building context, Default values for all 25 zones per floor, up Inputs provided at
flexibility provide various input and extensive to 98 zones in total, schematic design,
system templates building material, 200 walls and design development,
window, and wall 400 surfaces, and detailed interface
libraries 42 building types
from ASHRAE
Output Interactive simulation Table of monthly Annual utility and Output of monthly and
capability outputs include values, annual heat energy costs with annual energy
energy, water, carbon demand, monthly peaks, thermal consumption by end
emissions, utility cost, histogram, flux comfort analysis, life use, graphic
renewable energy diagram cycle cost summary comparison of
potential, heating and alternative designs,
cooling capacity, and detailed numeric
daylight visualizations load, system,
plant and economics
reports
Functionality Early-stage analysis of Monthly calculation of Peak cooling and Hourly simulation of
building form, cooling and heating heating load thermal and energy
orientation, load, calculation and zone performance as well as
fenestration, and U-value calculator, sizing, hourly energy cost,
shadings. Provide shading calculator, calculation of energy parametric runs,
intuitive analysis for window calculator performance comparison of
parametric studies. Simplified HVAC alternative designs
Support modeling system simulation
collaborations and
provide clear,
presentation-quality
reports
Technical Proprietary Fulcrum Monthly heat balance Transient modeling DOE-2.2 simulation
approach engine for energy method based on sol-air engine
simulation and temperature, time lag,
EnergyPlus engine for decrement factor,
load calculation ETD; zone loads and
temperatures based on
a heat balance
methodology; and
daylighting
algorithms based on a
(continued)
626 Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design

Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design, Table 9 (continued)

Sefaira (architecture
and systems) EnerCAD 2010 ENER-WIN eQUEST
modified daylight
factor methodology
Validation EnergyPlus subject to Based on Swiss Empirical validation DOE-2 is subject to
BESTEST validation “recommendation SIA BESTEST validation
procedure 380/1” edition 2009 procedure
and the European
“thermal performance
of buildings EN 832”
Audience Architects, engineers, Architects and Architects, engineers, Building designers,
consultants building engineers energy analyst, operators, owners,
building inspectors, energy/LEED
student consultants
Customer Email and phone Support provided by Available from the Available from Doe2.
support support EnerCAD 2010 website developer com
Price Starting at $899 CHF 980 pro version $59 for enterprise, $19 Free
for pro, free for 2002x
pro
Usage Unknown 500+ Estimated to be in low The number of full
100s program downloads is
approx. 10,000/ year
Contact Contact through web: CUEPE, University of Larry O. Degelman James J. Hirsch &
http://sefaira.com/ Geneva, Battelle bat. A Degelman Associates
contact/ 7, rte de Drize, Engineering Group, 12185 Presilla Road
Carouge/Geneva, Inc. Camarillo CA
1227 2206 Quail Run 93012–9243
Switzerland College Station, Texas Email: Jeff.
Email: info@enercad. 77845 USA Hirsch@doe2.com
ch Email:ldegelman Web: www.doe2.com
Web: http://www. @suddenlink.net
enercad.ch Web: http://pages.
suddenlink.net/
enerwinhttp://www.
cox-internet.com/
larryd/enerwin/
Green building
studio HAP TAS TRACE 700
User Web-based Explorer-style Windows-based Windows-based
interface graphical user graphical interface graphical interface,
interface multiple views, drag
and drop load
assignments
CAD Yes, integration to No Yes Yes, integration with
interface BIM tools BIM tools
Ease of use Easy to use focused on Requires training or Qualified engineer or Formal training
early design phases extensive use to be architect, no training recommended for new
proficient courses are required users
Manuals Online help, tutorials User’s manual and User’s manual Engineer’s manual,
reference guide, online online help, modeling
help guide
Computer Windows and Mac OS Window, Mac OS, and Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7/8
platform mobile application 7,8
Expertise Knowledge of BIM General knowledge of General knowledge of General knowledge of
required tools and basic HVAC engineering architectural HVAC engineering
understanding of principles principles
(continued)
Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design 627

Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design, Table 9 (continued)

Green building
studio HAP TAS TRACE 700
environmental engineering and
performance outputs building design
Input Unlimited number of 100 plants, Unlimited number of Unlimited rooms,
flexibility thermal zones at the 250 systems, 2500 zones, rooms, and systems, and building
expense of increased spaces, unlimited surfaces elements, fixed system
computation time building elements configurations
fixed system
configurations
Output Wide range of Graphical and Numerical and Graphical and
capability environmental numerical output of graphical output of numerical output of
performance outputs: design reports and any simulation design parameters,
building energy and hourly, daily, monthly, parameter over any hourly building
carbon emission or annual simulation period of time temperature profiles
reporting, daylighting, reports and energy
water usage and costs, consumption,
ENERGY STAR comparison of various
scoring, natural alternatives,
ventilation potential predefined reports
Functionality Hourly energy Load calculation, System sizing, hourly Load calculation,
performance system sizing, hourly simulation of heating system sizing,
simulation using thermal and energy and cooling demand, comparison of up to
DOE-2 engine. performance CFD, daylighting 4 system design
Determines simulation, operating alternatives through
appropriate defaults energy cost calculation hour-by-hour
based on building type simulation, life cycle
and location (majority cost calculation,
of defaults are daylighting analysis
ASHRAE 90.1-2004 included, ASHRAE
compliant) 90.1-2004 analysis
Technical DOE-2 thermal ASHRAE-endorsed Hourly simulation of Choose from
approach simulation engine transfer function dynamic building and 7 different ASHRAE
methodology for load system performance load methodologies,
calculation, hour-by- hourly calculation
hour thermal and available, rectilinear
energy simulation surface model for
daylighting
Validation DOE-2 is subject to Comparison studies Empirical validation Tested according to
BESTEST validation with DOE-2.1 yielded using IEA test data, ASHRAE Standard
procedure good correlation EPC and part L, 140
BEEM, ASHRAE
140–1
Audience Architects and Consulting engineers, Building services Engineers, architects,
designers design/build engineers and energy consultants,
contractors, HVAC architects and utility companies
contractors, facility
engineers
Customer Provided by Autodesk Carrier factory support Available from the Free technical support
support and training available developer from Trane factory,
training available
Price $745 single-user $1495 base package 1600+ $1995 for single
annual subscription license, $3990 for site/
$4995 ten-user annual LAN license
subscription
(continued)
628 Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design

Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design, Table 9 (continued)

Green building
studio HAP TAS TRACE 700
Usage Unknown Approx. 5000 250 user sites Approx. 1200
worldwide as of worldwide as of
07/2002 05/2001
Contact Autodesk Green Carrier Corporation 13-14 Cofferidge The Trane Company
Building Studio Bldg TR-4 Close Stony Stratford 3600 Pammel Creek
Web: http://usa. P.O. Box 4808 Milton Keynes MK11 Road
autodesk.com/adsk/ Syracuse, New York 1BY UK Tel. +44 (0) La Crosse, Wisconsin
servlet/pc/index?id= 13221 1908 261461 Fax. +44 54601
11179508&siteID= Tel: (315) 432–6838 (0)1908 566553 Tel: (608) 787–3926
123112 Fax: (315) 432–6844 Fax: (608) 787–3005
Email: software. Email:
systems@carrier.utc. CDSHelp@trane.com
com Web: http://www.
Web: http://www. trane.com/
carrier-commercial. commercial/software
com/software
OpenStudio DesignBuilder TRNSYS HoneyBee
User Graphic interface Graphic interface Graphical interface Utilize the visual
interface programming
environment of
Grasshopper
CAD No, integration with Yes No, integration with No (integration with
interface Sketchup Sketchup Rhino + Grasshopper)
Ease of use Formal training Easy to use and learn Easy to use Knowledge about
recommended for new advanced building Rhino and
users energy performance Grasshopper is
tool required
Manuals Documentation User’s manual, User’s manual Documentation
webinar, online help
Computer Windows 7,8,10, Mac Windows 7, 8, 10 Windows 7, 8, 10 Windows 2000 and
platform OS, Linux later
Expertise Building physics General knowledge of None to use standard General knowledge of
required and/or a mechanical building energy package, FORTRAN building
engineering modeling knowledge helpful for energy modeling,
background is helpful developing new basic knowledge
components about programming
Input Unlimited rooms, Unlimited rooms, Building input Unlimited rooms,
flexibility systems, and building systems, and building description, systems, and building
elements, elements, characteristics of elements, customizable
customizable system customizable system system components, system configurations
configurations configurations manner in
which components
are interconnected,
and separate
weather data
(supplied with
program) are all
ASCII files
Output Graphical and Graphical and Graphical and Graphical and
capability numerical output of numerical output of numerical outputs numerical output of
design parameters, design parameters, design values, 3D
hourly building hourly building geometry with color
temperature profiles temperature profiles rendering
and energy and energy
(continued)
Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design 629

Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design, Table 9 (continued)

OpenStudio DesignBuilder TRNSYS HoneyBee
consumption, consumption,
comparison of various comparison of various
alternatives, alternatives,
predefined reports predefined reports
Functionality Load calculation, Load calculation, Life cycle costs, Building energy
energy simulation, energy simulation, monthly summaries, consumption, comfort,
daylighting analysis, daylighting analysis, annual results, and daylighting
CFD simulation, CFD simulation, life histograms, plotting
measures that are cycle cost analysis, of desired variables
capable of doing parametric and (by time unit). It is
model transformation optimization also possible to plot
in ways that capabilities, LEED variables online
correspond to energy preparation system (as the simulation
conservation progresses)
measures,
custom reporting,
or visualization
Technical EnergyPlus EnergyPlus Transient thermal EnergyPlus
approach analysis
Validation EnergyPlus is subject EnergyPlus is subject Several validation EnergyPlus is subject
to BESTEST to BESTEST studies published, to BESTEST
validation procedure validation procedure official validation validation procedure
results are
unknown (as of 09/18/
2017)
Audience Engineers, program Architects, engineers, Engineers, Architects, engineers,
administrators, building designers researchers, designers
energy-efficiency consulting firms,
policy analysts, architects
researchers,
educators, software
application developers
Customer Forum support, slack Knowledge base, Email list, FAQ, Discussion group,
support channel support desk, support forum, webinars
forums
Price Free Starting at $999 for Starting at $5060 for a Free
single users and $2099 single-user license
for site license
Usage Unknown Unknown Unknown 1706 members on
discussion group as of
2017
Contact US Department of DesignBuilder Thermal Energy thisisladybug@gmail.
Energy (DOE)amir. Software Ltd. System Specialists, comhttps://www.
roth@ee.doe. Clarendon Court, 1st LLC22 North Carroll facebook.com/
gov202.287.1694 Floor 54/56 London Street, Suite LadybugAnalysisTools
http://www.energy. Road, Stroud, 370 Madison, WI
gov/eere/buildings/ Gloucestershire, UK, 53703 USAE-mail:
building-energy- GL5 2 ADTel: +44 techsupport@tess-inc.
modeling (0) 1453 755500 com
630 Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design

Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design, Table 10

Green
building
Ecotect TAS studio eQUEST DesignBuilder
User Intuitive 3D Windows- Web- Graphical interface, Graphic interface
interface modeling interface based based schematic design
graphical wizard, design
interface development wizard
Cad interface Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Ease of use Easy (according to Easy to use, no Easy (according to the Easy to use and
the developer) training developer) learn advanced
courses are building energy
required performance tool
Manuals Tutorials, online User’s manual Online Tutorials, online help User’s manual,
help help, webinar, online
tutorials help
Computer Windows 95/98/ Windows NT Windows 95/98/ME/ Windows 7/8/10
platform NT/2000/XP or NT/2000/XP
Macintosh
Expertise CAD and General Understanding of basic General knowledge
required environmental knowledge of concepts of building of building energy
design experience architectural and HVAC system modeling
useful but not engineering design
essential and building
design
Input Can deal with Unlimited Only 3 floors could be Unlimited rooms,
flexibility highly complex 3D number of defined (according to systems, and
models zones, rooms, Charli_and_Mahabir_ building elements,
and surfaces Overview_simulation_ customizable
model.ppt) system
configurations
Output Graphic output of Numerical and Graphic output of Graphical and
capability thermal, lighting, graphical monthly and annual numerical output of
acoustic and cost output of any energy consumption design parameters,
results simulation by end use, graphic hourly building
parameter over comparison of temperature
Export to any period of alternative designs, profiles and energy
RADIANCE, time detailed numeric load, consumption,
EnergyPlus, ESP-r, system, plant and comparison of
etc. economics reports various
alternatives,
predefined reports
Functionality Hourly simulation System sizing, Hour-by-hour Load calculation,
of lighting, thermal hour-by-hour simulation of thermal energy simulation,
and acoustic simulation of and energy daylighting
performance, heating and performance as well as analysis, CFD
discomfort level, cooling energy cost, simulation, life
resource demand, CFD, parametric runs, cycle cost analysis,
management, daylighting comparison of parametric and
daylighting alternative designs optimization
analysis included capabilities, LEED
preparation system
(continued)
Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design 631

Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design, Table 10 (continued)

Green
Building
Ecotect TAS Studio eQUEST DesignBuilder
Technical CIBSE admittance Hour-by-hour DOE-2 thermal DOE-2.2 EnergyPlus
approach method for load simulation of simulation simulation
calculation, hour-by- dynamic engine engine
hour building, and building and
system thermal system
performance performance
simulation
Validation Undergoing Empirical DOE-2 is DOE-2 is EnergyPlus is subject
validation subject to subject to to BESTEST
using IEA test BESTEST BESTEST validation procedure
data validation validation
procedure procedure
Audience Architects, engineers, Building Architects, Architects, engineers,
environmental services architectural building designers
consultants engineers and engineers
architects
Customer Support forum Available from Available from Knowledge base,
support maintained by the the developer GeoPraxis, Inc. support desk, support
developer forums
Price $650 for first UK$1600+ Free Free Starting at $999 for
professional license, single users, and
$350 for education, $2099 for site license
and $90 for student
Usage 2000+ as of 09/2002 200+ Unknown Unknown Unknown
Contact Square One Research Alan M. Jones John James DesignBuilder
Pty Ltd. F. Kennedy J. Hirsch & Software Ltd.
EDSL Ltd. Associates Clarendon Court, 1st
c/o Center for GeoPraxis, Inc. Floor 54/56 London
Research in the Built 13/14 Email: Jeff. Road, Stroud,
Environment Cofferidge Tel: Hirsch@doe2. Gloucestershire, UK,
Close 707.766.7010 com GL5 2 ADTel: +44
Cardiff University, (0) 1453 755500
Bute Building, Stony Fax: Web: www.
Cardiff, Wales CF10 Stratford 707.766.7014 doe2.com
2NB, UK
Milton Email:
Tel: +44 (29) 2087 Keynes, Mk11 jfk@geopraxis.
5977 1BY UK com

Fax: +44 (29) 2087 +44 Web: www.

4623 (1908) 261461 geopraxis.com

Email: sales@squ1. +44

com (1908) 566553

Web: http://www. Email:

squ1.com info_edsl@csi.
com

Web: http://
ourworld.
compuserve.
com/
homepages/
edsl
 632

Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design, Table 11

I. System Ecotect TAS Green building studio eQUEST DesignBuilder
Operating
platform
Windows Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Mac OS No No Yes No No
Unit system SI and English SI SI and English English SI and English
Energy design No No No Yes (general guidance Yes (general guidance
guidance available in tutorial) available in tutorial)
Built-in librarya
Weather data Ye Yes Yes Yes Yes
Material Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Construction Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Schedule No Yes Yes Yes Yes
Internal heat gain No Yes Yes Yes Yes
Infiltration No Yes Yes Yes Yes
HVAC system No No (available in separate Yes Yes Yes
type plug-in)
HVAC No Yes Yes Yes Yes
equipment
Simulation
application
Stand-alone Yes Yes No Yes Yes
Web-powered No No Yes (via the Internet) No No
Program stability Moderate (Exception errors Moderate (120 MB file Stable Crash occasionally Stable, crash
when working with multiple size limitation. Program occasionally when the
projects during single unstable when a larger model size becomes
session. Program should be number of reports are large (more than a few
restarted when closing one requested) hundred zones)
project and opening another
project)
Weather file Library and user definable Library and user definable According to zip code According to geographical Library
location (can be downloaded
from doe-2.com ftp site by
eQUEST)
Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design
Types of weather .wea (weather tool data) .twd (TAS weather Unsure .bin file .epw
files database)
History tracking
Undo/redo Yes (single state undo/redo Yes No (available in CAD tool) No No
only)
Error logging Yes Yes Yes (runtime error message) Yes (separate error log file) Yes (EnergyPlus error
log message)
II. Extension
Interoperability
IFC compliance No No No No No
File exchange Yes (export of EnergyPlus, No Yes (export of .inp and gbxml Yes (import of .inp file) Yes (export to IDF,
with other energy ESP-r file) file, import of gbxml file is import gbXML)
simulation tools not visible to the user)
File exchange Yes (Autodesk Architectural No Yes (.dwg from Autodesk No Yes (DXF from CAD
with CAD tools Desktop and 3D studio file) Architectural Desktop, .pne tools)
from ArchiCAD, .rvt from
Revit, unsure from Autodesk
Building System. All CAD
information is imported into
GBS through SOAP and a
Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design

gbXML file.)
Drawing data
input
Import as Yes (AutoCad DXF, ASCII Yes (AutoCAD .dwg and No Yes (AutoCAD .dwg files) Yes (AutoCAD .dxf)
underlay model, 3D studio, Stereo dxf files)
Lithography, Radiant Scene,
HPGL plot, Ray, Analysis
Grid files)
Building element Yes (AutoCad DXF, ASCII No Yes No No
import model, 3D studio, Stereo
Lithography, Radiant Scene,
HPGL plot, Ray, Analysis
Grid files) – element
information not included
III. Functionality
Technical CIBSE admittance method TBD (dynamic DOE-2.2 simulation engine DOE 2.2 simulation engine EnergyPlus simulation
approach simulation) engine
633

(continued)
Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design, Table 11 (continued)
634

Types of energy
calculation
Building load Yes Yes Not visible in GBS result Not visible in eQUEST Yes
calculation output. Available in gbxml graphic result output.
file exported from GBS Available in detailed
simulation output file
Building energy No No Yes Yes Yes
simulation
Parametric
operation
Single run/single Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
input and output
Batch processing No Yes No Yes Yes
Code compliance Yes (UK Part-L) Yes (UK Part-L) No Yes Yes (UK Part-L)
Cost estimation Yes (material cost and No Yes (annual energy cost and Yes (monthly and annual Yes
resource consumptions, life cycle operating cost) energy cost, life cycle cost)
energy cost not included)
IV. User
Documentation
Tutorial/manuals/ Tutorial, some background of Separate help file and Tutorial for installation and Tutorial in pdf format, User’s manual, webinar,
wizard thermal analysis in help file video tutorial basic usage in pdf and video schematic design, and design videos
and in html file and example/ format development wizards
tutorial files
Engineering No No No Yes (combined in tutorial) Yes (combined in user’s
documentation manual)
Help function Yes (help menu, help topic, No (in manager, menu list Yes (help menu) Yes (help menu and Yes
FAQ, balloon help) only in modeler in on-screen help)
simulator)
User support Yes (home pages, helpdesk, Yes (helpdesk, training) Yes (inquiry and issues Unsure Yes (forum, support
forum, online courses) submission through website) desk)
File save interval Anytime Anytime Anytime Anytime with the exception Anytime
when the building creation
wizard window is open
Navigation Flexible random Flexible random Flexible random Flexible random Flexible random
between
windows
Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design
Clarity of menu Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
and tool bars
Model view Yes (2D and 3D) Yes (2D and 3D) No (view in VRML in Yes (2D and 3D) Yes (3D)
external application)
Model display Wireframe, shaded OpenGL Wireframe and shaded VRML Shaded 3D rendered graphic
and VRML
Expertise General knowledge about General knowledge about Experience of 3D CAD tool General knowledge about General knowledge
required building energy simulation building energy (Autodesk Architectural building energy simulation about building thermal
and thermal analysis simulation and thermal Desktop, ArchiCAD, Revit, and thermal analysis. DOE-2 analysis
analysis Autodesk Building System) experience required in
detailed data edit mode
V. Modeling
Zone By zone management dialog By zones and zone groups By space list table By activity area allocation, By occupancy, lighting,
management no information about the and equipment zones
specific location in the
building in schematic design
wizard
a. Project
information
Building type Yes (domestic dwelling, No (for project labeling Yes (see Appendix, links to Yes (see Appendix, links to Yes (links to default
definition commercial residential, only) default values) default values) templates)
Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design

office/shop/assembly,
industrial or storage, others)
only used in the UK Part-L
analysis
Space type No (conventionally specified No Yes (see Appendix, links to Yes (see Appendix, links to Yes (links to default
definition in zone management dialog default values) default values) templates)
as zone name)
b. Building
modeling
Geometry
Space
composition
Build-up by Yes Yes No (done in CAD tool) Yes Yes
spaces
Subdivision of Yes Yes No (done in CAD tool) Yes Yes (block concept
floor plate instead of floor)
635

(continued)
Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design, Table 11 (continued)
636

Direct drawing
input
Primitive shapes No No No (done in CAD tool) No No
Extrusion based Yes Yes No (done in CAD tool) Yes Yes
on closed curve
Surfaces Yes No No (done in CAD tool) No Yes
Building element Yes (void, roof, floor, ceiling, Yes (floor, building No (defined in the CAD input No Yes
definition wall, partition, window, element and window) file)
panel, door, point, speaker,
light, appliance, solar
collector, camera, line)
Different heights Yes Yes Yes Not available in wizard data Yes
within floor edit mode, flexible in
detailed data edit mode
Sloped roof Yes Yes No (done in CAD tool) Yes Yes
Sloped floor Yes No No (done in CAD tool) No (except in detailed data Yes
edit mode)
Building Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
orientation
Accessible Yes (Cartesian coordinate No Not shown in the user Yes Yes
coordinate data and polar coordinate) interface, available in CAD
tool and gbxml file exported
from GBS
Snap function Yes (snap to grid or object) Yes (snap to overlay only) No (available in CAD tool) Yes (to overlay and grid) Yes
Modification Yes (transform (move, rotate, Yes (delete, change No (done in CAD tool) Yes Yes
scale, mirror, extrude, alignment)
revolve, spin), morph, link/
unlink, group/ungroup)
Geometry Yes No Yes Unsure Unsure
checking
Building
construction
Material Selectable from the library Selectable from the library Not visible, editable, and Selectable from the library, Selectable from the
and user definable and user definable definable by user. Not visible not editable and definable library and user
to user in GBS result output. except in detailed data edit definable
Accessible and editable in mode
Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design
 gbxml and DOE-2 files
exported from GBS. Gbxml
and DOE-2 files cannot be
imported into GBS by user
Layer User definable User definable Not visible, editable, and Selectable from the library, Selectable from the
definable by user. Not visible not editable and definable library and user
to user in GBS result output. except in detailed data edit definable
Accessible and editable in mode
gbxml and DOE-2 files
exported from GBS. Gbxml
and DOE-2 files cannot be
imported into GBS by user
Construction Selectable from the library Selectable from the library Not visible, editable, and Selectable from the library, Selectable from the
and user definable and user definable definable by user. Visible to not editable and definable library and user
user in GBS result output. except in detailed data edit definable
Accessible and editable in mode
gbxml and DOE-2 files
exported from GBS. Gbxml
and DOE-2 files cannot be
imported into GBS by user
Shades User definable User definable Not visible, editable, and Selectable from the library, Selectable from the
Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design

definable by user. Not visible editable but not definable library and user
to user in GBS result output. except in detailed data edit definable
Accessible and editable in mode
gbxml and DOE-2 files
exported from GBS. Gbxml
and DOE-2 files cannot be
imported into GBS by user
Default values No No Yes Yes Yes
Recommendation No No Yes (according to building Yes (according to building Yes (according to
type and geographical type) building type)
location)
Internal loads
Occupant
Load
Density Yes (user definable) Yes (user definable) No Yes (editable) Yes (selectable from the
library and user
definable)
637

(continued)
 638

Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design, Table 11 (continued)

Total number of Yes Yes Yes (not visible, editable, and Yes Yes
occupants definable by user except in
ABS. Visible to user in GBS
result output. Accessible and
editable in gbxml and DOE-2
files exported from GBS.
Gbxml and DOE-2 files
cannot be imported into GBS
by user)
Schedule Yes (user definable) Yes (selectable from the Yes (not visible, editable, and Yes (selectable from the Yes (user editable)
library and user definable) definable by user. Not visible library, not editable and
to user in GBS result output. definable except in detailed
Accessible and editable in data edit mode)
gbxml and DOE-2 files
exported from GBS. Gbxml
and DOE-2 files cannot be
imported into GBS by user)
Lighting
Load
Density Yes (user definable combined Yes (user definable) Yes (not visible, editable, and Yes (editable) Yes(selectable from the
with equipment load) definable by user. Visible to library and user
user in GBS result output. definable)
Accessible and editable in
gbxml and DOE-2 files
exported from GBS. Gbxml
and DOE-2 files cannot be
imported into GBS by user)
Individual Yes (user definable) Yes Yes (not visible, editable, and No No
appliance definable by user except in
ABS)
Schedule Yes (user definable) Yes (selectable from the Yes (not visible, editable, and Yes (selectable from the Yes (user editable)
library and user definable) definable by user. Not visible library, not editable and
to user in GBS result output. definable except in detailed
Accessible and editable in data edit mode)
gbxml and DOE-2 files
exported from GBS. Gbxml
Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design
 and DOE-2 files cannot be
imported into GBS by user)
Equipment
Load
Density Yes (user definable combined Yes (user definable) Yes (not visible, editable, and Yes (editable) Yes (selectable from the
with lighting load) definable by user. Visible to library and user
user in GBS result output. definable)
Accessible and editable in
gbxml and DOE-2 files
exported from GBS. Gbxml
and DOE-2 files cannot be
imported into GBS by user)
Individual Yes Yes Yes (not visible, editable, and No Yes (selectable from the
appliance definable by user except in library and user
ABS) definable)
Schedule Yes (user definable) Yes (selectable from the Yes (not visible, editable, and Yes (selectable from the Yes (user editable)
library and user definable) definable by user. Not visible library, not editable and
to user in GBS result output. definable except in detailed
Accessible and editable in data edit mode)
gbxml and DOE-2 files
exported from GBS. Gbxml
Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design

and DOE-2 files cannot be

imported into GBS by user)
Default values No No Yes Yes Yes
Recommendation No No Yes (according to building Yes (according to building Yes
type, location, floor area, and type and activity area type)
ratio of surface to floor area)
Infiltration
Rate Yes (user definable) Yes (user definable) Yes (not visible, editable, and Yes (editable) Yes (selectable from the
definable by user. Not visible library and user
to user in GBS result output. definable)
Accessible and editable in
gbxml and DOE-2 files
exported from GBS. Gbxml
and DOE-2 files cannot be
imported into GBS by user)
Schedule Yes (user definable) Yes (selectable from the Yes (not visible, editable, and Yes
library and user definable) definable by user. Not visible
639

(continued)
Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design, Table 11 (continued)
640

to user in GBS result output. Yes (selectable

Accessible and editable in from the library and
gbxml and DOE-2 files user definable)
exported from GBS. Gbxml
and DOE-2 files cannot be
imported into GBS by user)
Default values No No Yes Yes Yes
Recommendation No No Yes (according to building Yes Yes
type)
Utility
Rate Yes (for equipment only) No Yes (not visible, editable, and Yes (selectable from the Yes (selectable from the
definable by user. Not visible library and user definable) library and user
to user in GBS result output. definable)
Accessible and editable in
gbxml and DOE-2 files
exported from GBS. Gbxml
and DOE-2 files cannot be
imported into GBS by user)
Schedule Yes (user definable) No Yes (not visible, editable, and Yes (selectable from the Yes (selectable from the
definable by user. Not visible library and user definable) library and user
to user in GBS result output. definable)
Accessible and editable in
gbxml and DOE-2 files
exported from GBS. Gbxml
and DOE-2 files cannot be
imported into GBS by user)
Default values No No Yes Yes (for California only) Yes
Recommendation No No Yes (according to building Yes (according to climate Yes
location) zone and estimated peak
electrical demand)
c. HVAC
modeling
Thermostat Yes Yes Yes (not visible, editable, and Yes (editable) Yes
set-point definable by user. Not visible
to user in GBS result output.
Accessible and editable in
gbxml and DOE-2 files
Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design
 exported from GBS. Gbxml
and DOE-2 files cannot be
imported into GBS by user)
HVAC zoning Yes (multi zones) Yes (multi zones) Yes (multi zones) Yes (multi zones) Yes
Relationship HVAC zone same as the One HVAC zone can have HVAC zone same as the HVAC zone different from HVAC zone same as the
between HVAC building space multiple spaces building space building space building space
zone and building
space
Zone grouping No Yes No Yes Yes
HVAC schedule Yes (fixed on/off timing for Yes Yes (not visible, editable, and Yes (editable) Yes (selectable from the
entire year) definable by user. Not visible library and user
to user in GBS result output. definable)
Accessible and editable in
gbxml and DOE-2 files
exported from GBS. Gbxml
and DOE-2 files cannot be
imported into GBS by user)
Default values No No Yes Yes Yes
Recommendation No No Yes (according to building Yes (according to building Yes
type) type)
Outside air No No Yes (not visible, editable, and Yes (editable) Yes (selectable from the
Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design

requirement definable by user except in library and user

ABS. Not visible to user in definable)
GBS result output.
Accessible and editable in
gbxml and DOE-2 files
exported from GBS. Gbxml
and DOE-2 files cannot be
imported into GBS by user)
Default values N/A N/A Yes Yes Yes
Recommendation Yes (according to space type) Yes (according to activity Yes
area type)
HVAC system No No Yes (not visible, editable, and Yes (editable and user Yes (selectable from the
definable by user. Not visible definable) library and user
to user in GBS result output. definable using HVAC
Accessible and editable in interface)
gbxml and DOE-2 files
exported from GBS. Gbxml
641

(continued)
Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design, Table 11 (continued)
642

and DOE-2 files cannot be

imported into GBS by user)
Default system No No Yes Yes Yes
Recommendation No No Yes (according to building Yes (according to building Yes
type and floor area) type and heating/cooling
source)
System sizing No No Yes (not visible in GBS result Yes (autosize available. Yes
output) Sizing info not visible in
eQUEST report output)
VI. Result
output
Output export Yes (text, bitmap output) Yes No No Yes
Format of report
Numeric Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes (total net heat flow
and breakdown by
building element)
Graphic Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes (total net heat flow,
breakdown of heat
gains, and losses by
building element)
Tabulated data Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Spreadsheet No No No No Yes
Data Yes Yes No No Yes (with animation and
visualization sound effect)
Types of report
Single runs report Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Comparative runs No No No Yes Yes
report
Content of report
Parameter
Temperature Yes Yes No No Yes
profile
Heat gain/loss Yes (fabric, indirect solar, Yes Not visible in GBS result Not visible in eQUEST Yes
direct solar, ventilation, output. Available in gbxml graphic result output.
internal, interzonal gains) file exported from GBS.
Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design
 Available in detailed
simulation output file.
Zone load Yes Yes Not visible in GBS result Not visible in eQUEST Yes
output. Available in gbxml graphic result output.
file exported from GBS. Available in detailed
simulation output file.
Building load Yes Yes Not visible in GBS result Not visible in eQUEST Yes
output. Available in gbxml graphic result output.
file exported from GBS. Available in detailed
simulation output file.
Building energy No No Yes Yes Yes
use
Breakdown of No No Yes Yes Yes
building energy
use
Utility bills Yes (equipment only) No Yes Yes Yes
Frequency
Building life Yes No Yes (30 years) Yes Yes
cycle value
Annual value Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design

Monthly values Yes Yes No Yes Yes

Daily values Yes Yes No No Yes
Hourly values Yes Yes No No Yes
Summary
Total Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Average No No No Yes Yes
Peak Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
a
Definition of built-in library as a selection of specific cases with complete and realistic description of relevant input parameter
643
644 Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design

Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design, Table 12

Building types
in GBS Space types in GBS
Automotive Active storage Electrical or mechanical Other televised playing
facility area sports arena
Active storage hospital or Elevator lobbies
Convention healthcare Parking area attendant
center Emergency hospital or only parking garage
Air or train or bus baggage area healthcare
Courthouse Parking area pedestrian
Airport concourse Equipment room parking garage
Dining bar manufacturing facility
lounge or leisure Atrium each additional floor Patient room hospital or
Exam or treatment hospital or healthcare
Dining cafeteria Atrium first three floors healthcare
fast food Personal services sales
Audience or seating area Exercise area exercise center area retail
Dining family penitentiary
Exercise area gymnasium Pharmacy hospital or
Dormitory Audience or seating area exercise healthcare
center Exhibit space convention
Exercise center center Physical therapy hospital
Audience or seating area or healthcare
Fire station gymnasium Fellowship hall religious
buildings Playing area gymnasium
Gymnasium Audience or seating area sports
arena Fine material warehouse Police station laboratory
Hospital or police or fire station
healthcare Audience or seating area Fine merchandise sales area
convention center retail Public and staff lounge
Hotel hospital or healthcare
Audience or seating area motion Fire station engine room
Library picture theater police or fire station Reading area library

Manufacturing Audience or seating area Food preparation Reception or waiting

performing arts theater transportation
Motel Garage service or repair
Audience or seating area religious automotive facility Reception or waiting
Motion picture motel
theater Audience or seating area police or General high-bay
fire stations manufacturing facility Reception or waiting hotel
Multifamily
Audience or seating area General low-bay Recovery hospital or
Museum courthouse manufacturing facility healthcare

Office Audience or seating area General exhibition museum Restoration museum

auditorium
Parking garage Hospital nursery hospital or Restrooms
Bank customer area healthcare
Penitentiary Ring sports area sport
Banking activity area office Hospital or medical supplies arena
Performing arts hospital or healthcare
theater Barber and beauty parlor Sleeping quarters police
Hospital or radiology or fire station
Police station Card file and cataloguing library hospital or healthcare
Sorting area post office
Post office Classroom or lecture or training Hotel or conference center
penitentiary conference or meeting Specialty store sales area
Religious retail
building Classroom or lecture or training Inactive storage
Stacks library
Retail Confinement cells penitentiary Judges chambers courthouse
Stairs inactive
School or Confinement cells courthouse Laboratory office
university Stairway
(continued)
Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design
Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design, Table 12 (continued)
Building types
in GBS Space types in GBS
Conference meeting or
Sports arena multipurpose
Town hall Corridor or transition
Transportation Corridor or transition
manufacturing
Warehouse
Corridors with patient waiting
Workshop exam hospital or healthcare
Court sports area sports arena
Courtroom courthouse
Department store sales area retail
Detailed manufacturing facility
Dining area
Dining area hotel
Dining area family dining
Dining area lounge or leisure
dining
Dining area motel
Dining area transportation
Dining area penitentiary
Dining area civil services
Dormitory bedroom
Dormitory study hall
Dressing or locker or fitting room
gymnasium
Dressing or locker or fitting room
courthouse
Dressing or locker or fitting room
performing arts theater
Dressing or locker or fitting room
auditorium
Dressing or locker or fitting room
exercise center
645
Laundry ironing and sorting
Supermarket sales area
Laundry washing hospital or retail
healthcare
Terminal ticket counter
Library audio visual transportation
Living quarters dormitory Workshop
Living quarters motel Worship pulpit choir
religious
Living quarters hotel
Lobby
Lobby religious buildings
Lobby motion picture theater
Lobby auditorium
Lobby performing arts
theater
Lobby post office
Lobby hotel
Lounge or recreation
Mall concourse sales area
retail
Mass merchandising sales area
retail
Medium or bulky material
warehouse
Merchandising sales area retail
Museum and gallery storage
Nurse station hospital or
healthcare
Office enclosed
Office open plan
Office common activity areas
inactive storage
Operating room hospital or
healthcare
(continued)
646 Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design

Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design, Table 12 (continued)

Building types in eQUEST Activity area types in eQUEST
Community center Auditorium

Conference/convention center Auto repair workshop

Health/fitness center Bank/financial institution

Heath, hospital (inpatient) Bar, cocktail lounge

Health, long-term care (nursing home) Barber and beauty shop

Health, medical clinic/prof. building (outpatient) Casino/gaming

Lodging, motel Classroom/lecture

Lodging, high-rise hotel Courtroom

Multifamily, low-rise (exterior entries) Comm/ind work (general, high bay)

Multifamily, mid-rise (interior entries) Comm/ind work (general, low bay)

Multifamily, high-rise (interior entries) Comm/ind work (precision)

Museum Conference room

Office bldg., high-rise Convention and meeting center

Office bldg., mid-rise Copy room (photocopying equipment)

Office bldg., two story Corridor

Office bldg., bank/financial Dining area

Religious worship Dry cleaning (coin operated)

Restaurant, full service (full menu) Dry cleaning (full-service commercial)

Restaurant, quick service (fast food) Exercising centers and gymnasium

Restaurant, bar/lounge Exhibit display area/museum

Retail, department store Hotel/motel guest room (incl. toilets)

Retail, large single story Kitchen and food preparation

Retail, stand-alone structure Laboratory, medical

Retail, single storefront Laundry

Retail, strip mall Library (reading areas)

Retail, service station Library (stacks)

Retail, service station/convenience store Lobby (hotel)

Retail, warehouse sales Lobby (main entry and assembly)

School, preschool/daycare Lobby (office reception/waiting)

School, k-6 elementary Locker and dressing room

School, middle school Mall, arcade, and atrium

School, college/university Mechanical/electrical room

(continued)
Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design 647

Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design, Table 12 (continued)

Building types in eQUEST Activity area types in eQUEST

Storage, conditioned high bay Medical and clinical care

Storage, unconditioned high bay Office (general)

Storage, conditioned low bay Office (executive/private)

Storage, unconditioned low bay Office (open plan)

Theater/performing arts Police station and fire station

Unknown, custom, or mixed use Religious worship

Residential (high-rise)

Residential (multifamily dwelling unit)

Residential (single family)

Restrooms

Retail sales and wholesale showroom

Smoking lounge

Storage (conditioned)

Storage (unconditioned)

Theater (motion picture)

Theater (performance)

Vocational areas

Unknown

Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design, Table 13

Item Description
I. System
Operating platform
Windows Tool operates within Windows environment without additional software or
emulators
Mac OS Tool operates within Macintosh environment without additional software or
emulators
Unit system Measurement units used by the tool
Energy design guidance Assistance in conducting energy simulations, such as guidance on simulation
workflow and appropriate modeling methods
Built-in library

Availability of selection of specific cases with complete and realistic

description of relevant input parameter

(continued)
648 Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design

Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design, Table 13 (continued)

Item Description
Weather data
Material
Construction
Schedule
Internal heat gain
Infiltration
HVAC system type
HVAC equipment
Simulation application
Stand-alone Simulation conducted on local workstation
Web-powered Simulation conducted on off-site server via network
Program stability The ability of the tool to continue operations and maintain correctness under an
amplitude of input changes
Weather file Method used to select climatic data
Types of weather files Format of climatic data used
History tracking
Undo/redo The tool keeps track of states allowing the feature of redo and undo
Error logging The tool maintains an error log upon failures
II. Extension
Interoperability
IFC compliance The tool allows import/export of data in IFC format without additional software
File exchange with other energy The tool allows import/export of complete energy model data with other
simulation tools simulation tools without additional software or intervention
File exchange with CAD tools The tool allows import/export of complete geometric data with CAD systems
without additional software or intervention
Drawing data input
Import as underlay The tool allows import of 2D drawings from CAD systems to facilitate
geometric modeling
Building element import The tool allows import of 3D elements from CAD systems to facilitate
geometric modeling
III. Functionality
Technical approach Simulation engine used by the tool
Types of energy calculation
Building load calculation Calculation of building heating, cooling, and electricity load
Building energy simulation Calculation of energy consumption by the various equipment in the mechanical
system, in order to meet the building heating, cooling, and electricity load
Parametric operation
Single run/single input and output Tool allows simulation of a model and presents the results
Batch processing Tool allows queuing of multiple models for simulation
Code compliance Tool includes features to consider if the results of the energy models comply
with regulations
Cost estimation Tool includes features to estimate the costs related to the building that is being
modeled
IV. User
Documentation
Tutorial/manuals/wizard Types of documentation available to assist in learning how to use the tool and
understanding the workflow
Engineering documentation Technical documentation explaining the computational processes, methods, and
assumptions used by the tool
(continued)
Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design 649

Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design, Table 13 (continued)

Item Description
Help function Integrated help feature by button, keystroke, or menu to assist in using the tool
interface and explaining the workflow
User support Types of resources available to users in learning the tool
File save interval Restrictions on when the user can invoke the save command
Navigation between windows Restrictions on the user to toggle between different windows:

Flexible – Tool allows user to toggle between windows in no particular sequence

Random – Tool allows user to toggle between any two windows

Clarity of menu and tool bars The organization and naming of the menu and tool bars are with clarity
Model view Allows user to view the energy model geometrically
Model display Shading methods available when viewing the energy model
Expertise required General expertise required of user to use the tool effectively
V. Modeling
Zone management Method used to manage the thermal zones in the energy model
a. Project information
Building type definition Tool allows user specification of building type to check, modify or recommend
various parameter settings
Space type definition Tool allows user specification of space type to check, modify or recommend
various parameter settings
b. Building modeling
Geometry
Space composition
Build-up by spaces Tool allows geometric model to be constructed additively
Subdivision of floor plate Tool allows modeled elements to be subdivided
Direct drawing input
Primitive shapes Tool allows modeling by selecting basic forms Boolean operations
Extrusion based on closed curve Tool allows modeling by drawing profiles and extruding
Surfaces Tool allows modeling by constructing surfaces
Building element definition Tool allows specification and modification of individual elements as various
building element types
Different heights within floor Tool allows different spaces on the same level of the model to have different
floor to ceiling heights
Sloped roof Tool allows the modeling of sloped roofs
Sloped floor Tool allows the modeling of sloped floors
Building orientation Tool allows the north direction to be modified via a single orientation parameter
Accessible coordinate data Tool shows the dimensions of each element and allows them to be changed by
direct numerical input
Snap function Tool provides modeling snap-to-point features
Modification Tool allows modeled elements to be transformed geometrically
Geometry checking Tool provides features to check that the geometric model has been constructed
properly
Building construction
Material Notes on how the tool allows the user to define materials
Layer Notes on how the tool allows the user to define layers
Construction Notes on how the tool allows the user to define constructions
Shades Notes on how the tool allows the user to model sun shading devices
Default values Tool specifies some realistic default construction properties for building
elements based on some project information such as type of building or space
being modeled
(continued)
650 Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design

Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design, Table 13 (continued)

Item Description
Recommendations Tool makes recommendations for construction types and material values based
on some project information such as type of building or space being modeled
Internal loads
Occupant
Load
Density Tool allows variation of occupancy density across different spaces
Total number of occupants Tool allows specification and modification of number of occupants
Schedule Tool allows specification of a schedule for occupancy
Lighting
Load
Density Tool allows variation of lighting loads across different spaces
Individual appliance Tool allows specification of individual light appliances within each space
Schedule Tool allows specification of a schedule for lighting loads
Equipment
Load
Density Tool allows variation of equipment loads across different spaces
Individual appliance Tool allows specification of individual electrical appliances within each space
Schedule Tool allows specification of a schedule for electrical loads
Default values Tool specifies some realistic default internal loads conditions based on the type
of building or space being modeled
Recommendations Tool makes recommendations for internal load conditions based on some
project information such as type of building or space being modeled
Infiltration
Rate Tool allows specification of infiltration rates
Schedule Tool allows specification of a schedule for infiltration
Default values Tool specifies some realistic default infiltration conditions based on the type of
building or space being modeled
Recommendations Tool makes recommendations for infiltration conditions based on some project
information such as type of building or space being modeled
Utility
Rate Tool allows specification of utility rates
Schedule Tool allows specification of a schedule utility rates
Default values Tool specifies some realistic default utility rates based on some project
information such as type of building being modeled or location of building
Recommendations Tool makes recommendations for infiltration conditions based on some project
information such as type of building being modeled or location of building
c. HVAC modeling
Thermostat set-point Tool allows specification of heating and cooling set-points for each zone in the
HVAC system
HVAC zoning Tool allows specification of HVAC zones from the spaces defined by the
geometric building model
Relationship between HVAC zone Relationship between HVAC zones and spaces defined by the geometric
and building space building model
Zone grouping Tool allows several zones to be grouped in a hierarchical manner
HVAC schedule Tool allows specification of a schedule for HVAC operations
Default values Tool specifies some realistic default HVAC schedules based on some project
information such as type of building or space being modeled
Recommendations Tool makes recommendations for HVAC scheduling based on some project
information such as type of building or space being modeled
Outside air requirement Tool allows specification of outside air requirements as part of HVAC system
(continued)
Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design 651

Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design, Table 13 (continued)

Item Description
Default values Tool specifies some realistic default outside air requirements based on some
project information such as type of building or occupancy being modeled
Recommendations Tool makes recommendations for outside air requirements based on some
project information such as type of building or occupancy being modeled
HVAC system Tool allows specification of the type of HVAC system
Default system Tool specifies some realistic default HVAC system based on some project
information such as type of building being modeled
Recommendations Tool makes recommendations for HVAC system based on some project
information such as type of building being modeled
System sizing Tool includes feature to size the HVAC system accordingly
VI. Result output
Output export Tool allows simulation results to be exported for processing in other spreadsheet
or analysis applications
Format of report
Numeric Tool produces numerical reports of simulation results
Graphic Tool produces graphical reports of simulation results
Tabulated data Tool produces tabular reports of simulation results
Spreadsheet Tool produces spreadsheets from simulation results
Data visualization Tool includes some features of presenting the data in visuals that assist in
understanding the thermal performance predicted by simulation
Types of report
Single runs report Tool produces reports for a single simulation
Comparative runs report Tool presents results from multiple simulations on a single report for
comparison
Content of report
Parameter
Temperature profile Report on outdoor mean air temperature and mean space temperature for all
spaces
Heat gain/loss Report on heat gain/loss for all spaces
Zone load Report on all zone loads
Building load Report on building load
Building energy use Report on active building energy use
Breakdown of building energy use Report on active building energy use breakdown
Utility bills Report on building utility bills
Frequency
Building life cycle value Reports presented over life cycle of building with appropriate time values
Annual value Reports presented as cumulative annual values
Monthly values Reports presented as 12 monthly values
Daily values Reports presented as 365 daily values
Hourly values Reports presented as 8760 hourly values
Summary
Total Reports includes a total value
Average Reports includes an averaged values
Peak Reports indicates maximum and minimum value occurrences
652 Sustainability Performance Simulation Tools for Building Design
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 EBD (evidence-based design): The process of
Evidence-Based Design for collecting occupant and management perspec-
Indoor Environmental Quality tives as well as objective environmental and
and Health human productivity and health data to enable
design decision making based on credible
Charlene W. Bayer research to achieve the best possible outcomes.
Hygieia Sciences LLC, Johns Creek, GA, USA Health: A state of complete physical, mental,
and social well-being and not merely the
absence of disease or infirmity.
Article Outline HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air-condit-
ioning system): The systems used to provide
Glossary heating, cooling, and ventilation in buildings.
Definition of Evidence-Based Design IAQ (indoor air quality): The air quality within
Introduction buildings, related to conditions around build-
Indoor Environmental Quality ings and structures, and its relationship to the
Indoor Air Quality health and comfort of building occupants.
Ventilation System Design/Environmental IEQ (indoor environmental quality): Beyond
Control IAQ to encompass all aspects of the indoor
Lighting/Daylighting/Access to Views setting including air quality, thermal, visual,
Acoustics/Noise Control and acoustic quality. Focuses on the strategies
Operation and Maintenance and systems that result in a healthy indoor
Human Factor Impacts of Sustainable Design environment for building occupants.
Strategies POE (post-occupancy evaluation): The pro-
Application to Healthcare Facilities cess of collecting occupant and management
Economic Performance perspectives on the quality of the built envi-
Schools ronment in use.
Future Directions WHO (World Health Organization): A United
Bibliography Nations agency that coordinates international
health activities and aids governments in
Glossary improving health services.

AIA (The American Institute of Architects):

The AIA has been the leading professional
membership association for licensed archi-
tects, emerging professionals, and allied part-
ners since 1857.
Cfm (cubic feet per minute): A non-SI
(non-International System) unit of measure-
ment of the flow of a gas or liquid that indicates
how much volume in cubic feet passes by a
stationary point in 1 min. The ASHRAE stan-
dards and guidelines give ventilation rates for
the IEQ in a specified number of cfm/person.
1 cfm = 0.472 L/s.
Definition of Evidence-Based Design
Evidence-based design (EBD), as defined by the
Center for Health Design [1], is “the process of
basing built environment decisions on credible
research to achieve the best possible outcomes.”
The EBD facilities design approach treats the
building and its occupants as a system and giving
importance to the design features that impact
health, well-being, mood and stress, safety, oper-
ational efficiency, and economics. EBD has been

© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020 657

V. Loftness (ed.), Sustainable Built Environments,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-0684-1_604
Originally published in
R. A. Meyers (ed.), Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology, © Springer Science+Business Media LLC 2018
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2493-6_604-3
658 Evidence-Based Design for Indoor Environmental Quality and Health
applied primarily to healthcare facility design,
where it has been shown to frequently reduce
costs, improve staff productivity, and decrease
the patient hospital stay lengths. The evidence-
based designer, in collaboration with an informed
client, develops appropriate solutions to the indi-
vidual design project based on the needs and
expectations of the client, research from similar
projects, and past experience [2]. Thus EBD pro-
vides data on successful design strategies for
healthy, high-quality buildings.
Introduction
Concepts
Healthy, high-performance buildings should have
positive outcomes in terms of energy, sustainabil-
ity, health, and productivity [3]. A healthy build-
ing should meet the World Health Organization
(WHO) [4] definition of health, “a state of com-
plete physical, mental and social well-being and
not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”
The use of this definition of health is particularly
applicable to green buildings, intent not only on
reducing exposures to chemicals but also promot-
ing exercise, lowering stress, increasing social
interactions, and otherwise fostering physical,
social, and mental health for the occupants. EBD
meets the WHO health definition and also encom-
passes productivity, operational efficiency, eco-
nomic performance, and occupant/customer
satisfaction. Effective EBD is combined with sus-
tainable design, incorporating all practices that
optimize positive impacts on ecological health
and indoor environmental quality [5].
Sustainable, creative design features for EBD
application fall into four major categories, which
impact health, economic performance, and opera-
tional efficiency of the building system:
• Innovative building enclosures that incorpo-
rate load balancing, natural ventilation, and
daylighting
• Advanced HVAC systems that incorporate nat-
ural conditioning, increased environmental
contact, and local control
• Innovative data/voice/power “connectivity”
and individual control
• New interior system designs in workstations
and workgroup designs for improvements in
spatial, thermal, acoustic, visual, and IAQ
parameters [6]
Innovative enclosures and advanced HVAC
systems particularly impact IAQ, health, produc-
tivity and learning, stress reduction, and opera-
tional economics. Innovative connectivity and
new interior system designs also impact physical
well-being and social well-being in relation to
organizational and individual performance, stress
reduction, and health.
Existing certification systems, such as USGBC
LEED (https://www.usgbc.org/leed-v4, and newer
certification systems, such as WELL (http://stan
dard.wellcertified.com), have added health-based
aspects to their certification requirements incorpo-
rating the occupant experience and health outcomes
related to building environments. These certification
programs, while not directly emphasizing EBD, are
employing many of the aspects of EBD. Both certi-
fication systems have prerequisites and/or credits
requiring advanced ventilation systems for energy
efficiency, which also include using: natural venti-
lation either as primary system or with a hybrid
system; low-emitting furnishings and materials
use; indoor air quality performance measurement;
daylighting and views; optimum siting for new
buildings; thermal and humidity control; post-
occupancy assessments; acoustical control; occu-
pant activity enhancement through interior spatial
layouts. These standards are also increasing atten-
tion to performance of existing buildings, particu-
larly around IAQ performance over time.
Indoor Environmental Quality
Healthy buildings encompass all aspects of indoor
environmental quality (IEQ) including optimum
thermal comfort, lighting with effective daylight-
ing and access to views, indoor air quality (IAQ),
acoustical performance, ventilation effectiveness
integrated with natural ventilation when
Evidence-Based Design for Indoor Environmental Quality and Health 659

A conceptual framework describing how the physical environment may set

in motion a process leading to stress

The physical environment Personal motives and Immediate outcomes

Individual
within a bui lding attitudes Negative environmental outcomes
Examples – increased noise,
coping
demographic factors
Indoor environment uncomfortable temperature, skills
Age, sex, health
Noise poor lighting, poor air quality
status, education,
social and Sick building syndrome
Lighting condition
cultural Physiological
Ambient temperature Examples – Headache,
background
Air quality sweating, muscle tension,
higher blood pressure and
The overall quality of the Individual needs and heart rate
Indoor environment their perceived
Psychological
importance in a context
Examples – worrisome
Architectural and/or interior + or – Physiological + or – thoughts, feelings of + or –
design Psychological helplessness, fear, and/or Stress
Global sadness
Cognitive
Building Cognitive
Configuration, layout Psychosocial Examples – reduced Task
of Rooms, functional Social performance, difficulties in
relations wayfinding
Local
Room configuration, Psychosocial
Furniture layout, Examples – dissatisfaction,
Interior details, discomfort, inconvenience,
Finish materials, reduced sense of control,
Color, artwork, Organizational Factors privacy, territoriality, and/or
Nature, View, safety, increased sense of Time
Environmental crowding
Graphics Social
Examples – lack of group
interaction and social support

Evidence-Based Design for Indoor Environmental Quality and Health, Fig. 1 Rashid and Zimring [6] conceptual
framework describing how the physical environment may initiate a process leading to stress

applicable, human comfort and health, and oper-
ational and maintainable ease. Thus, healthy
buildings should increase occupants’ overall
health and productivity.
Rashid and Zimring [7] suggest that poor
indoor environments may initiate a process lead-
ing to stress whenever the individual or workplace
IEQ is not meeting an occupant’s needs, as is
shown in Fig. 1. Their framework groups physical
environmental variables into two primary groups:
(1) IEQ variables (noise, lighting, ambient tem-
perature) and IAQ; and (2) interior design vari-
ables (use of space, furniture, fixtures and
equipment, finishing materials, color, artwork,
natural views, and environmental graphics).
These variables are interlinked in the design of
the indoor environment and its conditioning sys-
tems. Factors leading to stress, such as individual
responses to odors, vary among individuals, fur-
ther complicating the issues [8]. Collaboration
between the designer and the user in the EBD
design process is critical for reducing stressors in
the indoor environment.
Examples of potential environmentally induced
stressors requiring assessment in the EBD process
are:
1. Open office plans creating feelings of lack of
privacy [9]
2. Open office plans, selection of hard-surfaced
flooring and furnishing materials, office equip-
ment location, HVAC system vibration, and/or
outdoor traffic increasing noise levels and
resulting in difficulties in concentration,
speech intelligibility, headaches, and other
physical and emotional stress responses that
impact learning and productivity [10–12]
3. Cafeteria, cleaning, furnishings, or building
system toxins or odors permeating throughout
the work areas of a building due to improper
ventilation system design or poor materials
selection [13, 14]
660 Evidence-Based Design for Indoor Environmental Quality and Health
4. Daylight glare on work surfaces due to lack of
effective window glazing or absence of blinds,
and unshielded electric lighting that may result
in headaches or eyestrain and poor productiv-
ity [15–17]
The Academy of Neuroscience for Architec-
ture (www.anfarch.org) is using EBD to assess the
linkage between neuroscience research and
human responses to the built environment, thus
seeking to relate behavioral changes to brain func-
tion changes based on the built environment. The
Academy, in its studies, defines the dimensions of
functional comfort as: (1) air quality, (2) thermal
comfort, (3) spatial comfort, (4) collaborative or
team space, (5) visual comfort, (6) workstation
comfort, (7) lighting quality, (8) noise control,
and (9) security.
These nine parameters are used to direct the
EBD practices to reduce human stress, poor
behaviors and attitudes, and overall human health
as defined by the World Health Organization.
Indoor Air Quality
The primary design strategies to improve IAQ in
green buildings are using low-emitting furnish-
ings and building materials, designed to meet an
iteratively tightening set of standards
[18–21]. This strategy addresses one of the most
important IAQ determinants that is clearly in the
realm of the designer – source control. However,
the construction process, including installation
sequence and protection of materials prior to
installation, is also an important factor. For exam-
ple, carpet installation prior to painting of walls
may result in long-term low-level emissions of
paint fumes due to adsorption by the carpet and
slow reemission into the indoor environment. Key
furnishing and material sources that must be spec-
ified as low-emitting and eco-friendly include
office furniture, flooring, paints and coatings,
adhesives and sealants, wall coverings, wood
products, textiles, insulation, and cleaning prod-
ucts. The potential adverse health impacts of pol-
lutants that may emit from these products has been
determined though many emissions investigations
[22]. Multiple certification and assessment pro-
grams have been initiated to aid in the selection
of low-emitting, safer materials, such as Perkin+-
Wills Transparency Program (http://transparency.
perkinswill.com), the Living Future Institute Red
List (https://living-future.org/declare/declare-
about/red-list/), the Pharos Project (https://www.
pharosproject.net), Google Healthy Materials
Selection Criteria (https://support.google.com/
healthymaterials/answer/6106737?hl=en), and
the Health Products Declaration Collaborative
(http://hpdcollaborative.org/endors).
Another strategy available for reducing expo-
sures to airborne contaminants is source control of
indoor equipment and activities. Office machines,
stoves, and other appliances that are known to be
active pollutant generators benefit from the use of
local source control via the installation of dedi-
cated exhaust fans. The use of local source control
systems needs to be part of the design process and
the location of the areas needing dedicated venti-
lation and exhausts needs to be defined early in the
design process. The use of well-maintained air
cleaners is another strategy that may be appropri-
ate to selected areas and types of facilities, such as
in hospitals.
Ventilation systems are the primary method to
dilute and transport airborne contaminants out of
the building. Both mechanical and natural venti-
lation, as well as mixed-mode systems, if
employed, must be designed to provide sufficient
pollutant dilution and transport out of the
building.
Ventilation System Design/
Environmental Control
The ventilation system is the primary means of
diluting and exhausting contaminants. The place-
ment and design of the ventilation system is crit-
ical to the quality of the indoor environment.
Superior ventilation has been shown to improve
learning, productivity, satisfaction, and health. At
the same time the ventilation system can transport
unwanted outdoor pollutants indoors, transfer
indoor pollutants from one space to another, or
transport infections [23].
Evidence-Based Design for Indoor Environmental Quality and Health
Occupants are also a source of pollutants in
buildings including both CO2 and other organic
contaminants emanating directly from occupants.
These human emissions have been target pollut-
ants for removal by the ventilation system since
early versions of the ASHRAE 62 Standard Ven-
tilation for Acceptable Air Quality [24]. Recent
studies are demonstrating that CO2 and other
bioeffluents impact occupant perception of IAQ
and performance/productivity. Satish et al. [25]
found statistically significant decrements
occurred in six of nine scales of decision-making
performance of subjects exposed relative to
increases from 600 ppm to 1000 ppm CO2 in
environmental chamber studies. Additionally,
they found that at 2500 ppm of CO2 even larger
statistically significant decrements occurred in
seven decision-making performance tests. Allen
et al. [26] identified similar findings for VOC
concentrations relative to ventilation rates, expos-
ing 24 occupants to three conditions: (1) conven-
tional: 500 ug/m3 VOCs and 20 cfm/person of
outdoor air; (2) Green: VOC levels reduced to
50 ug/m3 and 20 cfm/person of outdoor air; and
(3) Green Plus+: 50 ug/m3 and increased ventila-
tion at 40 cfm/person of outdoor air. The occu-
pants were given a cognitive function test using
the Strategic Management Software Executive
Decision Tool to determine performance under
the three ventilation strategy scenarios. The
researchers found a 61% higher performance in
cognitive function under the Green condition and
a 101% higher performance in cognitive function
under the condition Green Plus condition+. CO2
levels also were artificially raised by the
researchers in parallel testing. The results of this
study demonstrated that CO2, VOCs, and ventila-
tion rate had significant, independent impacts on
cognitive function.
Maula et al. [27] investigated ventilation rate
on work performance, perceived air quality, and
health symptoms by using CO2 levels as an indi-
cator of bioeffluents. Thirty-six occupants in an
open-office layout were exposed to two different
ventilation scenarios: (1) outdoor air flow rate of
28.3 L/s with CO2 level of 540 ppm and (2) out-
door air flow rate of 2.3 L/s with CO2 level of
2260 ppm for 4 h in each scenario. Performance
661
was measured via seven different tasks measuring
different cognitive processes. Scenario 2 with the
lower ventilation rate and the higher CO2 level
had a weak negative effect on performance on
informational retrieval tasks, slightly increased
subjective workload and perceived fatigue, and
no effects on health symptoms. This ventilation
condition did affect the perceived IAQ and
observed odor intensity only at the beginning of
the exposure session. Although the room temper-
ature was controlled during both scenarios, the
heat in the room was perceived to impair perfor-
mance more in Condition 2. Maula et al.’s find-
ings showed a much smaller impact by CO2 and
ventilation rates on cognitive performance than
those of Allen et al.
Maddalena et al. [27] also demonstrated that
subjects exposed to bioeffluents and 1800 ppm
CO2 for 4 h experienced a significant decrease in
their decision-making performance in comparison
to 900 ppm CO2 and bioeffluents exposure. How-
ever, there was no difference between the two
exposure scenarios in occupant perception of
IAQ. Zhang et al. [28] investigated the impact of
1000 ppm and 3000 ppm of added CO2 and
chamber ventilation rates high enough to remove
bioeffluents and human-generated CO2 down to
500 ppm on perceived air quality, self-reported
acute health symptoms, and cognitive perfor-
mance. Exposures to bioeffluents and 3000 ppm
CO2 reduced perceived air quality; increased
headache intensity, fatigue, sleepiness; and
reduced speed of addition, the response time in a
redirection task, and the number of correct links
made in a cue-utilization tests. The results of
Zhang et al. indicate that moderate bioeffluents
levels rather than pure CO2 are causing the dele-
terious effects on occupants in the indoor
environment.
These results indicate that bioeffluents and
CO2 should be considered a pollutant and not
just a surrogate marker of insufficient outdoor
ventilation, due to their impacts on health and
performance in all types of buildings. While this
is a topic of ongoing research and discussion, the
EBD lessons are to optimize ventilation rates to
remove occupant generated bioeffluents and to
treat the building as an interactive, holistic system.
662 Evidence-Based Design for Indoor Environmental Quality and Health
Occupants are a major impact factor on a build-
ing’s IAQ in addition to material selection and
ventilation system design and operation. This
interactive, holistic viewpoint is one of the
strengths of EBD design.
Numerous studies show health, productivity,
and learning improvements with higher ventilation
rates; however, this must also be balanced with
sustainable design for greater energy efficiency
by using innovative ventilation systems and max-
imizing ventilation efficiency. Haverinen-
Shaughnessy et al. [29] found a linear association
between classroom ventilation rates within the
range of 0.9–7.1 L/s/person and students’ aca-
demic achievement. In this study of fifth graders,
it was determined that for every unit (1 L/s/person)
increase in the ventilation rate, the proportion of
students passing standardized tests increased by
2.9% for math and 2.7% for reading. Studies have
shown that occupants in buildings or spaces with
higher ventilation rates on average have fewer
communicable respiratory illnesses, lower asthma
rates, and fewer absences from work or school
[30–32]. The European Multidisciplinary Scien-
tific Consensus Meeting (EUROVEN) [32] found
that ventilation is strongly associated with per-
ceived air quality and health (sick building syn-
drome symptoms, inflammation, infections,
asthma, allergy, short-term sick leave) and that
there is an association between ventilation and
productivity in offices. The EUROVEN group
also concluded that outdoor air supply rates
below 25 L/s/person increases the risk of sick
building syndrome symptoms and short-term sick
leave, and decreased productivity in an office
building. Additionally, improper maintenance,
design, and functioning air-conditioning systems
contribute to increased prevalence of sick building
syndrome symptoms.
In most buildings, the ventilation system is
linked to the thermal conditioning (temperature
control) system. Combined thermal comfort and
ventilation systems may inadvertently compro-
mise ventilation adversely impacting IEQ, health,
and occupant satisfaction. If a decision needs to be
made between thermal comfort and ventilation
response, EBD reveals that the lack of tempera-
ture control is a primary stressor in the indoor
environment, impacting productivity, learning,
mood, and overall health [33]. On the other
hand, cooler summer temperatures when com-
bined with increased ventilation rates tend to
increase productivity and student performance.
Wargocki and Wyon found that lowering the

classroom temperature approximately 5 C
improved elementary school student’s perfor-
mance on two numerical tasks and two
language-based tasks [34, 35]. The children also
reported lower incidence of headaches. When the
classroom effective outdoor air supply rate was
raised from 11 cfm/person (5 L/s) to 20 cfm/per-
son (10 L/s), the students’ performance was
improved on four numerical tasks by improving
the task performance speed. The children also
reported feeling that the air felt fresher with the
lower ambient temperatures, even without
increases in ventilation rate. Similar results on
the relationship of cooler temperatures and
increased ventilation on productivity have been
reported in adult work situations [36–39]. As a
result, EBD reveals the importance of separating
the ventilation system from the thermal condition-
ing system and providing the ability for occupants
to individually control the ambient temperature.
The research clearly demonstrates significant
benefits to increased levels of ventilation above
10 L/s per person of outdoor air supply in build-
ings, and increased thermal control for optimized
health, productivity, learning, and reduced stress.
To meet sustainable design practices meeting the
goal of energy efficiency and reduced operating
costs, innovative ventilation strategies and systems
should include separating thermal and ventilation
delivery, natural ventilation and mixed mode or
hybrid HVAC systems that support economizer
cycles, heat recovery, and individual control.
Lighting/Daylighting/Access to Views
Quality lighting and daylighting has a positive
impact on humans, improving accuracy of work
performance, reducing stress and fatigue, and
improving patient outcomes [40]. Loftness et al.
[16] found that improved lighting quality design
decisions are linked with 0.7–23% gains in
Evidence-Based Design for Indoor Environmental Quality and Health
individual productivity through the provision of
indirect–direct lighting systems, higher quality
fixtures and lamps, and effective daylighting.
When daylight responsive dimming was
employed, energy savings of 27–87% were also
realized.
Access to the natural environment is associated
with individual health and productivity. Access to
windows and views, daylight, natural and mixed-
mode ventilation systems, and direct accessibility
to landscaped indoor and outdoor spaces has been
shown to result in 3–18% increases in individual
productivity in workplaces [16].
Evidence from school lighting research indicates
that improved school lighting can enhance both
visual (healthy vision) and nonvisual (achievement
outcomes). Lighting conditions in classrooms have
important nonvisual effects on students including
raising test scores and faster response times [40,
41]. Hwang and Kim [42] investigated the effects
of daylighting on occupants’ visual comfort and eye
health in the Korean Samsung Corporation head-
quarters over a 11-year period. Their findings
showed that optimizing daylighting could improve
psychological health and productivity.
Exposure to sunlight and daylighting has been
shown to reduce the length of hospitals stays.
Choi et al. [42] investigated the relationship of
daylighting and views to hospital stay length in a
Korean hospital, identifying that patients in
brighter SE rooms of the hospital had faster recov-
ery rates reflected in shorter hospital stays (Fig. 2),
especially higher illuminance in the morning to
accelerate recovery. Additionally, they found
among the other critical factors influencing recov-
ery acceleration was IAQ.
These studies emphasize the importance of
daylighting and views for occupant health and
performance, an important EBD parameter to
include in new and existing buildings.
Acoustics/Noise Control
Acoustics is an area of continued dissatisfaction
[11]. In several green building projects, the open
plan design, large areas of glass, hard-surface
materials and furnishings, and natural ventilation
663
strategies have led to ongoing concerns with acous-
tic conditions. Building acoustical problems are
generally classified in three categories: excessive
noise, lack of speech privacy, and lack of speech
clarity. Excessive noise is usually the result of high
background noise emanating from outdoor noise
sources that are transmitted to the indoor environ-
ment, as well as noise from other rooms, building
equipment, and/or noise from other occupants.
Acoustical design strategies need to control noise
levels at the source, reduce sound transmission
pathways, and employ sound isolation techniques.
Speech privacy is the extent to which speech is
unintelligible to an unintended listener. In those
open office plan environments where the back-
ground noise is very low, the lack of speech privacy
may be a significant stressor. Design strategies to
help improve speech privacy include possible
reconsideration of the open office plan, designing
private areas adjacent to the open office area for use
in private situations as needed, or increasing back-
ground noise. A lack of speech clarity occurs when
the acoustics or a room design deteriorates the
acoustical communication channel, rendering
speech to the intended listener unintelligible, cre-
ating communication problems. This is particularly
an issue in school classrooms and conference
rooms. The problem may be caused by excessive
background noise or excessive reverberation.
Evidence-based solutions to improving acoustics
while maintaining sustainable design strategies
include the use of acoustically absorbing materials,
such as ceiling absorbers, acoustical ceiling tiles or
wall- mounted panels.
Operation and Maintenance
A critical area for long-term building sustainabil-
ity and occupant health is designing for maintain-
ability. Not only should life-cycle costing include
the maintenance and operating costs over the
facilities lifetime, EBD feedback should be aggre-
gated on the long-term integrity and maintainabil-
ity of the materials, components, or systems.
Metrics should be defined during the design pro-
cess for the ability to maintain the facility to meet
664 Evidence-Based Design for Indoor Environmental Quality and Health

Evidence-Based Design for Indoor Environmental Quality and Health, Fig. 2 Comparison of length of hospital
stays between SE hospital section with higher daylight levels and the NW hospital section with lower daylight levels [42]

health and client economic performance needs.
These metrics, at a minimum, should include:
• Labor hours per year that will be required to
maintain each integral part of the facility, such
as the HVAC system(s), the electrical system,
lighting, windows, skylights, floors, and
furnishings
• Frequency, extensiveness, and difficulty to per-
form required cleaning (including avoided
toxicity)
• Cost of cleaning and replacement materials
• Equipment and furnishings life expectancies
• Training costs in labor hours and dollars for
maintenance staff and occupants/building users
Magee [43] defined the specific maintenance
objectives of most facilities as follows:
• Perform necessary daily housekeeping and
cleaning to maintain intended performance
• Promptly respond and repair minor
discrepancies
• Develop and execute a system of regularly
scheduled maintenance actions to prevent pre-
mature failure of the facility, its systems,
and/or components
• Complete major repairs based on lowest life-
cycle costs
• Identify and complete improvement projects to
reduce and minimize total operating and main-
tenance costs without increasing indoor
toxicity
• Operate the facility utilities in the most eco-
nomical manner that achieves reliability and
optimum functioning, while minimizing or
eliminating indoor toxicity
• Provide for easy and complete reporting and
identification of necessary repair and mainte-
nance work
• Perform accurate cost estimating to ensure
lowest cost and most effective solutions
Evidence-Based Design for Indoor Environmental Quality and Health 665

CO2 Fingerprint School J 12/98 - 3/99

3500

3000
After filter change
CO2 Concentration

2500
Christmas
2000 Break

1500

1000

500

0
1
151
301
451
601
751
901
1051
1201
1351
1501
1651
1801
1951
2101
2251
2401
2551
2701
2851
3001
3151
3301
3451
3601
3751
3901
4051
4201
4351
4501
4651
4801
4951
Hour of Sampling

Evidence-Based Design for Indoor Environmental Quality and Health, Fig. 3 CO2 levels demonstrate the
importance of particulate filter maintenance for effective ventilation in an occupied classroom

• Maintain a proper level of materials and spare
parts to minimize downtime
• Actively track all costs of maintenance work
• Schedule all planned work in advance allocat-
ing and anticipating staff requirements to meet
planned and unplanned events
• Monitor progress of all maintenance work
• Maintain complete historical data concerning
the facility in general and equipment and com-
ponents in particular
• Continually seek workable engineering solu-
tions to maintenance problems
Maintenance has a considerable impact on a
building’s performance and upon occupants’
health and satisfaction. Maintenance-related prob-
lems over a building’s lifetime can be minimized
by making appropriate design decisions early in
the process.
For example, maintainability is a critical mea-
sure for the performance for all ventilation sys-
tems, including innovative high-performance
ventilation systems, and may have a significant
impact on the health of the building occupants. In
a study conducted by Bayer et al. [44] on the
benefits of active humidity control and continuous
ventilation at a minimum level of at least 15 cfm/
person in schools using high-efficiency total
energy heat recovery desiccant cooling ventilation
system, the importance of system particulate filter
maintenance was clearly demonstrated. As can be
seen in Fig. 3, the carbon dioxide (CO2) concen-
trations in the classroom exceeded 2000 ppm dur-
ing occupied times prior to replacement of the
particulate filter in the system. Once the filter
was changed, the CO2 levels dropped to approx-
imately 800–1000 ppm during occupied periods
of the classroom, also reducing the impedance to
outside air delivery. This result clearly demon-
strates the necessity of system maintenance for
effective ventilation even when a high-efficiency
ventilation system is employed. In this school,
filter replacement was inadequate due to difficulty
in accessing the filter for replacement, a design
and maintenance flaw.
Maintaining the cleanliness of the ventilation
filters has also been found to impact productivity
and learning in office buildings and schools. In a
study on the performance and subjective
responses of call-center operators, Wargocki
et al. [45] found that replacing a used filter with
a clean filter reduced operator talk time by about
10% at an outdoor air supply rate of approxi-
mately 34.4 L/s. No effect was noted when the
filter was replaced and the outdoor air supply rate
was only 10 L/s. Additionally, the operators
666 Evidence-Based Design for Indoor Environmental Quality and Health
reported a decrease in sick building syndrome
symptoms with both the clean filters and the
increased ventilation rates.
These investigations clearly demonstrate the
importance of filter change-outs and ventilation
system maintenance for IEQ, health, and produc-
tivity. The systems need to be designed for easy
performance of ventilation system maintenance
tasks.
Arditi and Nawakorawit [46] surveyed 211 of
the largest US building design firms to investigate
the relationship between design practices and
maintenance considerations. The study examined:
the extent to which maintenance issues are con-
sidered when designers specify building materials
and service equipment; the level of designers’
knowledge in maintenance-related issues; the
degree to which design personnel are exposed to
training in maintenance-related matters; the extent
to which designers consult property managers and
maintenance consultants; the relative importance
of maintenance issues to other design factors; the
level of difficulty in cleaning, inspecting,
repairing, and replacing various building compo-
nents; and the magnitude and frequency of
maintenance-related complaints that designers
receive from clients and tenants. Their findings
indicate that maintenance considerations follow
cost and aesthetics issues when designers specify
building materials, but maintenance consider-
ations constitute the number one issue when spec-
ifying service equipment. For most firms, the
mechanical system was the most important con-
sideration regarding difficulty of cleaning, inspec-
tion, repair, and replacement from both the
designers and the property managers.
Design for maintainability is an area where
EBD demands increased collaboration among all
the interested parties throughout the entire design
process. EBD maintenance planning and design
will enhance the lifelong performance of the
building. Polled designers rank the least import
design factor for them to include in their designs
as being the ease of repair and replacement, access
to cleaning area, and ease of cleaning of building
mechanical systems, thus resulting in many build-
ing mechanical systems being very difficult to
properly maintain. However, these polled
designers also reported that the primary complaint
they receive from clients and tenants concerned
issues of ease of repair, access to cleaning area,
and ease of cleaning of the mechanical systems in
their buildings. Property managers also reported
frequently receiving similar complaints. These
design firms considered themselves to be knowl-
edgeable in maintenance issues and design and
stated that they consulted property managers and
maintenance consultants during the designing of
selected projects, primarily in the schematic and
preliminary design phases. Therefore, designers
employing EBD practices must include ease of
building systems maintenance in their designs.
Human Factor Impacts of Sustainable
Design Strategies
Post-occupancy evaluations (POE) are a useful
tool that is being applied with increasing fre-
quency to discern occupant satisfaction in build-
ings and areas needing improvement [47
48]. POEs are particularly well-suited for use in
existing buildings prior and after major renova-
tions. Both LEED 2009 and LEED v4 (https://
www.usgbc.org/leed) require POEs in assessing
IEQ performance for existing buildings. While
POEs typically stop short of measured environ-
mental performance, or collecting indices of
health and productivity, they are an important
tool for EBD design and facilities operation and
maintenance since they provide critical data from
the users.
Many sustainable design strategies reduce the
use of walls and partitions – with more open space
planning – to reduce material use, enhance views
and daylight, and increase ventilation airflow, par-
ticularly when natural and hybrid ventilation strat-
egies are used. Although this may increase
satisfaction with daylight and access to views, it
may also increase dissatisfaction with noise, pri-
vacy, and the ability to concentrate [49]. This
situation was encountered in the LEED Platinum
certified Philip Merrill Environmental Center in
Annapolis, MD [50]. This facility placed the
entire workforce into an open plan setting with
low partitions for almost all employees, regardless
of status in the company, including the president
and the key executives (Fig. 4). While the
Evidence-Based Design for Indoor Environmental Quality and Health
Evidence-Based Design for Indoor Environmental
Quality and Health, Fig. 4 Open floor plan at Philip
Merrill Environmental Center (Picture available at http://
www.cbf.org/Page.aspx?pid=445)
occupants rated the views, daylighting, and com-
munication highly, the primary complaints that
remain are lack of privacy, noise, distractions,
and interference with work concentration.
Post-occupancy evaluation and evidence-based
design is an effective strategy for determining the
potential effectiveness of open space planning in
other types of buildings and task situations [51, 52]
such as an elementary school in Atlanta, GA, with
multiple learning layouts. For the early years,
workgroups were organized in pods, using four-
foot high partitions between pods rather than floor-
to-ceiling walls, in order to increase interaction
between classes. The partition heights increase as
the grade level increases until in fifth grade (Fig. 5),
the traditional classroom style is used.
Staff interviews expressed mixed responses to
the open designs. While noise between class-
rooms is a problem, there was satisfaction with
the feeling of community between the grade levels
[53]. Further study is needed on the potential
interference with student concentration in the
open floor plans, since the lower partitions in the
lower grade levels is the converse of what is
needed for optimum acoustical performance for
learning. Younger children in K-2 grades require a
higher signal-to-noise ratio (clearer voices in a
quieter environment) since they need to be able
to carefully listen to develop the ability to discrim-
inate among minor differences in words, which is
extremely difficult in noisy environments [54].
667
Evidence-Based Design for Indoor Environmental
Quality and Health, Fig. 5 Open classroom style at
Atlanta, GA, elementary school
The Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture
has applied EBD practices to office building design
focusing on (1) air quality, (2) thermal comfort,
(3) spatial comfort, (4) collaborative or team
space, (5) visual comfort, (6) workstation comfort,
(7) lighting quality, (8) noise control, and (9) secu-
rity. In their before and after office building study
[55] conducted via post-occupancy questionnaires,
it was found that the office design features that
support security, wayfinding, and feeling part of a
cohesive organization created increased satisfac-
tion and “workability” (considered to be neuro-
environmental factors) among the employees over
their previous office space. This was hypothesized
to result in reducing stress, improving attention,
focus, and mood. The office space design features
included: a centralized three-story open stairway
connecting the three office floors, providing a nat-
urally mapped sense of place; a “public square”
housing centralized communications and meeting
areas; a main entry area and centralized lunchroom;
as well as easy wayfinding through directional
signage and porcelain tile paving.
Application to Healthcare Facilities
Hospitals are embracing evidence-based health-
care design for the promotion of therapeutic, sup-
portive, and efficient environments. EBD is
undertaken to develop appropriate solutions to
design problems and unique situations to improve
668 Evidence-Based Design for Indoor Environmental Quality and Health
the organization’s clinical outcomes, economic
performance, efficiency, and customer satisfac-
tion. EBD helps to provide solutions to the
healthcare challenges of cost control, financial
stability, avoidance of harm, quality improve-
ments, sustainability, staff retention, and improved
patient experience. The EBD approach should
embrace “health-as-a-continuum” with a patient-
centric focus rather than a disease-centric focus.
[Perkins+Will Research Journal, vol 09.01, http://
perkinswill.com/sites/default/files/3_PWRJ_Vol0
901_02_Patient-Population%20Based%20Design.
pdf] pursuing a needs assessment matrix. The
matrix provides a design guide toward fostering
wellness but examining how the design can best
support patients with a particular element. For
example, whole hospitals or specific floors to spe-
cific ailments, such as joint replacement care and
recovery or brain care. EBD design needs to sup-
port the physical/mental/social triad of recovery
for the patient, the family, and the caregivers.
Ulrich et al. [56] reviewed the research litera-
ture on EBD healthcare design. Their overall find-
ings indicated the importance of improving
patient outcomes through a range of design char-
acteristics including single-bed rooms, effective
ventilation systems, good acoustical environ-
ments, increased views of nature, improved day-
lighting and interior lighting, better ergonomic
design, acuity-adaptable rooms, and improved
floor layouts and work settings. Significant posi-
tive gains were found in several studies by opti-
mization of environmental measures through the
design process.
Andrade and Devlin [57] studied the applica-
tion of Ulrich’s theory on stress reduction. They
applied the Ulrich theory [57] on supportive
design for healthcare physical-social environ-
ments to foster: (1) perceptions of control over
physical-social environments (PC), (2) social sup-
port (SS), and (3) positive distractions (PD) –
testing whether improved design of an in-patient
room will have stress-reducing effects. Subjects
(total group size of 217) evaluated designs for
hospital rooms employing each of the three design
features singly and in combinations. Stress testing
was performed using a commonly used anxiety
test, the State Anxiety Inventory. Their findings
showed participants displayed less stress when all
three design features or the combination of PD
and SS were incorporated. PC had no statistically
significant impact singly or in combination with
PD only or SS only. Their results confirmed the
positive impact that Ulrich’s EBD principles will
have on hospital patients and staff.
EBD can help reduce hospital-acquired infec-
tions through better control of the three most
significant vehicles for transmission: air, contact,
and water. The most important design measures
for infection controls are: (1) deploying effective
air quality control measures during construction
and renovation, including using high-efficiency
particulate air filters (HEPA) filtration and
installing barriers isolating construction areas
from occupied areas (minimizing airborne trans-
mission); (2) installing and using alcohol-based
hand rub dispensers at the bedside and other
accessible locations (minimizing contact trans-
mission); (3) specifying easy to clean floor, wall,
and furniture coverings (minimizing contact
transmission); maintaining water systems at
proper temperatures with adequate pressure to
minimize stagnation and backflow (minimizing
waterborne transmission); and (5) providing
single-bed rooms with private toilets for better
patient isolation (minimizing airborne and contact
transmission).
Medical errors may be reduced through control
of several environmental factors including noise,
light, and acuity-adaptable single-patient rooms.
Both unacceptable background noise and episodic
interruptions are responsible for loss of concen-
tration, slower learning, and poor memorization.
Reduction in ambient noise levels has been shown
to improve patient sleep, speed wound healing,
and reduce patient stress [58, 61]. EBD strategies
that are applicable to noise control in hospitals
include single-patient rooms, use of high-
performance sound absorbing materials
(although these must be easily cleanable), reduced
noise from carts in the hallways, and noiseless
paging systems.
Acuity-adaptable rooms have also been shown
to improve patient outcomes through: adequate
square footage in the room to accommodate sev-
eral clinical activities without moving the patient;
Evidence-Based Design for Indoor Environmental Quality and Health
Evidence-Based Design for Indoor Environmental
Quality and Health, Fig. 6 Effectively designed hospi-
tal room
well-defined zones for patient care activities; stra-
tegic placement of handwashing sinks and hand
sanitizer dispensers; convenient access to medical
supplies; headwalls designed with adequate criti-
cal care services; maximum patient visibility; and
patient lifts to ease strain on staff. Another desir-
able feature is a family zone so that a visitor can
stay with the patient comfortably [62] (Fig. 6).
Lighting levels impact task performance, which
in a hospital may result in transcription errors
[63]. Better lighting and daylighting design may
result in improved patient outcomes, staff satisfac-
tion, safety, and decreased operational costs
[64]. In addition, EBD studies are showing that
patient pain levels and length of hospital stays
can be reduced by exposure to nature and to higher
levels of daylight [65, 66]. Walch et al. [67] found
that spinal surgery patients in bright daylight lit
rooms required 22% less opioid-equivalent analge-
sic medications than those in rooms without the
bright daylight. Beauchemin and Hays [68] found
that myocardial infarction patients in bright day-
light lit rooms had shorter hospital stays by at least
a day. Ulrich [69] showed that surgery patients with
views of nature had reduced hospital stays and
used lower levels of pain medicine. EBD reveals
that providing patients with high levels of daylight
and views of nature (pictures of nature if access to
actual outdoor views are not possible) offers an
opportunity to reduce patient pain medicine use
and length of hospital stays, improving overall
patient outcomes.
669
EBD has led to improvements in staff
workspace design as well as in patient care. EBD
reveals that staff workspace needs to be designed
with closer alignment to work patterns to improve
staff satisfaction, productivity, and reduce stress,
which in turn will improve patient outcomes
[69]. Potential design features may include
decentralized nursing stations, more efficient lay-
outs that allow staff interaction with patients and
family members, and decentralized hospital sup-
ply locations. Early EBD studies also reveal that
the location of family members near the patients
may also improve patient outcomes and reduce
hospital length of stay [70].
Economic Performance
Salaries and worker benefits generally exceed
energy costs by a factor of 100 [71]. Healthy,
high-performance sustainable buildings that are
based on EBD principles have a strong potential
to have positive economic performance, if the
EBD design principles meet the organizational
and health needs of the users as well as sustainable
design principles. Therefore, a significant poten-
tial exists for businesses and building owners to
employ EBD principles to improve worker per-
formance and health, reduce health insurance
costs and absenteeism. Heerwagen [72] examined
the range of benefits of green building features
and attributes in buildings, including:
• Green buildings are relevant to business inter-
ests across the full spectrum of concerns, from
portfolio issues to enhanced quality of individ-
ual workspaces.
• Outcomes of interest that research should
address include workforce attraction and reten-
tion, quality of work life, work output, and
customer relationships.
• Green buildings can provide both cost reduc-
tion benefits and value added benefits.
• The benefits are most likely to occur when the
building and organization are treated as an
integrated system from the initiation of the
design process, as in evidence-based design
approaches.
670 Evidence-Based Design for Indoor Environmental Quality and Health
The Carnegie Mellon Center for Building Per-
formance and Diagnostics (CBPD) and the
Advanced Building Systems Integration Consor-
tium have developed a decision support tool (The
Building Investment Decision Support Tool –
BIDS) to enable building decision makers to calcu-
late returns on investments in high-performance
building systems and to advance the understanding
of the relationship between land use and buildings
and health [73]. BIDS is based on a collection of
building case studies as well as laboratory and sim-
ulation study results to statistically link the quality of
buildings to “soft” and hard life-cycle costs to cal-
culate return on investment. The true cost of busi-
ness should include the full set of business and
building-related costs in dollars per person per
year, including salaries and health benefits, techno-
logical and spatial turnover, rent, energy, and main-
tenance costs, as shown for the USA in Fig. 7.
Using statistics from the Bureau of Labor Sta-
tistics, the CBPD [73] calculated that the average
employer health insurance cost was approximately
$5000 per employee per year in 2003. The CBPD
went on and linked the cost of several specific
Evidence-Based Design for Indoor Environmental Quality and Health, Fig. 7 The true cost of least-cost buildings
in the USA (US baselines from CMU BIDS) [50]
health conditions and illnesses to IEQ (colds, head-
aches, respiratory illnesses, musculoskeletal disor-
ders, and back pain) related to $750 of the $5000
annual costs per employee – 14% of all annual
health insurance expenditures. These direct costs
would be compounded by the indirect costs of lost
productivity. The development of this data base of
research linking quality built environments to out-
comes provides the foundations to demonstrate the
triple bottom line financial benefits of using EBD
to design better building environments.
Fisk and Seppanen [74] demonstrated a
benefit-cost ratio as high as 80 and an annual
economic benefit as high as $700 per person
when measures are taken to improve indoor tem-
perature control and increased ventilation rates.
Based on a review of the existing literature of
the health linkages between temperature control
and increased ventilation rates, Table 1 shows the
estimated nationwide health and productivity
gains to influence national policy.
On the cost side of the equation, MacNaughton
et al. [75] calculated that doubling the ventilation
rate to 40 cfm/person cost less than $40/person/
Evidence-Based Design for Indoor Environmental Quality and Health 671

Evidence-Based Design for Indoor Environmental Quality and Health, Table 1 Estimated potential productivity
gains [58]
Potential US annual savings
or productivity gain (1996
Source of productivity gain Potential annual health benefits US $)
Reduced respiratory illness 16–37 million avoided cases of common $6–14 billion
cold or influenza
Reduced allergies and asthma 8–25% decrease in symptoms within $1–4 billion
53 million allergy sufferers and 16 million
asthmatics
Reduced sick building syndrome Health symptoms experienced frequently at $10–30 billion
symptoms work by ~15 million workers
Improved worker performance from Not applicable $20–160 billion
changes in thermal environment and
lighting
[74]
Zadeh et al. [75] assessed EBD value-based decision making on healthcare design developing a communication language
on specific interventions to be used in addition to discussions on EBD planning, design and construction, and operation
and maintenance practices to include life-cycle costs and EBD-intervention savings. Their findings indicated that the long-
term economic benefits of EBD interventions substantially outweighed the intervention costs. Among the implications for
practice from this study is the potential to improve the obtaining of capital investments in applying EBD to healthcare
design more frequently

year in all climate zones, and adding a more
advanced ventilation system such as an energy
recovery ventilation system (ERV) reduced oper-
ational energy costs. The same increase in the
ventilation rate improved the workers’ perfor-
mance by 8%, equivalent to a $6500 increase in
employee productivity per year. Additionally,
reduced absenteeism and improved health from
enhanced ventilation far exceeded the per-person
energy costs.
Schools
The in-depth studies to support EBD in healthcare
settings are readily adaptable to other types of
facilities, particularly K-12 schools, including
methods for infection control, better lighting,
access to views and day-lighting, improved
acoustical performance, interior workspace lay-
outs, and community design. The application of
EBD in conjunction with sustainable design
should result in optimal facilities for learning,
healthcare, and work with maximum emphasis
on human and ecological health as well as eco-
nomic performance. Edwards investigated if
“green” schools provide teaching and learning
benefits beyond those in conventional schools,
and what aspects of classroom design appear to
be most critical in improving enhanced educa-
tional performance [75]. Green schools were
defined as being resource efficient particularly in
terms of energy use; healthy, both physically and
psychologically; comfortable, responsive, and
flexible; and based on ecological principles. In
the study of 54 schools built between 1975 and
1995, it was demonstrated that there is relation-
ship between design, energy conservation, and
educational performance. Overall the study dem-
onstrated that green schools resulted in enhanced
student performance and greater teacher satisfac-
tion, with the greatest impact on elementary
schools. Absenteeism was reduced in the green
schools. The student performance improvement
appeared to be particularly related to the level of
daylight in the classroom, but also the level of
ventilation, the temperature control, and noise
level controls.
Elzeyadi [76] conducted a study to develop a
Green Classroom Toolbox for retrofitting existing
educational spaces with EBD. The guidelines are
based on carbon neutrality metrics and student
achievement metrics, developed from a meta-
analysis of reported studies and energy modeling
672 Evidence-Based Design for Indoor Environmental Quality and Health
simulations. The guidelines center on best prac-
tices that increase productivity, comfort, and
health of students in retrofitted classrooms; facil-
itate integrated design and cooperation between
designers; reduce environmental impacts and
move toward carbon neutrality environments in
schools; and are a model for future replication and
dissemination. The strategic categories relevant to
building professionals are based on the USGBC
LEED criteria (1) energy and atmosphere
(envelope, lighting, HVAC, and ventilation);
(2) materials and resources (site construction,
structural, and nonstructural); (3) environmental
quality (IAQ, comfort, and acoustics); (4) sustain-
able sites (density, light pollution, and transporta-
tion); and (5) water and waste (building fixtures,
landscaping, and recycling). Elzeyadi used a
framework that treated the students and the school
environment as interdependent elements of a sys-
tem. The system is comprised of “people” and
“buildings” on the macro-scale and “buildings”
and “environment” on the mega-scale. This study
resulted in three primary decision support tools of
evidence-based guidelines to help architects,
school designers, and school/school system staff
to make informed decisions for implementing
green retrofit measures in classrooms. The first
tool is a check list of best practices compiled
from focus groups and interviews of affected and
interested parties. The second tool is a prioritiza-
tion guide that provides a comparative analysis
and ranking of the best practices based on their
impacts on building energy consumption and car-
bon emissions. The third tool is a meta-analysis
guide that links the best practices to their impact
on student and staff health and performance in
schools. All the tools were based on the specific
climates and school typologies of the Pacific
Northwest in the USA. The primary reason
found for adoption of the best practices in schools
was energy conservation followed by providing
improved IEQ and connections to nature, reflected
in energy and atmosphere, IEQ, and materials and
resources gains. Based on the meta-analyses,
Elzeyadi identified that better IAQ could posi-
tively impact occupants’ performance 5–20%;
improved temperature control could improve stu-
dent performance in the range of 3–10%; and
access to views and daylighting improved student
performance in the range of 5–20%. This study
emphasizes the power of evidence-based design
interaction between the designers and the users,
studying best practices and strategies in other
successful facilities, and implementing the prac-
tices expected to have the most positive impact
based on stakeholders needs.
Future Directions
EBD has a tremendous potential to set a new para-
digm for designing healthy, sustainable buildings,
by gathering field data and including the building
managers and occupants as a central player in the
resolution of ecological and human health. The
application of EBD principles results in a long-
term positive economic outcome based on value-
decision making for improvement of occupant
health and productivity and sustainable design.
EBD data demonstrates important shifts for the
building design and management community. For
example, the need for increased ventilation rates
significantly above those currently being used in
the majority of buildings demands the development
and implementation of innovative solutions that
simultaneously meet reduced energy usage and
cost. These innovations include systems that sepa-
rate ventilation and thermal conditioning and new
HVAC system types, such as underfloor air distri-
bution and chilled beams. These also include
improvements in system maintenance, such as the
application of the ASHRAE Indoor Air Quality
Procedure (IAQP) employing gaseous phase filtra-
tion to aid in air cleaning so that the ventilation level
can be reduced. Ongoing research in more effective
technologies and systems management is critical.
Future research must also include the develop-
ment of protocols and metrics to accurately and
realistically measure improvements in occupant
health and productivity/learning, operational
effectiveness over time, and environmental sus-
tainability. These metrics must consider the entire
system in the occupied setting and not just a single
unit of the system providing the necessary param-
eters for effective evidence-based design in a wide
range of buildings.
Evidence-Based Design for Indoor Environmental Quality and Health
In the future, disparities between sustainable
design practices and EBD will need to be
resolved. Many practices are fully concurrent,
but there are still areas where there is conflict,
such as lack of acoustical satisfaction in open
office planning and the potential energy costs of
higher rates of ventilation for improved health and
productivity/learning.
The current and future use of EBD needs to
incorporate climate change impact on buildings
among its assessment parameters [77]. Climate
change is putting extreme conditions on buildings
that must be addressed, particularly since the aver-
age building life is 99 years. Climate change with
increased ambient temperatures for more months
of the year increases the need for mechanical
ventilation cooling over longer time periods as
well as different extreme impacts on building
materials and furnishings. The increased use of
ventilation systems may impact greenhouse gas
emissions from buildings. These extremes in tem-
perature may increase emissions from building
materials increasing exposure levels. This will
require greater attention to low-emitting materials
usage. Extremes of moisture, either excessively
damp or dry, are occurring, which has the poten-
tial to over dry building materials or increase the
potential for mold in indoor environments. Atmo-
spheric pollutant exposures may increase, such as
ozone levels, which may increase ongoing reac-
tionary chemistry in buildings [78].
EBD takes the first step in rigorous research in
occupied buildings by actively engaging in feed-
back through occupant questionnaires and out-
come measurements, and pursuing
multiconfiguration studies (in the form of layout
or building system variations) or multibuilding
studies for comparative evaluation by end users.
The lack of consistent feedback from building
occupants and managers in the building design
community has led for far too long to anecdotal
design decision making, either in the form of
untested shifts (such as open classrooms) or a
dogged commitment to the status quo. EBD is an
invaluable step forward, employing a range of
post-occupancy tools – both qualitative and
quantitative – to develop design innovations for
human and environmental and economic benefit.
673
EBD does not eliminate the need for controlled
experimentation, both in the lab and in the field, to
advance innovations in building materials, com-
ponents, and systems design and operation.
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 definitions, to account for innovative features of
Materials Banking and materials and products.
Resource Repletion, Role of Biobased vs. biodegradable Many biobased
Buildings, and Materials products such as biopolymers are not necessar-
Passports ily safely biodegradable because they contain
additives such as heavy metals or are combined
Katja Hansen1,2, Michael Braungart1,3 and with nonbiodegradable materials. As well,
Douglas Mulhall1,2,4 petroleum-based products that are not biobased
1
EPEA Internationale Umweltforschung GmbH, can be biodegradable. So it is important to dis-
Hamburg, Germany tinguish these features to develop an effective
2
Department of Civil, Geo and Environmental defined-use pathway for materials. Especially, it
Engineering, Technical University of Munich, is important to evaluate biobased and biode-
Munich, Germany gradable in the context of the intended use of
3
Institute for Ethical and Transdisciplinary the material, e.g., if it is intended for a biosphere
Sustainability, Leuphana University, Lüneburg, or technosphere pathway. For example, many
Germany materials designed for single use before dis-
4
Department of Architectural Engineering + posal in a biosphere pathway and defined as
Technology, Delft University of Technology, biodegradable, such as cups, do not biodegrade
Delft, The Netherlands in the processing time frame used in an indus-
trial composting facility and, as a result, end up
being incompletely decomposed and inciner-
Article Outline ated, or degrade the quality of compost.
Because of this, the definition of “biodegrad-
Glossary able” includes that the material is shown to
Definition of the Subject degrade completely in an industrial composting
Introduction facility within a prescribed time frame.
Unintended Consequences of Traditional Counter-footprint Calculation showing activi-
Sustainability ties that can be used to counterbalance a nega-
Materials Repletion for an Abundant Healthy tive “environmental footprint.” Example,
Footprint producing renewable energy instead of just
Application Tools for Implementing Beneficial consuming energy. Counter-footprinting is
Resource Repletion still at an early stage and often, for example,
Redefining Recycling does not calculate defined material content,
Intended Use defined-use pathways, or beneficial functions
Nutrient Certificates a.k.a. Materials Passports of materials such as cleaning the air. In general,
Conclusions when materials are used for constructing a
Bibliography building, their impacts are frequently still con-
sidered only on the negative side of the envi-
Glossary ronmental footprint and no longer considered
as beneficial resources. See also “offset.”
Improving the approach to materials and prod- Cradle to Cradle® An innovation platform to
ucts sometimes requires revising traditional ter- improve the beneficial qualities of products
minology. In the approach described here, usage and services in biosphere and technosphere
of certain terms differs from traditional metabolisms as a step beyond the traditional

© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020 677

V. Loftness (ed.), Sustainable Built Environments,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-0684-1_420
Originally published in
R. A. Meyers (ed.), Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology, © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC,
part of Springer Nature 2018, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2493-6_420-3
678 Materials Banking and Resource Repletion, Role of Buildings, and Materials Passports
sustainability approach of reducing negative
impacts. The term Cradle to Cradle ® is a
registered mark for quality assurance purposes,
similar to how the broadly accepted Interna-
tional Standards Organization governs use of
its marks and standards. However, the philos-
ophy, principles, and many application tools of
the Cradle to Cradle ® approach are widely
published. The founders of the C2C approach
encourage governments, companies, and
NGOs to use the philosophy and principles.
The right to use the Cradle to Cradle Design
Protocol ® for certification is assigned to an
independent nonprofit organization, and certi-
fication criteria are also broadly published.
Defined use Materials and products that are
designed according to their intended use in
biosphere or technosphere metabolisms.
Depletion Loss of nonrenewable resources and
destruction of renewable resources.
Ecological footprint Usually a calculation of
negative environmental impacts of human
activity. Many definitions are used, but an
early example in relation to the built environ-
ment is “Corporate ecological footprint is
defined as the environmental impact
(in hectares) of any organization, caused by:
(a) the purchase of any kind of product and
service clearly reflected in their financial
accounts; (b) the sale of products deriving
from the primary production of food and other
forestry or biotic resources, or in other words
when vegetables, fruit and meat enter the mar-
ket chain for the first time; (c) occupation of
space; and (d) generation of waste clearly
reflected in their environmental report. More-
over, this impact measured in hectares can be
transformed to obtain a result in tons of CO2
emitted (the carbon footprint). . .” [1]. See also
Counter-footprint and Offset.
Intelligent materials pooling (IMP) Sharing of
defined material streams among partners to
achieve economy of scale and accelerate the
use of C2C-defined materials.
Materials bank Database-supported pool of
defined materials.
Materials Passports or Nutrient Certificates Set
of data describing defined characteristics of
materials and products that give them value for
present use, recovery, and reuse. Materials Pass-
ports are a marketplace mechanism to encourage
product designs, material recovery systems, and
chain of possession partnerships that improve the
quality, value, and security of supply for mate-
rials so they can be reused in continuous loops or
closed loops or beneficially returned to biological
systems. This is done by adding a new value
dimension to materials quality. This new dimen-
sion is based on the suitability of materials for
healthy present use in products, as well as recov-
ery and reuse as resources in other products and
processes. Materials Passports have different
names including building passports, product
passports, circularity passports®, and resource
passports. A Materials Passport is often designed
to describe a commercial product, rather than a
single material, because this is the practical level
that industry works at.
Materials security Security of supply for strate-
gically important materials such as rare metals
or phosphate.
Offset Assessment of activities that compensate
for negative environmental impacts. As
opposed to counter-footprints, offsets are
often used to describe remotely located activi-
ties, such as growing trees in another location
to replace trees lost due to development. How-
ever, counter-footprint and offsets can also
overlap. Sometimes also referred to as negative
emissions.
Recycled vs. recyclable Products can be benefi-
cial if they have defined recyclable content
regardless if it is recycled or not. Defined recy-
clable content is an enabler for recycled con-
tent. If virgin content is not recyclable then it
will pollute recycling streams, so recyclable is
just as important as being recycled. Recycled
content that is also recyclable at a similar level
of quality is the end goal of product design for
Materials Passports.
Recycling There are many definitions of
recycling, but for these purposes, recycling is
defined as recovering and reusing materials at a
similar level of quality by defining their con-
tent, as compared to “downcycling” where
materials are recovered and reused at a lower
Materials Banking and Resource Repletion, Role of Buildings, and Materials Passports
quality level. For example, the term
“recycling” is often applied to materials such
as paper, but in reality, paper is almost always
downcycled due to shortening of its fibers.
Many current definitions of recycled content
do not define what is in the material, with the
result that it is not possible to recycle the mate-
rials at a similar level of quality. The important
distinguishing factor is “defined” content,
which can be indicated as defined to 100 ppm.
Repletion Replenishing the supply of biosphere
and technosphere materials for use in products
and processes.
Scarcity Geographically, politically, or commer-
cially limited supply of strategic materials.
Upcycling Improving the existing quality of a
material for its next reuse. A material can be
defined as upcycled under various conditions:
1. When its current downcycling is improved so
the material is recycled at a similar level of
quality instead of lower level. For example,
high-grade steel is separated from motors
containing copper contaminants so the steel
can be resmelted at the same level instead of
downcycled
2. When a degraded material is repaired for effec-
tive reuse, e.g., an additive is added to a plastic
to repair its damaged molecular strings so the
material can be reused for a high quality
purpose
Definition of the Subject
Raw materials scarcity, rising raw materials
extraction costs, and biodiversity loss are apparent
globally. Recycling of materials for a circular
economy is cited as one solution to those prob-
lems. However, maintaining the consistent quality
of materials is excluded from many sustainability
and circular economy assessments. Current
regimes of carbon, emissions, and energy trading
are not well designed to account for the quality or
value of materials, or the processes for materials
recovery and reuse. The building industry is a
large consumer of scarce resources, and because
of this, it is regarded as a leading cause of resource
679
depletion. However, a growing number of prod-
ucts, components, and materials contained in and
moving through buildings have been extensively
evaluated for their recovery potential [2]. As a
result, these are starting to be used in a new
model where buildings are resource repleters
instead of depleters. Materials repletion is a
value-based model that redefines quality to gen-
erate quantifiable benefits for builders, suppliers,
building occupants, operators, and owners. For
this model, the inherent conservatism of the indus-
try could work in favor of a new approach due to
the emphasis on value, reliability, and documen-
tation. This introduces a new type of beneficial
agenda into the construction, operations, mainte-
nance, decommissioning, and recycling indus-
tries. To support this beneficial paradigm, a
framework for resource repletion and security is
described where materials are defined according
to qualities that enhance their value for materials
banking and trading. The concept of Materials
Passports or Nutrient Certificates is described as
a counterpart to emissions certificates to account
for the value of defined high-quality material
flows. The focus is distinct from mechanisms
such as environmental product declarations
(EPDs), material safety data sheets (MSDS), or
emissions trading. For this approach, new criteria
are introduced for materials and for “recycled
content.” Financial enabling innovations are
described, and early adopters are identified
among governments and companies, including
participants in Cradle to Cradle ® and circular
economy networks.
Introduction
“Our economy will run out of materials before it
runs out of energy.”
The globalized depletion of material resources
continues and is well documented quantitatively
and qualitatively [3]. Evidence suggests that scar-
city has a positive side effect of driving innovation
[4]. Despite that, scarcity is still disrupting econ-
omies. This scarcity is generated more by geopo-
litical distribution inequity than geological
availability. For example, Europe depends on
680 Materials Banking and Resource Repletion, Role of Buildings, and Materials Passports
just two countries, China and Morocco, to support
most of its agricultural system with the fertilizer
phosphate. In 2008, China puts export tariffs on
its phosphate supplies, disrupting phosphate pric-
ing [5]. China also had a near-monopoly on pro-
ducing certain rare metals, not because of
geographic distribution but because other coun-
tries let their rare metal processing capacities
dwindle [6, 7] via outsourcing. The city of Barce-
lona once had to import water in ships due to a
water shortage, resulting in prioritization conflicts
with other regions of Spain [8]. As well, Central
and Southern Europe suffered when Russia
interrupted gas supplies.
In addition to distribution disruptions, the costs
of extracting material resources are accelerating as
supplies become more remote and difficult to
access. Biodiversity losses are accelerating as spe-
cies habitats are put under greater pressure by
expanding incursion for urbanization and
resource extraction [9]. Together, those factors
pose economic security risks to regions such as
Europe, USA, and Japan, along with suppliers
such as China who come under pressure to solve
shortages by exporting their own limited supplies.
Materials security is taking the stage alongside
energy security as an economic and military con-
sideration. This is generating an economic, social,
and ecological imperative for materials repletion
instead of depletion.
Aside from those wider risks, there is a more
practical economic imperative for individual busi-
nesses and residential districts. Considerable dis-
ruption is caused by the renovation and
demolition of buildings. Every few years, hotels
lose large revenues while their rooms are being
renovated, closing whole floors for weeks at a
time. Office developments have similar losses
when tenants change and the building has to be
repurposed. The renovation of houses in residen-
tial districts often involves gutting the building
and leaving only the shell standing. The noise
and dust hazards from just one house renovation
disrupt entire neighborhoods for months, espe-
cially due to drilling of masonry and removal of
walls. Those processes each generate large
amounts of unrecoverable waste when the com-
ponents of buildings have to be destroyed because
they are not designed for easy removal. These
contribute to materials depletion on a large scale.
A first step to establishing a materials repletion
paradigm is to recognize the unintended conse-
quences of traditional approaches to “sustainabil-
ity,” which pose barriers to repletion. The step
after that is to describe solutions for those
unintended consequences.
Unintended Consequences of
Traditional Sustainability
The Unintended Consequences of
Eco–Efficiency
Green sustainable building is the practice of
increasing the efficiency with which buildings
and their sites use and harvest energy, water, and
material, while at the same time reducing impact
on the local and global natural environment [10].
An unintended consequence of this approach
has been that greater efficiency often has the
opposite or “rebound” effect by accelerating
instead of reducing impacts. This is self-evident,
for example, with accelerated material and energy
throughputs for personal electronic devices. Here,
efficiency improvements in the use of materials
and energy have been exceptional over past
decades. Miniaturization resulted in devices that
require only a fraction of the energy and the mate-
rials, compared to earlier devices to perform the
same function, while at the same time adding
functional features. However, this resulted in
price drops that made the technology accessible
to billions of customers, generating exponential
increases in materials and energy throughputs due
to collective demand [11]. By increasing the effi-
ciency of individual devices, the industry acceler-
ated collective materials and energy throughputs,
including flows of materials for products to waste
from product disposal.
The same occurred with buildings, as efficien-
cies have improved and economic activity
expands globally, real growth in the collective
“ecological footprint” of buildings (see Glossary)
has accelerated in developing economies of Eur-
asia, Africa, the Middle East, and South America,
while still expanding in developed economies of
Materials Banking and Resource Repletion, Role of Buildings, and Materials Passports
Europe, North America, and elsewhere. The
results are marginal reductions in the footprints
of individual buildings negated by the collective
expansion of land use, materials, and energy. In
many cases, individual building footprints are
increasing as well to house diverse technologies
and the lifestyles they suggest. Electronic technol-
ogies and networking services in particular are
growing rapidly, resulting in increasing demands
for space, materials, and energy.
This collective expansion of impacts due to
economic and technological development is also
described in studies finding that wealth, not pov-
erty, is the main driver of environmental impacts
[12]. As collective wealth improves globally, con-
sumption of energy and resources is accelerating.
Due to this phenomenon of efficiency acceler-
ating throughputs, the “reduction” approach to
resources on its own is unlikely to significantly
mitigate environmental impacts in buildings or of
products that move through them, and instead is
likely to accelerate those impacts.
Overlooking Beneficial Footprints
• Minimization vs. Benefits. Green assessment
methods focus more on minimizing the use of
materials and energy instead of focusing on the
intended benefits of materials and energy in a
system. As a result, the value of some benefi-
cial aspects is underemphasized in green build-
ing standards. By contrast, natural processes
often maximize their own footprint, and an
example of this is the largest living thing on
Earth, the giant sequoia. See following sections
for example.
• Measurement Criteria. To accurately assess
the benefits of some materials, it is important
to evaluate factors such as their “defined use”
in ecosystems, the active benefits they gener-
ate, and the time frame and rate of reuse.
Current measurement systems often disregard
those.
• Assessing Impacts vs. Calculating Resources.
Most green rating systems for buildings do not
award many points for designing materials as
resources for the future. Instead, those mate-
rials are often considered as part of a negative
“consumption” footprint. Until now, this has
681
been justifiable because many building prod-
ucts today are not designed with next use in
mind, so they are not considered beneficial
resources. But the unintended consequence is
that when green rating systems do not encour-
age the transformation from minimizing
impacts to maximizing future resources, they
become part of the problem instead of the
solution. An example of this can be found
with “recycled content.”
Unintended Consequences of “Recycled
Content”
Part of the approach of green rating systems in
relation to materials depletion includes “recycled
content” and “reuse of materials.” However, those
rating systems often do not distinguish, for exam-
ple, materials downcycled from high to low qual-
ity, from materials with recycled or “virgin”
content that is defined, easily separated, and recy-
clable at a similar level of quality.
As a result, companies that invest in important
quality aspects such as design for materials recov-
ery are sometimes penalized for making those
investments. For example, well-defined virgin
material does not receive credit, whereas
undefined downcycled material does. Nor are
actively beneficial functions of materials consid-
ered. So, a building containing materials defined
to 100 ppm and consisting of surfaces that clean
the air would not qualify under many green build-
ing evaluation systems because those materials do
not contain “recycled” content. The defined con-
tent and the functional qualities of materials might
be more beneficial for the building than undefined
recycled content, but those benefits are
underemphasized in Green building scoring sys-
tems and regulations.
This is especially problematic if contract ten-
dering documents require contractors to maximize
the amount of materials recycled or reused from
an existing building into new construction or ren-
ovation. By mandating maximal on-site reuse or
recycling, contracts can inadvertently penalize
contractors who use well-defined materials for
which the next intended use as agricultural or
industrial resource is known.
682 Materials Banking and Resource Repletion, Role of Buildings, and Materials Passports
This is not to say recycled content is a bad
requirement, but rather that the traditional
definition could be improved to reward
other properties and promote the use of
defined and truly recyclable materials.
Likewise, material safety data sheets (MSDS)
for products contain a list of aspects defined as
hazardous and how to handle those, but are not
designed to show the beneficial qualities or
whether a product is sufficiently “defined” to be
recycled at a similar level of quality. Nor are
MSDS intended to evaluate the suitability of
materials content for recycling after their first
installation. Indeed, a material might be contami-
nated with an additive that makes it unsuitable for
recycling, but this would not be described in the
MSDS. Nor do MSDS keep up with science effec-
tively. They are based on regulatory definitions
that usually take many years to recognize hazards
in products, long after the hazard has been
established through scientific analysis. The effect
of this is to increase contingent liabilities for com-
panies because something that might not be listed
on an MSDS today might suddenly appear when
Materials Banking and
Resource Repletion, Role
of Buildings, and
Materials Passports,
Fig. 1 Number of times
materials and systems cycle Number of times material and systems cycle
through a building in a though a building in a single lifetime
single lifetime. It can be
seen here that buildings are
effective mechanisms for
tracking materials with
relatively short turnover
periods as well as those with
extended turnover periods,
and that the shorter-term
innovation potential is with
products that have shorter
generations for
optimization. (Source:
Redrawn from a William
1x
Mc Donough & Partners
drawing adapted from
Brand 1994 [13])
SITE STRUCTURE
legislation changes. So MSDS provide no early
warning system to prepare companies and owners
for new findings.
Consequences of Traditional Assessment
Boundaries
Beyond the confines of product selection, very
little attention is paid to what happens to the
products and materials that flow through build-
ings. Over the lifetime of a building, flow through
might equal or exceed the mass of its construction
materials. Often, no score is assigned to the qual-
ity of material in office equipment, furniture, and
finishes that flows through the building, including
food, paper products, and other biogenic mate-
rials, as illustrated in Fig. 1 in a following section.
Terms such as “offset” and “negative emis-
sions” are used to signify compensation for nega-
tive impacts, and reference is also made to habitat
conservation, but those approaches are rarely used
in reference to materials quality. Nor are they
intended to transform buildings into net positive
generators of biodiversity, energy, or defined
materials. Instead they are largely directed at
reducing or compensating for the negative
impacts of a building.
IAL RECOVER
MATER Y
8x
7th Generation
4x
3x
2x
1st Generation
SKIN SETTING SYSTEMS STUFF
Materials Banking and Resource Repletion, Role of Buildings, and Materials Passports
Confusion Over Biobased Materials
Large investments are being directed into biobased
materials, but at the same time, there is much
confusion in the marketplace over what biobased
materials are and under what conditions they are
eco-friendly. “Biobased” is often confused with
“biodegradable.” Biobased materials are often not
safely biodegradable due to the additives they con-
tain. Nor are biobased materials necessarily eco-
friendly. They can compete with food supplies and
lead to topsoil depletion. To solve this, a systematic
implementation regime is required that can define
conditions under which biobased materials are
beneficial along their intended pathway of produc-
tion, use, and disposal.
Impracticality of “Local Materials” Criteria
In a globalized economy, sustainability criteria
that reward local sourcing of materials do not
adequately address regional materials imbalances.
For example:
• Rare-earth metals required for industry are
found in just a few countries.
• “Fair trade” regimes often involve transport of
goods long distances to locations where similar
resources are impractical to produce, e.g., cof-
fee grown in Africa would require vast green-
house complexes in Alaska.
• Innovative materials such as, e.g., Nanogels ®
that improve the performance of buildings are
only manufactured in a few locations. Green
building assessment systems often give prefer-
ence to local materials. Under those rules,
innovative materials could be penalized.
While sourcing local materials, components,
and labor can sometimes ensure reduced transpor-
tation costs, enhanced employment, and industrial
durability in a region and may source more cli-
matically appropriate materials, those goals need
to be modified to recognize where local sourcing
is not the most practical alternative.
Deficiencies of Emissions Trading Schemes
Because emissions trading schemes and habitat
offset schemes are usually characterized in terms
of energy and wildlife, these are usually not
683
referred to in relation to materials quality. How-
ever, those schemes are largely materials depen-
dent. For example, fuels are materials. Energy
systems in and for buildings are made of mate-
rials. Substances that make up habitats are mate-
rials. Greenhouse gases are made of chemicals
that can be reused. Those examples suggest that
emissions trading schemes are as much materials
depletion and repletion questions as they are cli-
mate change or energy questions.
Emissions trading schemes are inadequately
designed to promote conditions necessary for
regenerating materials resources. For example,
there are few if any emission credits for directly
regenerating our primary carbon-sequestering
systems, such as topsoil which is the upper
1–2 m of soil required by most plants to grow.
Soil organic carbon is the biggest carbon pool of
the planet after the oceans and far greater than
what is found in the atmosphere [14]. Soil is a
forgotten climate solution. Aside from the oceans,
top soil is the leading repository of carbon in the
biosphere. Much of the productive topsoil glob-
ally has been lost in the past century due to indus-
trialized farming, soil compaction, erosion, and
urbanization [15]. This loss has been a leading
contributor to carbon release into the atmosphere.
Conversely, soil conservation is shown to seques-
ter atmospheric carbon [16]. Emissions trading
schemes can be used to support soil conservation,
which is distinct from soil manufacturing, but they
do not account for the nitrogen, phosphorous,
potassium (NPK) fertilizer cycle in topsoil, or
soil quality degradation from rock phosphate fer-
tilizer that is contaminated with uranium mined
with the rock phosphate [17].
Topsoil is often not considered as a significant
factor in buildings, but actually, buildings and top-
soil have substantial interactions. Buildings usually
occupy space where topsoil used to be. Runoff
from buildings has substantial impacts on topsoil.
Landscaping for buildings makes extensive use of
topsoil. Products used in buildings are often made
from biomass grown in soil. So it can be said that
buildings rely heavily on topsoil. Because of this,
converting buildings from materials depleters to
materials repleters also involves a basic revision
in the approach to soil.
684 Materials Banking and Resource Repletion, Role of Buildings, and Materials Passports
Due to those various factors, emissions trading
schemes are ill-equipped to support or quantify
materials flows that are essential for the continued
development of our industrial society. However, it
is not the intention here to describe all the pros and
cons of such trading schemes, as these are
described elsewhere [18].
Instead, the main purpose here is to point out
that those systems often do not recognize the role
of materials. They often do not quantify the con-
tribution of materials to carbon sequestration, bio-
diversity, nutrient recycling, and other beneficial
aspects. They do not distinguish between high
quality and low quality recycling.
Materials Repletion for an Abundant
Healthy Footprint
How might it be possible to solve the unintended
consequences of traditional sustainability
approaches? Practical lessons can be taken from
natural systems.
Big Footprints Can Be Beneficial
One example of a big, healthy footprint is the
largest living thing on Earth, the giant sequoia
[19]. Like many buildings, it reaches heights of
more than 90 m, weighs thousands of tons, and
uses thousands of liters of water, and large
amounts of energy daily. As the fastest growing
tree in the world, it consumes large amounts of
energy to pump nutrients and relies on the massive
transport of water from hundreds of kilometers
away to provide the marine layer that feeds the
forest canopy. Its outer skin is far from minimal; it
is thicker than the outer skin of many buildings
and can be more than a meter thick. Its root system
extends farther underground and laterally than the
foundations of many buildings. The total through-
put of energy and materials of a forest containing
giant sequoia and similar giant tree species can
rival that of small human settlements. In total, the
giant sequoia has a giant footprint.
The sequoia also depends on destructive pro-
cesses. It depends for its early existence on fires
that pollute the environment and kill other trees,
clearing the forest floor so sequoia species can
compete and get established. To protect itself, it
uses the toxic material tannin which can be harm-
ful to insects and other wildlife. At the same time
though, the sequoia has a maximal beneficial foot-
print, which can be described as an “offset” or
“counter-footprint”[20] (see Glossary) that maxi-
mizes the positive use and reuse of resources. It
provides a habitat for hundreds of species, gener-
ates oxygen, beneficially uses CO2, filters the air,
is an exceptionally long-term carbon sink, and
sheds biomass that is converted into soil. Its cel-
lular capacities allow it to use large amounts of
water while returning it to the environment in a
state beneficial for other biosystems. Its immune
system resists disease, letting it live more than
3000 years. The species is so genetically success-
ful, and it has outlived the dinosaurs.
Maximizing Benefits Is More than Just
Semantics
While the distinction between “maximizing ben-
efits” and “minimizing impacts” might seem like
semantics, it extends far beyond terminology.
Natural design principles are increasingly recog-
nized by architects and designers and applied to
building and product designs through techniques
such as biomimicry and calculation of offsets or
counter-footprints. When innovation is directed at
maximizing benefits instead of minimizing dam-
age, different outcomes occur. For example,
instead of minimizing the amounts of rare metals
in devices to a level where it might not be eco-
nomic to recover them, the designer focuses on
design for disassembly to recover those rare
metals so they can be used again. This approach
might in some cases increase the amounts of rare
metals used, but also enables their recovery. In
this way the materials can be used as resources for
other industrial processes.
This different approach can be seen in the Cra-
dle to Cradle® approach to resource reutilization.
Cradle to Cradle ® for Achieving Resource
Repletion and Beneficial Footprints
The Cradle to Cradle ® (C2C) [21] approach
emphasizes those beneficial factors. The “Cradle
to Cradle” Design Protocol ® has taken an
approach that generates benefits for stakeholders
by going beyond the “cradle to grave” and beyond
traditional interpretations of “environment.”
Materials Banking and Resource Repletion, Role of Buildings, and Materials Passports
Cradle to Cradle ® is a paradigm-changing,
quality-enhancing innovation platform developed
in the 1990s by Michael Braungart, William
McDonough, and others based on research at the
Environmental Protection Encouragement
Agency [22] in Hamburg Germany, for designing
beneficial economic, social, and environmental
features into products, processes, and systems.
Cradle to Cradle ® is primarily an entrepreneurial
and innovation approach that starts by determin-
ing the intended benefits of a product or service
instead of focusing on minimizing negative envi-
ronmental impacts.
C2C philosophy, principles, and many of its
application tools are broadly published, and the
philosophy and principles are available for any-
body to use with attribution.
The C2C Design Protocol described here, as
well as the Cradle to Cradle ® Criteria for the
Built Environment are further described in other
publications and are only partially excerpted
here [23].
To enhance quality and add value for stake-
holders, C2C promotes innovation partnerships
along the entire chain of a product, including
manufacturing, distribution, use, disassembly,
recovery, and reuse.
By characterizing hundreds of products and
thousands of materials for their human and envi-
ronmental health attributes, as well as defining
systems to safely and fully cycle materials into
new products, C2C has already provided a practi-
cal yet inspirational scientific and business model
for improving quality.
This innovation and value model makes C2C
potentially attractive to planners, builders, and
manufacturers for integration into products, pro-
cesses, buildings, materials recovery systems, and
purchasing. Extensive books, cover stories, and
documentary films have been published and
broadcasted about C2C since the 1990s. The
book Cradle to Cradle [24] is well known and
translated into at least a dozen languages. How-
ever, many planners are not yet familiar with how
to integrate into the built environment C2C fea-
tures such as beneficial materials. There is a ten-
dency when encountering well-known phrases
such as “safe materials” and “species diversity,”
to respond with “yes we do that already.” But most
685
buildings and area plans do not incorporate
defined-use pathways for materials. Methods are
still not well established for designing sites so
they contain “defined” materials, or are species-
positive.
Historically, various guidelines for C2C in the
built environment were integral to published dec-
larations such as the Hannover principles [25] and
in The Netherlands, the Almere principles [26].
Those extensive documents are only effective
if they can be translated into measurable results.
The first step is to understand the overall C2C
framework, then study and implement the three
defining Cradle to Cradle ® principles
encompassed in that framework.
C2C Framework
Cradle to Cradle ® can be divided into these
categories that together make up the C2C
Framework;
(1) Philosophy, e.g., a quality-based inno-
vation platform for benefitting the econ-
omy, ecology, and social equity.
(2) Principles that are translated into mea-
surable criteria
(3) Application tools
C2C Principles
Waste = Food. Everything is a Nutrient for
Something Else.
Use Current Solar Income. Energy that can
be Renewed as it is Used.
Celebrate Diversity. Biological, Cultural,
and Innovation Diversity.
These principles define and support two types
of metabolism for every product and process;
biosphere metabolisms for products designed to
support biological processes, and technosphere
metabolisms for products designed to provide a
technical service and whose materials are contin-
uously recycled. See Fig. 2.
686 Materials Banking and Resource Repletion, Role of Buildings, and Materials Passports
Materials Banking and
Resource Repletion, Role
of Buildings, and
Materials Passports,
Fig. 2 Cradle to Cradle ®
metabolisms and product Consumption Products
types Biological Nutrients
Biosphere
Using the C2C principles as a basis, a Cradle to
Cradle ® building can be defined this way:
A Cradle to Cradle® building contains
defined elements that add value and celebrate
innovation and enjoyment by measurably
enhancing the quality of materials, biodiver-
sity, air, and water, using current solar income,
being deconstructable and recyclable, and
performing diverse practical and life-
enhancing functions for its stakeholders.
The definition also applies to materials and
products such as furnishings, cleaning materials,
and office equipment that move through buildings
because, often, things that move through build-
ings have equal or greater impacts on the econ-
omy, environment, and users than the structures
themselves. This “moveables” factor is often
underemphasized in various “green” guidelines
for buildings, but it is a central feature of the
Cradle to Cradle ® approach.
Ten Criteria for Applying and Quantifying C2C
Principles in Buildings
Broad principles are a prerequisite for eco-
effectiveness. However, measurable criteria are
Service Products
Technical Nutrients
Technosphere
also important for practical implementation. The
following ten criteria for applying C2C principles
have been organized to facilitate implementation.
Through these criteria, materials in buildings can
be defined to constitute a new value chain (1) them-
selves, (2) through the services they provide in a
building, such as cleaning air. For example, defined
materials often have a greater recovery value than
undefined ones due to their enhanced qualities, but
it can also result in cleaner air and water flowing
through a building. The quality of air, water, bio-
logical nutrients, and biodiversity each constitute
value streams that make buildings beneficial con-
tributors. Integrating those aspects also enhances
the overall value of a building because the whole is
often greater than the sum of its parts. For example,
a building whose materials clean the air and water
reduces the costs of conventional purification sys-
tems. The ten criteria constitute a guide for achiev-
ing those value streams.
State Your Intentions
Design is the first signal of human intention. To
achieve truly eco-effective solution sets, it is
important to design so that every material can be
a nutrient for the next design, every element is
generated within our solar income, and the design
embraces human- and bio-diversity.
Materials Banking and Resource Repletion, Role of Buildings, and Materials Passports
Examples of those design intentions: Do you
want the building to contribute air and water that
are cleaner than when they were taken from the
outdoor environment? Do you want the building
to be deconstructable? Do you want to demon-
strate that the ingredients in building materials are
defined and safe?
Define Materials and Their Intended Use Pathways
1. Use materials whose quality and contents are
measurably defined in technical or biological
pathways from manufacturing through use and
recovery
2. Use materials whose impacts are measurably
beneficial for human health and the environment
For example, a defined product would be a chair
whose component parts come from known renew-
able or recycled materials and energy sources,
whose composition is known to 100 parts per
million, whose materials are safe for contact with
human skin and lungs and can be disassembled
into materials that each can be recycled for use in
other products or decomposed as beneficial nutri-
ents for biological systems. A “beneficial” ingredi-
ent would be an ingredient added to coatings that
allows them to actively clean the air.
Integrate Biological Nutrients
Measurably recycle biological nutrients and water
by integrating biomass production into buildings,
landscaping, and spatial plans to generate more
biomass, soil, and clean water than before devel-
opment of the site.
For example, biological nutrients from gray
water, biodigestion, and interior and exterior land-
scaping can be recaptured. Air-cleaning vegetative
walls can be designed to metabolize pollutants, and
“green roofs” can be designed to retain moisture,
capture CO2, metabolize particulates, and provide
oxygen. “Topsoil manufacturing” can be integrated
into projects to use biodigestion and composting to
produce humus and capture CO2.
Enhance Air and Climate Quality
1. Measurably make air quality healthier for bio-
logical metabolisms than before it enters a
687
building and provide a comfortable climate
for occupants
2. Measurably contribute to enhancing outdoor
climate by contributing air that is healthier for
biosphere metabolisms than before it enters a
building and using climate change gases as
resources through carbon management
For example, (a) air quality can be enhanced by
integrating C2C materials across products such as
exposed window frames, floors, wall materials,
HVAC systems, wall and floor coverings, indoor
plants and green walls, furnishings, office equip-
ment, and mold inhibitors. (b) Active carbon man-
agement is achieved with vegetation and
renewable energy. Climate change gases such as
methane and CO2 are resources that can be used to
produce biomass, to be further discussed in later
sections.
Enhance Water Quality
Measurably improve water quality so the water is
healthier for biological metabolisms than before it
entered the building.
For example, water quality improvement can
be achieved by integrating water recycling sys-
tems with nutrient recycling, rainfall capture and
storage, indoor plants, and green walls.
Integrate Renewable Energy
Integrate renewable energy (current solar, wind,
and gravitational income) into buildings and area
plans so that the building and site generate more
energy than they use. Use energy as a way to
guide energy effectiveness.
For example, integrate “threshold” energy effi-
ciency used in high-efficiency LED lighting with
direct current from photovoltaic cells, daylight,
ventilation, solar heating, and cooling as renew-
able energy sources.
Actively Support Biodiversity
Integrate measurable species diversity so the area
supports more diversity than before development.
For example, species diversity applies to
plants, animals, and insects and is quantified by
counting numbers and varieties supported by a
building. The concept of “natural” or “native”
688 Materials Banking and Resource Repletion, Role of Buildings, and Materials Passports

species has to be evaluated in each case because in Application Tools for Implementing
many regions, the natural environment has been Beneficial Resource Repletion
transformed by humans, and returning it to an
earlier “natural” state might be impractical. Context for C2C Application Tools
C2C principles are primarily qualitative. The
criteria related to those principles described earlier
Support Diversity with Innovation
are designed to allow quantification of those qual-
Pursue diversity innovations by focusing on
ities in buildings. To implement the criteria and to
special beneficial features of a building and
solve many of the unintended consequences asso-
integrating innovative components that are ben-
ciated with conventional green building criteria, a
eficial for the well-being of occupants and the
number of application tools have been developed.
environment.
These are described more completely in the pub-
For example, diversity gains can be quantified
lication Cradle to Cradle ® Criteria for the Built
by the variety and prevalence of materials
Environment [23].
designed as nutrients in a building, the percentage
Those application tools are guided closely by
of energy used that is truly renewable, and the
C2C principles and criteria. This link distinguishes
amount of beneficial air, water, topsoil, and bio-
their use in C2C from how they might be used
diversity contributed to the outside environment.
under conventional sustainability approaches.
“Buildings like trees” is a guiding C2C innovative
For example, C2C approaches CO2 and energy
approach. Some innovation can be achieved
as materials opportunities rather than problems to
through biomimicry, e.g., coatings that metabo-
be “capped and traded” or “captured and stored.”
lize pollutants, while others require a level of
Instead of focusing on cap and trade or carbon
systems integration that rival the giant sequoia.
capture and storage (CCS), C2C application tools
would focus on carbon capture and reuse (CCR).
A brief explanation of the C2C approach to energy
Add Value and Enhance Quality for Stakeholders
and CO2 is an appropriate example, to demonstrate
In addition to generating value for the general
how C2C application tools are applied differently
environment and population, describe what the
from conventional sustainability approaches;
C2C features of a building do practically for the
Cradle to Cradle ® (C2C) energy is energy that
building owners, operators, and occupants.
is generated and applied effectively, using current
For example, cleaner indoor air enhances pro-
solar or gravitational income, and material media
ductivity; recycling water reduces water fees;
that are defined as biological or technical nutri-
building integrated photovoltaics can be less
ents. The definition is qualified and quantified by
expensive than other claddings while providing
the following criteria together:
energy security in regions with irregular power
supply; design for disassembly of HVAC systems
• Energy sources. Use current solar or gravita-
supports inexpensive replacement during the life
tional income, or other defined C2C sources.
of the building; natural lighting cuts energy costs
Primary examples of current solar income use,
and can enhance human health.
conversion, and storage include natural light,
solar thermal, photovoltaic, photochemical,
Enhance Quality of Life for Diverse Stakeholders wave and wind energy, thermal mass storage,
Enhance quality of life by designing C2C mate- and heat exchange. Secondary solar uses
rials and integrated systems to support sociocul- include currently renewable biomass-derived
tural richness. energy from composting, biodigestion,
For example, innovations can meet C2C prin- thermolysis, hydrothermolysis, pyrolysis, gas-
ciples and make areas safe for children, enhance ification, and fuel cells. Gravitational income
accessibility, and provide ready access to outdoors examples, kinetic energy from inertia or
and fresh air. weight, e.g., descending waterways. Each of
Materials Banking and Resource Repletion, Role of Buildings, and Materials Passports
those energy sources is also evaluated under
C2C according to the defined use of the mate-
rial media.
• Material media. For generating, converting,
and using energy, use materials that contain
defined biological or technical nutrients at
each stage, converted to energy in the final
stage of the material cascade.
• Energy effectiveness. Generate and use energy
in definably effective ways, using energy as a
way of measuring effectiveness.
From the C2C perspective, carbon dioxide and
related gases are a resource. Surprisingly, many
methods used to calculate “carbon footprint” of
buildings do not include the beneficial use of car-
bon by, for example, vegetation. Although some
carbon footprint methods are beginning to include
“counter-footprint” calculations, the concept that
buildings themselves could be beneficial users of
carbon has not made its way into methodologies.
Nonetheless, the re-utilization of greenhouse gases
is rapidly developing into a major industry.
Primary Application Tools
Because materials and nutrients are the basis for
energy generation as well as product manufactur-
ing, the following sections describe three material-
related application tools for achieving beneficial
resource repletion in buildings including the prod-
ucts and energy devices that are used in buildings:
• Redefining recycling to include defined
content and intended use
• Introducing Materials Passports to quan-
tify the contents and benefits of materials
• Quantifying and applying economic
benefits from those improvements
Redefining Recycling
The definition of “recycled content” could be
improved by including these factors that describe
the quality of a product:
689
Content
What is in the recycled content? For example, are
all contents known, especially additives that give
materials such as paper, plastic, and metals added
functional qualities?
• The material description distinguishes “recycled”
from “recyclable” content and “biobased” from
“biodegradable” content (see Glossary).
• In the case of recyclable content, the material has
infrastructures in place for recovering content.
• For biodegradable content, the material can
decompose in available biodegradation facili-
ties. For example, many biodegradable mate-
rials do not decompose fast enough in
industrial composting facilities and are incin-
erated. To solve this, the material is defined for
industrial composting.
Intended Use
What the material is intended to do and the path-
way it is defined for. Intended use is described
later in Cradle to Cradle ® biosphere and techno-
sphere metabolisms. For example:
• The material is used once then discarded into
biological pathways, or is used repeatedly in
technological pathways.
• The material can contain toxic materials that
perform a function but only if they are safely
locked into the material and can be recovered
safely for reuse.
• The material performs a beneficial function
such as cleaning the air or generating renew-
able energy.
Material Integrity
• The material can be recycled at a similar level
of quality as distinguished from downcycled
into lower quality products. If the quality can-
not be maintained, e.g., with paper, can the
material be downcycled in a controlled “cas-
cade” so its uses are maximized? See Materials
Passports and Material Cascades, as well as
Glossary for clarifications on recycling
terminology.
690 Materials Banking and Resource Repletion, Role of Buildings, and Materials Passports
• The materials are assembled into the product in
such a way that their integrity can be recovered
when the product is disassembled.
• If the material is made from recyclable virgin
content, then it has a designated pathway for
recycling at a similar level of quality.
Distinguishing Between Renewable and
Recoverable
Sometimes recycling information includes a state-
ment that the material comes from “renewable”
resources. However, it is more important whether
and how the materials can be recovered and
reused as nutrients. This avoids the “renewability”
designation being undermined by increasing
demand vs. supply of a given material. For exam-
ple, some natural fibers that only grow in certain
regions might be renewable the first year then
unsustainable the next when billions of people
use them in their products. Wood is renewable
until governments subsidize burning it for energy,
at which point, it becomes rapidly unsustainable,
as occurred in Europe. By contrast, “non-
renewable” elements such as silver and gold can
satisfy the requirements of billions of users if they
are recovered and recycled effectively. The prac-
tical recovery and reuse of materials in biological
and technical cycles is the main determinant,
rather than their designation as renewable or
non-renewable. As well, with today’s accelerating
product cycles and materials demands, it makes
sense to focus more on “rapidly renewable” mate-
rials rather than just “renewable.” Especially
abundant sources like algae that could be scaled
up for food and nonfood production merit greater
attention, as do the technologies that derive prod-
ucts from them, and which could be used in bio-
logical or technical cycles.
Nutrient Certificates a.k.a. Materials
Passports
Using Nutrient Certificates or Materials Passports
as a counterpart to emissions, energy, and carbon
trading was first proposed by Katja Hansen as part
of her investigations as senior researcher at The
Cradle to Cradle Chair, Erasmus University, and is
further defined here.
Definition. Nutrient Certificates, or Mate-
rials Passports as they are often referred to,
are sets of data describing defined charac-
teristics of materials in products that give
them value for present use as well as recov-
ery and reuse. The passports are a market-
place mechanism to encourage product
designs, material recovery systems, and
chain of possession partnerships that
improve the quality, value, and security of
supply for materials so they can be reused in
continuous loops or closed loops or benefi-
cially returned to biological systems. This is
done by adding a new value dimension to
materials quality. This new dimension is
based on the suitability of materials for
healthy present use as well as recovery and
reuse as resources in other products and
processes.
Materials Passports have a focus distinct from,
for example, Environmental Product Declarations
(EPD) [27], whose main aim is to catalog the
environmental impacts of a product. EPDs are
often based on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
and as a result face the boundary and scoping
uncertainties as well as methodological variations
inherent to LCA methods since their inception.
Factors such as embodied-energy, transport dis-
tances, and “consumption” of resources play a
primary role in EPDs. By comparison, Materials
Passports focus on describing what is in the prod-
uct, especially its suitability for reuse in continu-
ous loops or cascade chains and materials pooling.
Materials Passports are also distinct from, but
related to, recyclability indexes [28]. However,
those indexes focus more on volumes and weights
instead of detailed contents. For example, factors
such as coatings and additives are often not con-
sidered in recycling indexes, and interpretations
of “thermal recycling” differ from the Cradle to
Cradle ® interpretation.
Why the Term “Nutrient Certificate”?
Materials Banking and Resource Repletion, Role of Buildings, and Materials Passports
The term “Nutrient Certificate” is used here to
signify the fundamental importance of materials
as nutrients for other processes. Instead of ending
as unusable undefined waste and poor or unusable
nutrients as many materials end today, materials
would be defined for continuous reuse as nutrients
for other processes.
In this case, the term “nutrient” extends beyond
the conventional definition applied to a biological
nutrient and includes, for example, rare metals
that are “nutrients” for electronics products.
The term “Materials Passport” is just as easily
applied and has become the dominant term in
common usage. This term does not describe the
role of resources and materials as nutrients for
continuous processes, but it has become popular-
ized so is used often here. However, the problem
with the term Materials Passport is that it leads
users to think that only base materials are the
focus, and this is not the case. Materials Passports
are most often applied at the product level than the
base materials level. The term “product passport”
might be more accurate, but common usage seems
to have defaulted to Materials Passports. It is
important to keep in mind that at a practical level
with the way the building industry works, the
product level seems the most practical way of
tracking materials, at least through preliminary use.
Who Could Use Materials Passports?
Various users will benefit from Materials Pass-
ports, for example:
• Chemicals, materials, and product manufac-
turers who want to access new markets based
on the suitability of their products for healthy
use, recovery, reuse, recycling, and as nutrients
for biological cycles
• Builders, building owners, and managers who
want to improve the residual value and current
performance of their buildings
• Architects and designers who want to ascribe
specific values to the buildings and products
they are designing so that customers have a
clear record of those
• Retailers who want to include healthy mate-
rials, recyclability, and materials recovery in
their purchasing criteria for products they buy
691
• Governments who want to provide the market-
place with certainty about how to define mate-
rials recycled content and recyclability
• Recyclers who have to know what is in a prod-
uct and how it comes apart
Intended Applications
Enhance Quality, Value, and Security in the
Chain of Possession
• Value Chain Enhancement.
Materials Passports enhance and reinforce
the value chain among producers, users, and
reprocessors of materials. Those materials used
in buildings already have a commercial value
when they are sold to contractors and installed
in buildings. They also have an operational
value if they are designed for healthy use, as
well as residual value as “waste” or used prod-
ucts when they are removed from buildings.
Materials Passports provide a mechanism to
convert that “waste” into a more defined mar-
ketable resource whose residual value is
enhanced compared to what it might be today.
This also encourages eliminating the cost of
“waste” disposal because there will be no
waste and instead only resources. For further
descriptions of value, refer to subsection Quan-
tifying Economic Value.
• Authentication.
Materials Passports when combined with
“chain of possession” authentication can pro-
tect businesses from industrial counterfeiting,
adulteration, and diversion, which cost indus-
try large financial losses annually. In this way,
these pay for themselves quickly.
• Security of Supply.
The continuing supply volatility for rare-
earth metals suggests that security of supply
will be increasingly important to companies.
Materials Passports provide a basis for reliable
material recovery and pooling in defined path-
ways that guarantee supplies for manufacturers.
• Transition Mechanism.
The transformation from low-quality waste
to high-quality resources will not occur imme-
diately due to the time frame required for
industry to adapt to this new paradigm.
692 Materials Banking and Resource Repletion, Role of Buildings, and Materials Passports
Materials Passports can support this transition by
identifying materials in a product that can be
easily extracted as resources, compared to other
portions that might have to be disposed of con-
ventionally. This approach can be described as a
“roadmap to improvement” where the percentage
of reusable material in a product increases over
time. This roadmap can be used along the whole
pathway of a material by chemicals manufac-
turers to improve the recyclability of a virgin
material and by manufacturers of complex prod-
ucts to make sure the recycled materials contained
in those products are themselves recyclable.
• Value Partnerships.
A value chain for Materials Passports could
be established in a partnership between “waste
management” companies, who are already
transforming their role into that of “materials
managers,” and product manufacturers, who
have a direct relationship with materials sup-
pliers. It is in the financial interests of materials
managers to work with product manufacturers
to upgrade the recoverability of materials
because this improves the value of the mate-
rials they reprocess and trade. As well, mate-
rials managers have expertise that product
manufacturers do not; they know what is
required to take apart a product so its contents
can be recovered, and they work daily in the
materials marketplace with logistics and
brokering. It is in the interests of product man-
ufacturers to collaborate with materials man-
agers to redesign products because in this way
manufacturers know the chain of possession
and in many cases offer greater opportunities
to retrieve their materials at a higher level of
quality and lower cost through greater ease of
disassembly and recovery. Some examples of
these are already occurring in the marketplace,
for example, with glass, metals, and plastics.
Improve Quality Assurance and Risk Manage-
ment Standards A quality assurance standard
lets companies participate in materials pooling
while assuring customers of materials quality.
Companies increasingly rely on pools of recycled
materials for raw materials, but undefined
recycled materials carry inherent risks that limit
companies’ participation in pooling. In addition,
toxic product scandals arising from undefined
“virgin” materials have demonstrated that quality
assurance is required to manage liability risk.
Materials Passports can enhance the quality assur-
ance system by defining conditions for intelligent
materials pooling or smart pools. This carefully
defined type of materials pooling is known as
“intelligent” or “smart,” because it is based on
information networks that let companies partici-
pate in the same way they are beginning to partic-
ipate in smart energy grids, where multiple input
and output points are managed with sophisticated
information technologies. Materials Passports
could also play a supporting role in other quality
assurance systems that require transparency. Cra-
dle to Cradle Certification ®, Green building stan-
dards, and REACH are examples.
Improve Resource Tracking Between Reg-
ions As the system evolves and becomes more
sophisticated in future, Materials Passports could
allow for resources to be tracked as they move
between regions, for example, the tracking of
phosphate in animal feed flowing from South
America to Europe, or rare metals in computer
parts flowing from China to assemblers in Japan
to customers in Africa. Tracking could serve as a
basis for nutrient banking and trading to measure
nutrient surpluses and deficits, incentives to
restore topsoil used for agricultural production,
and mechanisms to compare carbon storage and
reuse with carbon depletion.
Materials Passports could provide a basis for a
globalized system for more accurately determining
available stocks especially of rare materials.
A globalized database of Materials Passports
would be one way to achieve this. However, such
a database is not a prerequisite for starting. In worst
case scenarios, inability to reach accurate estimates
of the global circulation of some materials would
not discredit the scheme, because unlike emissions
mechanisms these are not issued by governments
on the basis of estimates, but instead, are issued
based on defined materials. In that context, the
main shorter-term benefits are to improve value
and reliability in the chain of possession.
Materials Banking and Resource Repletion, Role of Buildings, and Materials Passports
Examples of the Contents of Materials
Passports
The critical value of Materials Passports is to
provide along the whole value chain a tool for
quantifying the qualities of each material or prod-
uct in relation to circular economy and Cradle to
Cradle value propositions. Many of the parame-
ters prescribed here are not new, although some,
such as Preferred Ingredients, were developed as
part of Cradle to Cradle ® application tools. In the
following sections, a list of material attributes
important for Materials Passports are discussed
to stimulate further development. Since the first
edition of this article was published, a number of
initiatives have adapted these guidelines to define
and systematize the content of Materials Pass-
ports, notably the EU Horizon 2020 Buildings as
Materials Banks (BAMB) initiative [29]. Several
hundred Materials Passports have been devel-
oped. As well, Circularity Passports have been
developed by EPEA Nederland B.V [30]. It is
emphasized that some of the qualities described
here will only be known after a professional
assessment of product or material content. It is
not expected that laypersons will answer those
questions. The detailed content information is
often held in a separate database, then made avail-
able on request of a customer or user. Nor is it
expected that all or most of the following criteria
will be completed in a passport at the beginning.
Instead, these criteria represent a goal to aim for,
to be completed over time as part of a Materials
Passport roadmap.
Material Composition
• Recycled and/or recyclable content and the
chain by which the material can support
recycling or reuse at a high level of quality.
This includes a description of recoverable con-
tent, i.e., what portions are recoverable in a
defined recovery pathway and accompanied by
disassembly or recovery instructions. In the case
of complex products, the disassembly instruc-
tions are the more important feature, whereas in
the case of component materials the recovery
instructions are most important, for example,
depolymerizing and repolymerizing of plastics.
693
• Defined ingredients in the material. Aspects
such as:
– Physical properties
– Element composition
– Beneficial and harmful off-gassing,
leaching, or wearing
– Elution
– Stable components
– Contaminants
– Thermal degradation products
– Aging of products where they are trans-
formed over their use period
• Preferred Ingredients. Has the material been
assessed to determine if it contains preferred
safe ingredients? This is a fundamentally dif-
ferent approach than only declaring hazardous
ingredients or being “free of” hazardous
ingredients.
• Defined Nutrient Classes
– Material Classes. Products are comprised
of various classes of biosphere and techno-
sphere nutrients; from basic elements such
as copper and silver, to basic materials such
as glass and paper, and to the hundreds of
thousands of additives that give those mate-
rials their functional qualities. Those classes
can be defined as follows, but it is empha-
sized that these provisional definitions are
primarily for the purpose of establishing the
basis for further definitions rather than core
to the Materials Passport quantification or
valuation methods. For example, defining a
substance as a “chemical” or “compound”
will not alter its intrinsic value.
– Base Elements. Base elements in the peri-
odic table, e.g., copper.
– Chemicals. Basic chemicals used in the
manufacture of more sophisticated com-
pounds and materials.
– Complex compounds. Complex combina-
tions, e.g., glucose, of basic chemicals.
– Basic Materials. A basic material can con-
tain multiple elements and compounds, but
in this definition, it is normally limited to
commodity materials that are broadly used
in manufacturing, e.g., plastic, wood, bio-
mass, glass, and cotton, which form com-
ponents of more complex products.
694 Materials Banking and Resource Repletion, Role of Buildings, and Materials Passports
– Additives. Additives are referred to here as
chemicals that are added to basic materials
to give them functional qualities, e.g., fire
retardants in plastics. This can also be
applied in the case of, for example,
coatings.
– Products, Complex Products. This is often a
confusing category because a product for
one industry is often a chemical or material
for another. For example, the chemical
industry produces base chemicals as prod-
ucts that are then used in other more sophis-
ticated materials and products. However,
for these purposes here, a “product” is
defined as something that contains multiple
complex chemicals or materials, e.g., spe-
cialty concrete, carpet, and furniture.
A “complex product” would be a product
containing hundreds or thousands of mate-
rials, e.g., a computer or vehicle.
– Grade of Material. Many national and inter-
national grading systems already exist to
establish material grades at national and
international levels for substances ranging
from steel and plastics to topsoil. Those
systems can be incorporated into certificates
if they provide added valuable information.
Materials Passports do not have to reinvent
quality standards if they are already
available.
– Biobased, Biodegradable, or Both.
A description of whether the whole material
including additives is biobased, and if the
material and additives together can be
safely biodegraded according to their
defined pathways or are to be kept in tech-
nical cycles.
Material Functions
Actively Beneficial Functions If a material
actively performs an enhancing function such as
metabolizing pollutants as some synthetic coat-
ings and natural plants do, or producing electric
current via conversion of photovoltaic or kinetic
energy. It is important to include such features in a
Materials Passport to describe the value for pre-
sent use as well as determine if recycling can
maintain such properties.
Defined Pathways for Materials
• Material Pools. Description of the type of
material pools where the material can be used
after it is recovered at end of use, and the
defined material pools the materials are
sourced from, if any.
• Preferred Defined Use. “Defined use” estab-
lishes if the use of the material in a technolog-
ical or biological cycle has been defined, and if
a preferred pathway in that cycle has been
identified. This includes the Cascade Func-
tion. See the later description of cascades.
• Chain of Possession. If the materials come
from identifiable sources such as a pool of
recycled materials, and how far back along
the chain of possession they can be traced.
• Roadmap to Improvement. Description of
roadmap to improving the product or material
over time, if any.
• Authentication. If the declaration is authenti-
cated by an outside auditor.
Designs for Reversibility The costs and inconve-
niences of renovation and decommissioning of
buildings are greatly reduced if buildings are
designed for reversibility.
Components of complex products and systems
are especially relevant for their reuse and
repurposing potential. These components often
have a value that greatly exceeds the value of
their constituent materials. Likewise, large system
components like room dividers have a greater
value to building owners if they are easily
repurposed to suit new configurations. Increas-
ingly, this type of reversibility is taking prece-
dence as occupants in buildings turn over more
frequently.
• In order to be able to retrieve materials from
products, and products from buildings, it is a
priority to know how easily the product is
reversible. Reversibility includes the following
aspects:
– Designs for rapid assembly and disassem-
bly of products and building systems
– Designs for rapid installation and extraction
from a building
Materials Banking and Resource Repletion, Role of Buildings, and Materials Passports
– Removability of components that might
require maintenance
– Components of complex products and sys-
tems are especially relevant for their reuse
and repurposing potential. These compo-
nents often have a value that greatly exceeds
the value of their constituent materials.
Likewise, large system components like
room dividers have a greater value to build-
ing owners if they are easily repurposed to
suit new configurations. Increasingly, this
type of reversibility is taking precedence
as occupants in buildings turn over more
frequently.
• In 2018, a set of quantifiable criteria for revers-
ibility was developed as part of the aforemen-
tioned Horizon2020 BAMB project. These
criteria are expected to facilitate the quantifica-
tion of reversibility.
Proprietary Information Although proprietary
formulas are sometimes seen as a barrier to trans-
parency, mechanisms still exist for validation, for
example, a statement that an independent agency
has verified the formulas, and a source where the
ingredient information can be obtained. Also, in
the case of broadly used materials such as grades
of plastics, glass, and steel, there are few if any
proprietary barriers for larger volumes.
Industry Labeling Compared to Retail Labeling -
Materials Passports described here are designed
for use by industry and government rather than as
consumer product labeling. In the future, certain
aspects might enhance product labeling for retail
customers, but this is not the intention here.
Categories
Materials Passports could be used to differentiate
the biosphere and technosphere metabolisms for
materials:
Biosphere Because topsoil and biomass are
among the leading terrestrial surface repositories
for carbon and have direct interface with atmo-
spheric carbon in a cycle that is essential for
agriculture, livestock, and forestry, Biosphere
Materials Passport (BMP) could provide a
695
quantifiable and beneficial basis for tracking and
trading carbon and other important nutrients.
BMP would be applied in cases where materials
are intended to be returned to the biosphere during
or after use. BMP would apply to products derived
from agro-industry and forestry sources, or
resulting from postuse biorecovery processes
such as biodegradation, biogas generation, topsoil
manufacturing, recycled phosphate, and ash
recovered from burning of biomass, digestate, or
compost.
For example, by utilizing advanced tracking
and tracing technology, BMPs could be issued for:
• Food and agro-industry biogenic byproducts
• Digestate from biodigesters
• Manure
• Swill and food from restaurants, households,
and other sources
• Fuels
• Paper and paper sludge
• Forestry products
• Biodegradable polymers
• Landscape maintenance clippings
• Ash from biomass incineration
• Sludge from sewage, subject to legislative
restrictions
• Phosphate extracted from nutrient streams
Technosphere Technosphere Materials Pass-
ports (TMP) provide a quantifiable basis for
recovering materials in technical systems, where
materials are designed for being used in continu-
ous loops at a similar level of quality.
TMP could be issued for bulk and commonly
used materials such as plastics, steel, aluminum,
concrete, and glass, including defined “virgin” as
well as “recycled” content, or for more rare mate-
rials. For example, TMP could be issued for:
• Base metals, e.g., copper, zinc, silver and rare
metals, e.g., gallium
• Defined grades of alloys such as steel
• Defined grades of plastics such as PP, PET
• High quality reusable additives for plastics and
metals
• Chemical compounds designed for recovery
and reuse
696 Materials Banking and Resource Repletion, Role of Buildings, and Materials Passports
Integrated Materials Passports A complex
product containing biosphere and technosphere
materials could be accompanied by an integrated
passport describing how biosphere and techno-
sphere components can be separated to become
material resources.
Modeling Nutrient Calculations
It is not the intention here to describe a detailed
model for nutrient calculations. This requires fur-
ther research into the capacity to quantify each type
of nutrient in each type of material. However, as a
rule, it is far easier to calculate the actual carbon or
nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, or rare metal
content of materials than it is to estimate the
“implied” carbon value of many processes, as is
the practice with emissions trading today.
Some precedents exist in the C2C methodology
for assigning value to nutrients. For example,
under C2C certification, a system of “material
reutilization scoring” is established as part of a
rating system for products [31]. That system,
based on an earlier system developed by Braungart
et al. and known as the Intelligent Product System
(IPS), takes into account factors such as Defined
Appropriate Cycle, e.g., as technical or biological
resources, a documented materials recovery plan,
and in the case of technical cycles, “actively clos-
ing the loop” to get materials into the next cycle.
The difference between Materials Passports and
C2C certification as well as other certifications and
product declarations is that certifications are not
designed to provide information to users and recy-
clers about features such as material pooling or
methods for recovery of nutrients such as phos-
phate, in a format that can be attached to materials
and tracked along the chain of possession. Nor are
they designed to provide a basis for evaluating the
financial recovery value of nutrients in materials.
So, a different type of valuation, authentication,
and labeling is required and is further described
in the following sections.
Future Directions. Applying and Quantifying
Economic Value
Material Cascades
One way to improve the re-use potential for mate-
rials is to establish “cascades” of material use and
reuse. Cascades can solve various challenges.
(1) With many products such as wood or paper,
it is not possible to recycle materials at the same
level of quality due to deterioration of compo-
nents during use and recycling. For example,
with paper, fibers are damaged and shortened in
each reuse until eventually they become unusable.
(2) Biomass for paper takes a long time to grow, so
if the paper is only used once, then it is incinerated
or composted or downgraded quickly, e.g., toilet
paper, then the use period quickly exceeds the
growth period required for replacement. (3) Imme-
diate incineration of biomass without using it first
in products, or after only one use in a product,
releases carbon far more quickly than if the mate-
rials is reused in products repeatedly.
In material cascades, the goal is to extend the
use of the material for as long as practicable
instead of using the product once and then burning
or composting it [32]. In a cascade, a material can
enter technical loops for multiple uses, then return
to biological systems as a nutrient or be inciner-
ated with the ash recovered as a nutrient. Alterna-
tively, if a material such as paper or wood cannot
be kept in similar quality technical loops, then its
downcycling can be extended in a controlled way
by recovering high-quality fibers for use in prod-
ucts for as long as possible (see Fig. 3). This type
of controlled downcycling is not to be confused
with present downcycling where undefined mate-
rials are downcycled with minimal knowledge of
their content or pathways.
There are quantifiable economic benefits to
material cascades. J. Jokinen calculated that when
total employment creation is analyzed, the ratio of
reusing wood for pulp and paper industry (PPI)
products instead of immediately burning it for
energy is 13:1 in favor of the PPI alternative [33].
Due to factors like that, the German Federal
Ministry of Food, Agriculture, and Consumer
Protection many years ago recommended using
products/components within the economic system
for as long as possible, from a high level of value
stepwise to lower levels [34]. One problem with
material cascades is the difficulty of tracing the
material as it moves from one use to another. This
is especially important to assure that cascades are
not misused for downcycling. Materials Passports
could be introduced in the cascade process,
Materials Banking and Resource Repletion, Role of Buildings, and Materials Passports 697

PRODUCTS

PRODUCTS
PAPER PRODUCTION USE COLLECTION RECYCLING

PRODUCTS

USABLE PRODUCTS
FIBER
USABLE
FIBER UNUSABLE
FIBER
Unusable
Unusable Fiber Unusable Fiber Fiber Unusable Fiber

INDUSTRIAL COMPOST & BIOGAS ENERGY

NUTRIENTS & SOIL COMPONENTS RETURNED TO AGRICULTURE & FORESTRY

Materials Banking and Resource Repletion, Role of Buildings, and Materials Passports, Fig. 3 Diagram of the
potential for using paper in a product cascade. (Source: Redrawn from an EPEA drawing)

identifying the cascade supply chain and which so sophisticated that they are being used to mon-
stages in the cascade the material has already itor everything from the origin of oil spills from
participated. ships to the origin of uranium in a weapon.
Recently, various frameworks have been devel-
oped for the management of tagging and tracking
Chain of Possession-Tracking Mechanisms
systems to support reverse logistics and other
It might seem impractical to trace nutrients from
chain of possession methods [36]. Large retail
bulk materials such as plastics and agro-
chains and manufacturers have sophisticated
industry products into more sophisticated com-
mechanisms for tracking inventories of compo-
plex materials and then into the complex prod-
nent materials used in their products. As well,
ucts that may enter a cascade process. However,
systems such as Underwriters Laboratory
this form of tracking is already being done to
(UL) certifications have been used for years to
some extent for authenticating mechanisms
label and track components in millions of devices.
used to guard against industrial diversion,
It might be possible to optimize such systems to
counterfeiting, and brand abuse [35]. Many
include Materials Passport-related data.
companies now offer globalized authentication
Building on these systems, a primary imple-
for a variety of materials ranging from pharma-
mentation path for Materials Passports could be to
ceuticals to fuel and currencies, with different
embed data records in micro-tags that describe
authentication solutions for different types of
“defined-use” standards for recycled and “cascad-
materials. Although there is yet no “one size
ing” raw materials. The data records would com-
fits all” mechanism to track chain of possession
plement, not replace, material data safety sheets.
in such a range of materials, the tracking tech-
nologies themselves are sufficiently varied and
making rapid advances in accuracy as well as The Role of Buildings for Implementing Materials
affordability to meet this challenge. Passports
Chemical and DNA fingerprinting are advanc- Materials Passports could be effective mecha-
ing quickly as are nano-tagging and electronic nisms for transforming buildings and products
microtagging, e.g., RFID. These are becoming that move through them into materials banks.
698 Materials Banking and Resource Repletion, Role of Buildings, and Materials Passports
Buildings are early candidates for the transition
to Materials Passports due to:
• Value. Materials Passports represent a way of
enhancing the value of buildings for their
owners and managers. Instead of materials
becoming waste that is expensive to get rid
of, they become part of the value chain of the
building. This can also enhance property lease
and resale value.
• Tracking. Buildings involve large material
flows that are already quantified in terms of
volumes, location, and other specifications.
Frequently, inventories are kept of materials
used to build, maintain, and operate buildings.
These would be transition mechanisms for
defining Materials Passports parameters.
• Chain of Possession. Institutions such as hos-
pitals, educational institutions, government
buildings, large corporations, and airports
have extended ownership of their buildings
and have a vested interest in maintaining
value. They also provide continuity of record-
keeping.
• Volumes. Building structures use large vol-
umes of materials in one place so it is more
convenient to inventory those volumes in one
location than trace consumer products that are
purchased in small quantities and are transient.
• Local Material Sourcing. Many high-volume
building materials tend to be locally sourced so
it is relatively easy to identify the chain of
possession and to go back to the supplier to
verify what is in the materials.
Time Frame for Recovery of Value from Mate-
rials in Buildings Although buildings are per-
ceived as largely longer-term repositories for
materials, in reality, many materials used in the
construction and operation of buildings have a
shorter use period. For example, packaging for
construction materials, topsoil removed to make
way for new buildings and replaced in the form of
landscaping, cleaning products, maintenance
equipment, floor coverings, and office equipment
all have shorter life cycles. As well, many build-
ings are repurposed after only a few years because
the tenants change. When this happens, interiors
are often renovated. Because of this, Materials
Passports can offer economic benefits for building
owners and operators early into the process, when
materials in a product are repurposed or converted
to resources for reuse. The resource recovery can
occur relatively quickly or may require decades as
further discussed below.
Early Candidate Products for Materials Pass-
ports in Buildings The “low hanging fruit” for
Materials Passports consists of business-to-
business materials in buildings that involve a
chain of possession where the players are rela-
tively well defined. For example, on the techno-
sphere side, heating, ventilation, and air
conditioning (HVAC) equipment and other sys-
tems that represent close to half the value of many
buildings have defined chains of possession for
their component materials, from manufacture
through to transport, sales, use, and disposal.
Their components are well cataloged for mainte-
nance purposes. “Moveable” office equipment
such as photocopiers also has defined chains of
possession because they are leased as part of ser-
vice agreements. On the biosphere side, office
paper in large institutions offers chain of posses-
sion opportunities because it is collected and
reprocessed in large volumes. Interior and exterior
landscaping is often maintained as part of service
agreements, and these provide a mechanism for
quantifying the nutrient contribution of plants and
soil. The important characteristic of many of those
inventory systems is that they already exist, with
accounting systems that can be modified to track
and quantify materials. In some cases, individual
companies already have a form of Materials Pass-
port for materials used in building interiors. Less
well-defined, but still traceable in large institu-
tions, food waste and sewage can be tracked for
organic nutrients.
BIM Objects as Materials Passports
Building Integrated Modeling (BIM) is fast
becoming an accepted standard in the building
industry, and along with this come BIM Objects,
which allow designers to include generic or actual
products in building designs. BIM objects defi-
nitely have the capacity to become Materials
Materials Banking and Resource Repletion, Role of Buildings, and Materials Passports
Passports, but the main challenge today is the
sheer volume of data this will add to the BIM
software, possibly slowing it down. Nonetheless
it is preferable to use existing systems rather than
invent a new one, so certainly BIM Objects merit
further study as candidates.
Early Adopters for Materials Passports in
Buildings Because regulatory regimes typically
lag behind the science, governments might not be
leaders at proactively defining materials. How-
ever, governments will be important for advanc-
ing recovery of materials as nutrients because they
are:
• Good at inventorying what is in their buildings
• Long-term players in the property marketplace
• The owners and occupants of substantial num-
bers of buildings
A prime example of this is the Venlo City Hall
in The Netherlands [37], which commissioned
some Materials Passports as a pilot to see how
they might enhance value and operations. Hospi-
tals, educational institutions, large corporations,
and airports also are potential early adopters
because they have extended ownership of their
buildings and a vested interest in maintaining
value. One ready-made network of companies
exists that is accustomed to the principles and
practices underlying a Materials Passports sys-
tem. That is the network of the hundreds of com-
panies working on Cradle to Cradle ®-defined
products and infrastructures. Materials Passports
are being introduced into the supply chain of those
companies, involving the thousands of suppliers
of those companies as well as millions of cus-
tomers at the receiving end. In particular, “waste
management” companies who are transforming
themselves to materials providers are well
equipped to implement Materials Passports.
Establishing Bankable and Trading Value
Materials Passports do not have to be legislated
into existence. Their parameters already provide
the marketplace with the motivations, guarantees
of content, recyclability, residual value, risk
699
management, and authentication. Governments
can accelerate adoption of Nutrient Certificates
by specifying them for purchasing, but this is not
a prerequisite for their existence.
Materials Passports vs. Emissions Mecha-
nisms. One advantage of Materials Pass-
ports over emissions trading mechanisms
is their connection to traceable materials.
When connecting to traceable materials, it
is more difficult to distort the marketplace
by issuing extra certificates, as occurs with
emissions trading. In addition, Nutrient
Certificates often quantify what is already
given value by the marketplace, so there is
no need to match supplies of certificates
with, for example, emissions because mar-
ketplace mechanisms are already in place to
establish value.
Calculating Loss of Value Materials Passports
can also be used to calculate loss of value. If a
material is destroyed, for example through incin-
eration, the certificate is invalidated or modified to
reflect the residual value of remaining ash. This
procedure is an effective way to measure the true
cost of incineration because, presently, the loss of
value of millions of tons of materials is not calcu-
lated when they are incinerated.
Risk Management Features
Materials Passports might on the surface seem to
add bureaucracy and costs for the building indus-
try, but in reality, they can do the opposite. By
improving the quality of materials, industry can
use Materials Passports to:
• Gain added protection from the substantial
health liabilities that are arising related to
indoor air quality and groundwater pollution.
Costs of indoor air pollution to human health
have the potential to cripple industries finan-
cially. By contrast, healthier buildings are
shown to improve human productivity and
well-being.
• Add new value to buildings by enhancing the
secondary value of the component materials,
700 Materials Banking and Resource Repletion, Role of Buildings, and Materials Passports
which today are often regarded as low value or
toxic waste. This “value” can produce benefits
only a few years into the operation of a build-
ing, when maintenance requirements result in
the replacement of damaged and worn out
products such as carpeting, lighting, and
HVAC components.
• Add new revenue streams from short-term
flows of materials through a building. For
example, food “waste” from cafeterias and res-
taurants can be part of materials pooling for
industrial composting and biodigestion.
• Add new value to buildings through beneficial
functions such as topsoil manufacturing, oxy-
gen manufacturing, CO2 reuse, energy genera-
tion, and recovery of scarce materials.
• More rapidly, amortize the cost of generating
electricity by replacing traditional cladding
materials with energy-generating materials
whose qualities for recycling are defined.
• Cut capital and operating costs through service
agreements with companies who lease instead
of sell materials and products ranging from
office equipment to carpets and power
generators.
• Gain emissions credit by defining the green-
house gas “counter-footprint” of a building
more precisely and expanding that counter-
footprint to include innovative materials such
as cladding materials to generate renewable
energy.
• Reducing Risks of Market Distortions. Unlike
emissions trading, Materials Passports will
make it more difficult to distort markets.
When someone acquires a Materials Passport,
they will usually be able to check that the
material comes along with it, and vice versa.
DBFMO Risk Management New lifecycle
costing financial instruments are conducive to
the materials-banking approach. For example, in
The Netherlands, government buildings are being
financed according to a design-build-finance-
maintain-operate (DBFMO) approach where a
consortium performs each of those functions and
is involved in the building for 15–25 years. This
provides an extended planning perspective for
designing and recovering materials that move
through buildings, and an alternative to the typical
DBFMO approach of building-in a financial
“cushion” to their bids to guard against future
unknown cost overruns. Defined materials and
related revenue streams can reduce this uncer-
tainty by providing extra value cushions. For
example, if the consortium knows it will not
have toxic or other waste management costs and
has a lower risk of liability from indoor air pollu-
tion, this provides a greater level of certainty. If
cladding materials are producing revenues from
energy generation, the energy benefits will protect
against uncontrolled energy price fluctuations.
In those ways, defined materials provide reli-
ability and predictability in the marketplace.
Conclusions
Resource repletion is improved by methods like
reversible designs that also save costs for building
owners by reducing the amount of down-time for
renovating buildings and improving the recover-
ability of products and materials. Quality-based
approaches to resource repletion, including
“defined” materials, cascades, and Materials Pass-
ports, can overcome unintended consequences of
traditional sustainability approaches such as loss
of rare materials due to minimization, undefined
recycled content, confusion between biobased
and biodegradable, and distortion of markets due
to poorly designed emissions credits schemes.
The conservatism of the building industry can be
advantageous in applying this quality-based
approach due to the industry’s emphasis on
inventorying and value generation. Buildings
can thus transcend the current paradigm of mate-
rials depletion to become beneficial materials
repletion contributors.
Acknowledgments Portions of this article regarding
criteria for the built environment are excerpted from Cra-
dle to Cradle ® Criteria for the Built Environment, Mulhall
& Braungart, CEO Media 2010, Rotterdam, The Nether-
lands. Reprinted by permission. The authors’ appreciation
goes to Yael Steinberg and other EPEA scientists for their
input. This updated edition was produced with support
from the EU Horizon 2020 project Buildings as Materials
Banks (BAMB) www.bamb2020.eu.
Materials Banking and Resource Repletion, Role of Buildings, and Materials Passports
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 Index

A conduction, 21
Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture, 660 conductive heat flow, 21
Acoustics, 663 convection, 21
Activity modeling, 605 definition, 20
Adaptation, 207 delay periodic heat flow, 21
heat island effect, 212–218 earth sheltering, 26, 28
public spaces, 218 evaporation, 21
Adaptive comfort and mixed mode, 9 evaporative cooling, 22
Adaptive hypothesis, 483 external air flow, 22
Adaptive thermal comfort indoor/outdoor rooms, 26, 27
adaptive models, history of, 484–485 infiltration, 21–22
in air-conditioned buildings, 487–488 large-scale applications, 32, 34–36
ASHRAE Standard 55 adaptive model, 485–487 lifeline systems, 38–40
Adoption, 211, 228 natural ventilation, 27, 29
Advanced Building Systems Integration Consortium, 670 plants and water, 27, 30
Airtight construction, 340 radiant cooling, 22
American Institute of Architects Contract Documents, 604 radiation, 21
American Solar Energy Society (ASES), 357 solar access, 34, 36
Aquifer-based system, 537 solar gain, 22
Aquifer thermal energy storage (ATES), 538–540 solar windows and walls, 25–26
ASHRAE Standard 55 adaptive model, 485–487 sun shading, 26, 27
Aspirational capacity, 130 thermal envelope, 24, 25
Atmospheric counter-radiation, 510 thermally massive construction, 26, 28
Atrium, bioclimatic design, 28, 29 thermal storage, 21, 22
bioclimatic principles, 33 urban air quality, 37–39
daylighting guidelines, 31–32 urban heat islands and cool zones, 36–37
garden atriums, 32, 34 ventilation, 22
natural cooling guidelines, 30–31 windbreaks, 24, 25
solar heating guidelines, 29, 30 Bioclimatic thinking, sustainable HVAC design, 473
Authorization agreement, 241 Biodiversity, 7, 251, 503
Automatically open vents (AOVs), 447 BioHaus, 333
Autotune framework, 608 Biomorphic forms and patterns, 64
Biophilia, 179, 297
Biophilic cities, 7, 288
B advantage of, 277
Backup power systems, 155 benefits of nature, 279
Bayesian calibration, 610 Biophilic Cities Network, 277–278
Behavior prediction, 611 blue and green in, 282
BehaviorScope, 613 challenge, 281
Best management practices (BMPs), 221 design, 276, 277
Biocentrism, 284 distribution and access to nature, 283
Bioclimatic design, 4, 19 emerging practice of, 284–287
atrium, 28–32 forms of nature, 280–281
Climate Consultant, 23, 24 Global North, 289

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https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-0684-1
704
Biophilic cities (cont.)
Global South, 289
history, 276
immersive nature for residents, 283
indicators, 285
medicine and public health, 282
mental and physical health benefits, 278
new technologies, emergence of, 279
obstacles, 287–288
pledge, 278
psychological and societal benefits, 279
public health study, 279
residents, 283
restoring nature and fostering nature, 282
support nature, funding and resources to, 284
urban resilience, rise of, 277
walking and physical activity, 279
Biophilic Cities Conference and Exhibition, 278
Biophilic design, 4, 555
application, 47–48
biomorphic forms and patterns, 64–66
biophilia hypothesis, 44, 46
complexity and order, 67–69
dynamic and diffuse light, 61–63
framework methodology, 49–54
future aspect, 80
integration, 78–79
material connection with nature, 66–67
mystery, 71–73
natural system, 63–65
nature-design relationships, 48
nature-health relationship, 48
non-rhythmic sensory stimuli, 57–58
non-visual connection, 55–57
planning for implementation, 74
principles, 48
process, 76–78
prospect, 68–70
refuge, 70–73
risk/peril, 72–74
standardization, 80
strategies and interventions, 75
thermal and airflow variability, 58–60
visual connection with nature, 54–56
water presence, 60–61
Biophilic ethics, 290
Biophilic metrics, 285
Bioregional thinking, sustainable HVAC design, 473
Biosphere materials passport (BMP), 695
Biotic homogenization, 264
Biotope area factor, 500
Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park (Singapore), 190, 192, 194,
202, 204
Blue-green infrastructure (BGI), 187
challenges, 196
for city’s beauty and aesthetics, 196
climate change adaptation and biodiversity, 195, 196
in Copenhagen (Denmark), 200
definition, 194
Index
in Hamburg (Germany), 199, 200
Hannover-Kronsberg, Germany, 198
health and well-being benefits, 202–203
Khoo Teck Puat Hospital and Yishun Pond
(Singapore), 199–200
modelling, 201–203
Portland, Oregon (US), 198–199
societal benefits, 196
urban development and climate change, 192–194
water-related benefits, 195
Borehole thermal energy storage (BTES), 533, 534, 536
Bowen ratio, 505
BREEAM Abroad, 585–586
Brownfield, 235, 236, 239, 240, 244, 246
Building control design, 611
Building design, 7–10
Building energy simulation tools
energy modeling tools in industry, 603–604
requirements, 603
Building environmental assessment methods, 574
proliferation of, 577
scope of, 575
Building information modeling (BIM), 597–598
and building performance simulation, 565–566
computer-aided facilities management, 567
in construction phase, 565
in design phase, 562–565
and life-cycle cost analysis, 566
in manufacturing phase, 565
Building Investment Decision Support tool
(BIDS™), 88, 92, 670
Building performance modeling, 598–600
Building Research Establishment (BRE), 585
Building Research Establishment Environmental
Assessment Method (BREEAM), 574
Buildings as Materials Banks (BAMB) initiative, 693
Building scale resilience, 150
Buoyancy-driven (stack) ventilation, 437
C
CAD model, 563, 607
Calibration approaches, 608
Carbon, 502
neutrality, 297
sequestration, 224, 225
Carnegie Mellon Center for Building Performance and
Diagnostics (CBPD), 670
Carnegie Mellon University Solar Decathlon House 2005,
614–620
Cavity thermal energy storage (CTES), 539
Celsius temperature, 19
CEPHEUS project, 331
Chemical thermal storage, 380
Circular economy, 11, 693
Cities
as biodiversity hotspots, 253
biophysical reality, 254
Index 705

business districts, 267–269 D

city planning, 264–265 The David and Lucile Packard Foundation Sustainability
climate-proof, urban green, 269–270 Report and Matrix, 566
fragmentation and connectivity of habitat, 259–261 Daylight/daylighting, 8, 300
functional reality, 254 control systems, 384
green roof vegetation, 270, 271 definition, 384
as landscape, 254–257 development in, 426
mosaic of biotopes, 257–259 electric lighting, control of, 407, 409, 410
planning and design reality, 254 and electric lighting integration, 410, 412, 414
residential neighborhoods, 266, 267 energy savings potential of, 406
school environments, 267, 268 environmental quality, integrated design processes, 418
urban agriculture, 270 glare-free workplaces, 399
urban energy and commodity production, 270 historic examples from, 387
urban wildlife species and communities, 261–264 illuminance, 601
Clarence Perry’s neighborhood diagram, 164 operation cost, 416
Clash detection, 565 redirection technologies, 391
Climate change, 5, 12, 145 spectral distribution of, 414
adaptation, 209, 212–223 sun protection undermine, 388
exposure, 210 Decentralized water management, 500
hazards, 209, 210 Decision-making process, 600
integrated strategies, 208 Deep borehole heat exchanger, 534
mitigation, 209, 223–226 De-industrialization, 237
planning, 212 Deluge, 187
urbanization, 209 Demand side management, 11
vulnerability, 211, 226–227 Design-build-finance-maintain-operate (DBFMO)
Climate Consultant, 23, 24 approach, 700
Climate protection program, 509 Dew point temperature (DPT), 19
Climate-responsive shading, 308 Direct gain, passive solar heating, 353
Climate stressors, 147 aesthetics, 363
Cloudburst program, of Copenhagen, 189 design advice, 367
Coefficient of performance (COP), 527, 535 economy, 363
Color rendering index (CRI), 403 efficiency, 363
Comfort principle, 339 fixed shading, 365–366
Comfort range, 22 glare, 364
Commercial Energy Services Network glass properties, 365
(COMNET), 604 glazing spacers, 364, 365
Community-based resilience, 151 heat storage properties, of common construction
Complexity and order, 67 materials, 366
Comprehensive Assessment System for Building mass, 366
Environmental Efficiency (CASBEE), 575 overheating, 363
Computational fluid dynamics (CFD), 450, 453 in passive and energy-plus houses, 377–379
Computer-aided facilities management, 567 simplicity, 363
Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU), 169 vacuum glazing, 364
Convective air potential energy (CAPE), 151 window frames, 365
Copenhagen, BGI in, 200, 201 window orientations and characteristics, 364
Corridors and stepping stones, 251 Dispersal, 251
Counter-footprint, 684 Dis-urbanization process, 238
®
Cradle to Cradle (C2C) principle, 685, 686 Drought, 154, 187
add value and quality for stakeholders, 688 Dry-bulb temperature (DBT), 19
air and climate quality, 687 Duany Plater-Zyberk (DPZ) urban neighborhood
biodiversity, 687 diagram, 164
biological nutrients, 687 Dutch Landscape Management, 268
design intentions, 687 Dynamic and diffuse light, 61
diversity innovations, 688 Dynamic models, 337
integrate renewable energy, 687
materials and use, 687 E
quality of life enhancement, 688 Early design phase, 604
water quality enhancement, 687 Earth sheltering, 21, 26, 28, 532
Cross-scale assessment, 582, 583 Earth tubes, 532
706
EcoDistricts Protocol, 582
Eco-efficiency, 680
Eco-efficient design, 122
Ecological footprint, 678, 680
Ecological literacy, 120
Ecological momentary assessments, 279
Ecological sustainability, 118–119, 122, 496
definition, 124
vs. technological approaches, 124
Ecological synergies, 514–515
Ecosystem(s)
bio-mimicry and biophilic architecture, 497
biosphere, 498
CO2 sequestration, 498
services, 207, 212, 227, 239
storm water management, 499
thermal insulation, 497, 498
urban heat island effect, 497
Ecotect, 607
Embodied energy, 11
Emissions trading schemes, 684
Enclosure heat loss and gain, 306
Enclosure life, 319
Energy conservation measures (ECMs), 608
Energy consumption reduction, 609–611
Energy Management and Control System
(EMCS), 609
Energy modeling tool design, 606
Energy Research and Development Administration
(ERDA), 357
Energy savings potentials, 388
Energy simulation tools, 603–607
Energy usage, 501–502
Enterprise Green Communities Strategies, 148
Environmental buildings, 169
Environmentally induced stressors, 659
Environmental product declarations (EPD), 690
Environmental quality, 78
eQUEST, 607
Evaporative cooling, 502
Evapotranspiration, 207, 226, 502, 504, 507, 510
Evidence-based design (EBD), 11, 657
acoustics/noise control, 663
benefit-cost ratio, 670
benefits of green building, 669
certification systems, 658
design for maintainability, 666
features, 658
future aspects, 672–673
healthcare facility application, 667–669
indoor air quality, 660
indoor environmental quality, 658–660
maintenance, 664
metrics, 663–664
post-occupancy evaluations, 666, 667
quality lighting and daylighting, 662–663
schools, 671–672
ventilation system, 660–662
Exergy, 14
Index
Extended power outages
access to potable water, 155–156
backup and redundant power systems, 155
passive survivability, 155
resilient wastewater systems, 156
Extensive green roofs (EGR), 495
Exterior shading devices, 309–310
Extreme heat event (EHE), 153
F
Fahrenheit temperature, 19
Federal Nature Conservation Act, 240
Flood management, 222–223
Flood-resilient design, 152
Floor to area ratios (FARs), 34, 36
Folded blinds, floor-to-ceiling installations, 400
FORTIFIED Standards, 149
Fragmentation, 251
Fragmented infrastructure, 556
G
Garden atriums, 32, 34
Gasoline-fueled generators, 155
Geddes, Patrick, 117
General systems theory (GST), 118
Geographic information systems (GIS), 450
Geothermal conditioning, 10
COP, 527
development of, 543
earth’s thermal energy sources and ground temperature
distribution, 520–525
heat pumps, 526, 529
installed capacity and annual energy use, 541–545
Lindal diagram, 521
SPF, 527
strategies, 525–526
subsurface soil and rock systems (see Subsurface soil
and rock geothermal conditioning systems)
water-based geothermal conditioning systems
(see Water-based geothermal conditioning systems)
Gherkin building, 439
Giant sequoia, 684
Girardet, Herbert, 121
Global biodiversity, 252
Global shift, 496
Green-blue infrastructures, 7
Green building, 171, 466, 472
assessment tools, 576
design, 473
rating, 472
Green Building Councils, 584
Greenhouse gas (GHG), 2, 11, 208, 209
Green infrastructure, 187, 207, 208, 495, 503, 507
climate change (see Climate change)
definition, 207–208
Greening Building Association (BUGG), 495
Green movements, 122
Index 707

Green roofs, 9, 308 I

biodiversity, 503 Indigenous architecture, 552–553
climate control systems, 497 Indirect gain, passive solar heating, 353, 367
ecological synergies, 514–515 aesthetics, 368
ecosystems, 497–499 complexity, 368
elements, 496 cost-benefit, 368
energy and urban heat reduction, 508–511 design advice, 372
energy use and urban heat islands, 501–502 inefficiency, 368
plant biodiversity, 511–513 mass roof, 369, 370
vegetation layer, 497 mass walls, 368, 369
water cycles and urban water management, 499–501 natural cooling, 368
water management, 503–508 in passive and energy-plus houses, 379
Green walls, 308 simplicity, 368
Green space, 212, 216, 240, 242 solar insulation, 371–372
Green technology, 507 system orientations and characteristics, 368
Ground coupled heat pumps (GCHPs), 529 transparent insulation, 370–371
Groundwater heat pumps (GWHPs), 529 Indoor air quality (IAQ), 341, 660
Growing media, 496, 504, 512 body odors, 441
environmental tobacco smoke, 441
metabolic carbon dioxide, 441
H ventilation effectiveness, 441–442
Habitat availability, 260 VOCs, 441
Habitat connectivity, 260 Indoor air quality procedure (IAQP), 672
Habitat network, 251 Indoor environmental quality (IEQ), 469, 470, 658
Habitat patch, 251 Infill development, 173
Habitat quality, 260 Integral shading devices, 308
Hamburg (Germany), 199, 200 Integrated delivery process, 10
Hannover-Kronsberg (Germany), 198 Integrated project delivery (IPD), 560–561
Hawaii Gateway Energy Center (HGEC), 539 Intelligent product system (IPS), 696
Health and built environment Intensive green roofs (IGR), 495
building massing and enclosure, 93–99 Interior systems for health, 103–107
health integrals, 89–91 International Building Performance Simulation
HVAC, 99–103 Association (IBPSA), 591
interior systems for health, 103 International Solar Energy Society (ISES), 357
land use for health, 92 Internet of things (IoT), 477, 607
life cycle benefits, 108–110 Isolated gain, passive solar heating, 353
lighting systems, 103 dependability, 373
maintenance and operations, 107–108 economy, 373
principles, 89 function, 373
research mandate, 110–112 mass solar air systems, 374–375
Healthcare facility, 667 natural cooling, 373
Heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC), 99, no-mass solar air systems, 373–374
485, 486, 609 overheating, 373
building costs, 416 in passive and energy-plus houses, 379
control approaches, 614 simplicity, 373
supervisory controls, 613 sunspaces, 375–376
sustainable (see Sustainable heating, ventilating, and
air-conditioning)
High density polyethylene (HDPE), 533, 534
K
Holograms, 392
Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (KTPH), 199, 200
Homogenization, 252
Krone, Charles, 118
Howard, Ebenezer, 117
Human ecosystems, 119
Humanity, 499
Humidity, 19 L
Hybrid model, 470 Landscape-based stormwater management, 221
Hybrid solar system, 351 Landscape connectivity, 251
Hybrid ventilation, 466, 474 Landscape ecology, 252
Hygrothermal storage, 346 Landscape flood management systems, 223
708 Index

Landscape permeability, 260 Mixed-mode buildings, 488–489

Landscape Research and Development Society (FLL), 495 energy use, implications for, 491
Landslide design, 153 fans and air movement, 489–491
Land use, 5, 92–93, 212 Mixed modes system, 470
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), Model-based building control system, 611, 612
88, 171, 472, 496, 604 Model calibration, 607
Lean thinking, 557 Mollison, Bill, 119
design and construction, 558–559 Municipal water systems, 156
production/manufacturing, 557–558
LEED Abroad, 586
LEED Pilot Credits, 149 N
Life cycle benefits, 108 Nanotechnology selective coatings, 380
Lighting, 8, 103 National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), 358
Light redirection devices, 401 National Building Information Modeling Standard
Light transmission optimization in building, 385 (NBIMS), 597
Living building, 477 National Bureau of Standards, 358
Living Building Challenge, 46, 477, 580 National Energy Authority of Iceland, 525
Living Planet Index, 252 National Institute of Standards and Technology
Louv, Richard, 277 (NIST) Community Resilience Planning
Low exergy systems, 520, 522 Guide, 150
Low impact development (LID), 221, 496 National Land Use Policy Act, 169
Lyle, John Tillman, 119, 120 National Strategy on Biological Diversity, 240
Natural green roofs (NGRs), 511, 513, 515
Naturally ventilated (NV) buildings, 486
M Natural system, 63
Macrostructured louver, 406 Natural transect, 168
Material connection with nature pattern, 66 Natural ventilation, 9, 466, 470, 471, 474
Material safety data sheets (MSDS), 682 advantages of, 448
Materials banking, 11, 679 air movement in rooms, 442–444
Materials passports, 679, 690 BSkyB Broadcast Center, London, UK, 454–456
authentication, 691 building design, 447
building integrated modeling, 698–699 buoyancy-driven, 437–439
cascades, 697 Commerzbank, Frankfurt, Germany, 456–457
description, 679 cooling, 304, 442
design-build-finance-maintain-operate approach, 700 cross ventilation, 447
material composition, 696 David Attenborough Building, University of
model for nutrient calculations, 696 Cambridge, UK, 458–461
possession-tracking mechanism, 697 daylighting design, 443
quality assurance system and risk management disadvantages of, 448
standards, 692 fire safety, 447
resource tracking, 692 fresh air rate, 439
risk management features, 699 health and productivity, 449
role of buildings, 698 humidity and condensation prevention, 445–447
security of supply, 691 indoor air quality (see Indoor air quality (IAQ))
transition mechanism, 691–692 Liverpool John Moores University, UK, 452–453
value chain enhancement, 691 Queen’s Building, De Montfort University, UK,
value partnerships, 692 457–458
McDonough, William, 129 selection of, 449–451
McHarg, Ian, 118 single-sided double-opening, 447
Megaron House, 355 single-sided single-opening, 447
Metapopulation, 252, 259–260 site design, 447
Michel Trombe Wall house, 358, 369 stack ventilation, 447
Micro-prism, 407, 414 strategies, 448
Mirror blind systems, 392 Tamworth Academies, Staffordshire, UK, 453–454
Mirror geometries, 405 urban pollution and noise, 443–445
Mitigation, 208 vent opening design, 447
CO2 sequestration and storage, 224–225 wind-driven, 436
energy demand, heating and cooling, 225, 226 Nature, 46
urban heat island, 214 Neighborhood scale resilience, 150
Index 709

Net-zero buildings, 477 Passive solar heating, in built environment

Neutral zone, 524 architectural integration, 362–363
New England saltbox house, 356 building types, 354
Noise control, 663 cold climates, 362
Non-climate stressors, 147 direct gain, 353, 363–367
Non-linear Model Predictive Control (NMPC), 614 dry climates, 362
Non-rhythmic sensory stimuli, 57 history, 355–360
Non-ventilated double skin element facade, 409 hotels, 361
Non-visual connection pattern, 55 humid climates, 362
Nutrient certificates, 690 inappropriate building types, 361
indirect gain, 353, 367–372
isolated gain, 353, 373–376
large buildings, 360
O
mild climates, 354, 362
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), 608
new construction, 361
Occupancy behavior, 612
northern climates, 354
Occupancy detection, 611–613
old-age homes, nursing homes, and hospitals, 361
Offset-footprint, 684
passive/energy-plus buildings, 376–379
Onion ring principle, 238
principles, 360
Open space development
renovation, 361
complete clearance of buildings, 240
residences, 360
demands, 239
school, 360–361
land use rezoning, 240
strengths and weaknesses, 354–355
nature protection, 243
swimming pool halls, 360
permanent green spaces, 240, 241
temperate climates, 354, 362
permanent re-zoning to farmland/forest, 244, 245
Passive survivability, 155
renaturation, 240
Passivhaus Standard, 330
temporary green spaces, 241, 243
Penn Vernon Drawing Machine, 356
wilderness in city, 245
Perforated city, 235
Operational capacity, 130
Performance-based design, 592, 594, 596, 600, 603, 605
Order-of-operations thinking, 471
vs. prescriptive-based design, 600–603
Organizational capacity, 130
Permaculture, 119, 127, 133, 136
Overheating, 372
Photovoltaics, 475
Photovoltaic solar, 316
Physiologically equivalent temperature (PET), 213
P Plant biodiversity
Participatory approach, 228 invasive species, 513
Particular design phase, 605 low profile extensive green roofs, 512
Passive house design materials, 513
airtight envelopes, 340–341 micro nutrients, 513
climate specific, 333–337 NGRs, 511, 513
and construction approach, 329 parking decks, 513
design and construct continuous (super) insulation, pergolas, 512
339–340 seasonal changes, 512
economic viability, 347 succulents, 512
energy balance modeling, 347 variables, 513
energy recovery ventilation, 341–342 Poa compressa, 507
internal heat gain management, 344 Portland, Oregon (US), 198–199
micro-load space conditioning, 345–346 Post-occupancy evaluation (POE), 10, 489, 657, 666, 667
in North America, 331–333 Predicted mean vote (PMV), 213, 483
Passivhaus Standard, 329–331 Predicted percent dissatisfied (PPD) index, 483
thermal bridge, 340 Predictive control model, 599, 607, 608
vapor control layer, 345 Prefabrication, 372
water resistive barrier, 344 Preferred ingredients, 693
windows and doors, 342–344 Primary energy renewable (PER), 351
Passive House Institute United States (PHIUS), 334 Prismatic louver systems, 392
Passive House Planning Package (PHPP), 347 Proportional-integral-derivative (PID) control, 610
Passive infrared (PIR) motion detectors, 612 Prospect pattern, 68
Passive solar heating, 315 Public water supply system, 226
710 Index

Q voluntary standards, 148–150

Quality lighting and daylighting, 662 wind-resistant construction practices, 151–152
winter storms, 154–155
Resilient wastewater systems, 156
RetroFlex, 417
R RetroLux, 412, 413
Radiogenic heat, 525 RetroLux Therm, 406, 412
Rainwater collection, 190 RetroTop, 420
Rainwater harvesting techniques, 511 Risk pattern, 72
Rainwater management, 500 River restoration, 223, 224
Refuge pattern, 70 Rodale, Robert, 119
Regenerative Business Summit, 121
Regenerative capacity, 128–130 S
aspirational goals, 130 Saskatchewan Energy Conservation House, 329
operational capacity goals, 130 Scharnhauser Park, in Stuttgart, 190
organizational capacity, 130 Schools, 671
Regenerative design, 4, 20, 477 Seasonal performance factor (SPF), 527
Regenerative development and design, 125, 126 Seismic risk, 152
biomemetic approach, 126 Shrinking cities, 7, 235
biophilic approach, 126 challenges, 246
climate change, 122 financial and economic crisis, 236
ecological design systems, 119–120 infrastructural problems, 236
ecological sustainability (see Ecological sustainability) interconnected processes, 236
economy and business, 121 open space planning, 246
humans and buildings, role for, 129–132 urban and regional development, 236
place and potential, 128, 129 urban fabric, 235
progressive harmonization, 129, 132 vacant land, 237–238
regenerative approach, 127 Siheyuan, 433
regenerative capacity, 128, 129 Simple natural ventilation (SNV), 450
regenerative cities, creation of, 121 Single Large patch Or Several Small patches (SLOSS), 261
regenerative practice, 132–137 Site-level vehicle trip generation, 179
Regenesis Group, 121 Smart growth, 169
restorative approach, 126 Smith House, 331–333
roles of, 127 Social intercourse, 239
Relative humidity (RH), 19, 22 Socially inclusive approach, 228
Renaturation, 235, 240, 244 Soil organic carbon, 683
Renewable energy, 9, 14–15 Solar air system, 351, 373
Research and development (R&D), 12 mass, 374–375
Residential Energy Services Network (RESNET), 604 no-mass, 373–374
Resilience, definition, 143 Solar architecture, 351
Resilience, 208 Solar Energy Research Institute (SERI), 357
Resilience-based Earthquake Design Initiative Solar energy transmittance, 410
(REDi), 150 Solar Heating and Cooling Program (SHC), 361
Resilience process diagram, 146, 148 Solar insulation, 371–372
Resiliency Action List and Credit Catalog (RELi), 150 Solar radiation, 392, 522, 524, 537
Resilient design, 5, 20, 144 Specific heat, 523
building scale, 150 Sponge city, 221
climate change impacts, 145 Static heat balance models, 483
community resilience, 151 Stationary generators, 155
drought, 154 Stormwater management, 180
earthquakes, 152 implementation, 221
extended power outages (see Extended power outages) infiltration, 221
extreme heat, 153–154 interconnected system, SUDS, 222
flooding, 152 low density development, 219
landslides, 153 measures, 220
neighborhood/larger scale, 150 recreational and spatial utilization, 221
planning process, 146–148 single site solutions, 222
principles, 144–145 soil sealing, 219
strategies, 145–146 storm-sewer system, 220
Index
Stormwater Policy Advisory Committee (SPAC), 198
Storm water runoff, 495, 497, 499, 500, 502
Subsurface soil and rock geothermal conditioning
systems, 530
BTES, 534, 536
building foundation heat exchangers, 532–533
earth sheltering, 532
earth tubes, 532, 535
horizontal trench, pipe/slinky coil, 532
vertical boreholes, deep, 533–534
vertical boreholes, shallow, 533
Sun protection strategies, 391
Sunshine availability, 600
Super-insulation, 329
Surface water heat pumps (SWHPs), 529
Sustainability assessment methods, 579–582
Sustainable building
access to natural environment, 297–300
algae farming, 317
carbon-neutrality, 297
climate-responsive shading and glare control, 308
daylighting system, 300–304
double envelope, 310–311
enclosure design, 296
enclosure life, 319
environmental surfing, 297
green walls, 310
heat loss and gain, 306–308
innovative high-performance facades, 321–323
interior shading devices vs. external shading
devices, 310
load balancing and radiant temperature control,
311–315
natural ventilation, 304–306
passive and active solar heating, 315–316
photovoltaic solar, 316
photovoltaic system, 317
solar thermal collectors, 316
sunlight, 315
water management, 317–318
wind power generation, 316
Sustainable Building Assessment Tool (SBAT), 581
Sustainable Building Council’s Certificate Program, 581
Sustainable building enclosures, 322
Sustainable Building Tool (SBTool), 581
Sustainable built environments
building design, 7–10
educational pedagogy and content, 3
practices, 10–11
principles, 3
problem and opportunity, 1–2
renewable energy generation, 14–15
urban design, 5–7
Sustainable design
building massing and enclosure, 93–99
health and built environment, 87–110
health integrals, 89–91
HVAC, 99–103
interior systems for health, 103
711
land use for health, 92
life cycle benefits, 108–110
lighting systems, 103
linking health and built environment, 91–92
maintenance and operations, 107–108
practices, 10–11
principles of built environments, 89
Sustainable heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning, 9,
466, 467, 469, 470
architectural/engineering integration, 472
bioregional and bioclimatic thinking, 473
human factor, 476–477
innovation, 474–476
integrated design process, 471
order-of-operations thinking, 471
rating tools, 472
sustainable engineering, 472–474
whole systems thinking, 473
Sustainable lighting, 8, 103
®
Sustainable Project Assessment Routine (SPeAR ), 580
Sustainable rating systems, 10
Sustainable simulation tools, 10
Sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS), 208, 221
Sustainable urbanism, 5–7, 168–169
biophilia, 183
building performance and certification movement,
169–171
case studies, 171–172
completeness, 174–177
definition, 164
environmental conscience of, 169
high-performance infrastructure and integrated
design, 180
implementation, 172–173
importance of, 166
neighborhood compactness, 173–176
neighborhood connectedness, 174–176
neighborhood diagram, 164–165
urbanism design movement, 169
Swiss Appenzell house, 356
Systems integrator, 419–421
Systems theory, 118
Systems thinking, 118
T
Tanner Springs Park, 198
Technical water systems, 187
Technological sustainability, 122
Technosphere Materials Passports (TMP), 695
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), 357
Thermal and airflow variability, 58
Thermal bridges, 340
Thermal comfort, 9, 213, 215, 218
adaptive models, history of, 484–485
ASHRAE Standard 55 adaptive model, 485
cultural adjustments, 484
in mixed-mode buildings, 488–491
personal adjustment, 484
712
Thermal comfort (cont.)
physiological adaptation, 484
PMV/PPD model, 483
psychological adaptation, 484
technological or environmental adjustment, 484
Thermal conductivity, 522, 523
Thermal control zoning, 598
Thermal diffusivity, 523
Thermal habitability, 155
Thermal inertia, 523
Thermal loads in summer, 395
Thermal mass, 474, 475
Thermal performance, 508
Thermodynamics, 502, 508
Tianjin Eco-city, 599
Topsoil manufacturing, 687
Toyota production system, 557
Traditional neighborhood design (TND), 174
Transit-oriented development, 164
Transparent insulation, 370–371
Transportation demand management, 176
Triple Bottom Line (TBL), 110, 111
Typical meteorological year (TMY), 22
U
UK British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) awards, 268
Underground thermal energy storage (UTES), 534
Universal Comfort Index (UCI), 213
Uptown redevelopment, 171
Urban acupuncture, 129
Urban biodiversity, 252–253
Urban canyons, 497
Urban forestry, 511, 515
Urban growth boundaries (UGBs), 169
Urban heat island, 208, 212–218, 227, 255, 501–502
Urbanization, 209, 211
Urban morphology types (UMT), 215, 216
Urban planning, 208, 212, 246
Urban redevelopment program, 235, 238, 239
Urban water management, 499–501
Urban wildlife, 252
Urban wildlife species and communities
alien and invasive species, 263
food resource, 261, 262
homogenization, 264
reproduction, 262–263
territorial behavior, 263
urban survival strategies, 263–264
US Green Building Council (USGBC), 171, 555, 586
US Wildlife Habitat Council, 268
V retention and evaporation rates, 505
Vacuum glazing, 364
Vacuum insulated panels (VIPs), 340
Vacuum technologies, 380
Value chain enhancement, 691
Index
Vegetation-covered urban brownfields, 239
Ventilation system design/environmental control, 660–662
Vernacular architecture
courtyards, 433–434
igloos, 435–436
termite mounds/termitaries, 434–435
wind towers, 432–434
Vertical borehole heat exchanger, 533–535
Vertical green systems (VGS), 511
Visual connection pattern, 54
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs), 441
Volumetric heat capacity, 523
Voluntary and regulatory mechanisms, 583
Voluntary building environmental assessment
methods, 573
Voluntary resilience standards, 148
Von Bertalanffy, Ludwig, 118
Vulnerability, 208, 211, 226–227
W
Wastewater system, 180–183
Wastewater treatment, 221
Water-based geothermal conditioning systems, 531,
536–537
abandoned mine tunnel/cavity systems, 539
aquifer-based system, 537–538
aquifer geothermal system, surface discharge, 539
ATES, 538, 540
seawater direct cooling, 539–540
sewer and water treatment infrastructure systems, 539
standing column/coaxial well, 538
surface water system, 538
water treatment infrastructure, 541
Water contamination, 187
Water cycles, 499–501
Water, in built environment
challenges, 188
contributions, 188
technologies and functionality, 188–192
Water management, 317
applied ecological research, 503
Bowen ratio, 505
collaborative research, 507
data requirements, 504
energy demands, 506
evaporation, 504
intensive and extensive green roofs, 507
lysimeter measurements, 505, 506
measurements, 504
natural green roof water budget, 503
physical test procedures, 504
rain event, 505
retention values, 504
runoff reductions, 505
thermal insulation, 507
Water pattern, 60
Index 713

Water resistive barrier (WRB), 344 Workflow transformation, 567–568

Waterscapes, 192 World Green Building Council (WorldGBC), 584
Water sensitive regenerative cities, 187 World Green Roof Infrastructure Network, 515
Water sensitive urban design (WSUD), 221 WUFI Passive/Plus, 347
Watersheds, 187
WELL Building Standard™, 579
Wet-bulb temperature (WBT), 19
Y
Whole systems thinking, 473
Yishun pond (Singapore), 199
Wildlife habitat, 254–261
Wind-driven ventilation, 436–437
Wind erosion, 497
Wind-resistant construction practices, 151 Z
Winter storms, 154 Zero annual range, 524