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This paper reviews extant studies on bioclimatic architecture with a view of revealing the focus areas of past studies and mapping out future research directions useful in achieving building energy efficiency.

A mixed-method systematic review that integrates quantitative and qualitative analysis was adopted. The bibliographic data were extracted from the Scopus database, and a scientometric analysis was conducted to analyse the data quantitatively. Qualitative content analysis is then presented, which provided a basis for mapping out trends and gaps in current knowledge.

It is observed that there has been a rise in the number of studies on bioclimatic architecture over the last two decades. Past studies have focused on sustainability, building performance simulation, building climatology and energy use, solar energy applications and passive cooling. Artificial intelligence, algorithm coupling and acoustic comfort were some of the emerging areas discovered in this study.

The study reveals research gaps that researchers can investigate.

The information provided can help the building industry stakeholders in decision-making. It serves as a guideline for maximising the potential benefits of adopting bioclimatic designs in the building industry. Furthermore, it provides references that aid policy formulation for government agencies and corporate organisations.

The study fills the literature gap caused by the need for a holistic literature review that relates bioclimatic architecture and its energy efficiency implications. It is also the first study on bioclimatic architecture that adopts a mix of scientometric and qualitative analysis for analysing past studies on bioclimatic architecture.

The aim of this study is to propose solutions to ensure comfort conditions for users by taking advantage of the bioclimatic architecture. This could serve as a solution to the energy shortage problem.

In this context, 40 bioclimatic buildings located in Greece were analyzed. These bioclimatic buildings were classified according to their climatic zones, functions, parameters pertaining to the physical and built environment, and the passive methods used for heating, cooling and lighting.

The high share of residential buildings in the distribution of Greece’s bioclimatic buildings according to climatic zones can be attributed to the large number of users that residential buildings have when compared to other types of buildings. Among the physical environmental parameters, climatic parameters were found to be highly influential. Other parameters had less significant effects, depending on land conditions.

This study revealed the importance of bioclimatic applications in creating energy-efficient buildings. It is also important in terms of setting an example for creating bioclimatic architectural profiles of other countries.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and characterise bioclimatic strategies of traditional earthen architecture in a specific territory, the Valencian region of La Serranía. These constructions were built in relation to their surrounding geography or climate through several mechanisms facing the action of solar radiation, water, wind, etc.

The research methodology is based on a comparative analysis of selected case studies representing the constructions and typologies of traditional earthen heritage in a territory with similar geography and climate, albeit with certain zonal limitations.

The results show that these constructions built with earth offer a global solution to environmental conditioning factors of the region by a series of strategies formalised at urban, architectural and constructive level, either independently or jointly. Although climate variations affect its behaviour, traditional earthen architecture seeks compactness to reach indoor comfort.

Traditional earthen architecture is a valuable heritage in danger which has been devaluated until several years in this remote region. Therefore, prior knowledge of its bioclimatic strategies and formal constitution is essential to establishing heritage intervention criteria and proposals adapted to its geographical, socio-cultural and socio-economic context.

Vernacular architecture is an architectural style of buildings that were constructed by artisanal builders who lacked formal qualifications, used local materials and had a deep understanding of local climatic needs. This approach addressed climatic, energy, materials and construction issues in a low-cost way. Building interiors were often made comfortable by using passive internal climate regulation methods, which could be key to resolving some of the current issues of the modern world.

Tamil Nadu is a land full of local architecture, with Konearirajapuram settlement a thriving specimen of its vernacular architecture, as one of the original Vathima villages (planned Brahmin villages). Here the authors present an appraisal of this settlement's native architecture with its various passive design elements. A questionnaire survey was also conducted among local residents, living in both vernacular and contemporary residential buildings, to understand the quality of indoor environmental comfort in the different building types (single courtyard, multiple courtyards and multiple story houses with courtyards).

The results of this study show that energy-efficient bioclimatic design strategies of traditional buildings can be analyzed with the help of climatic data and analysis tools such as Mahoney tables and Olgyay's bioclimatic chart. The study shows that vernacular design techniques and principles conserve more energy than modern buildings. The findings suggest that practical solutions for improving contemporary residential developments can be found in traditional architectural approaches and that these approaches should be incorporated in new developments to achieve energy efficiency and a sustainable future.

A detailed survey and the user preferences are plotted in detail in this paper; similarly, Mahoney table and its requirements are analyzed with respect to context; and the results are elaborated and justified.

This study analyzes an entire settlement of Konearirajapuram with 300 units of vernacular residences high in comfort even at extreme climates. Assessment is carried in both qualitative case and quantitative case. Even though there are no previous studies analyzed to identify the effectiveness of the artisanal builders of bioclimatic architecture. Hence, this study brings out the solution for current energy problems from the traditional settings, because the traditional buildings requires no active systems for indoor comfort except a fan, which is negligible in terms of energy use.

Despite worldwide climate change and the problems caused by using fossil fuels, energy consumption in the world keeps rising every year. The areas with extremely cold or scorching climates are large, and significant amounts of energy are getting used in these areas for heating, cooling, and ventilation. The general purpose of this study is to investigate the possible relationship between the climatic characteristics of the Esfahak, a village located in the hot desert region of Iran, and the physical characteristics of its built environment.

The method of this research is qualitative and somewhat descriptive-analytical. In this regard, the architectural features of Esfahak village are compared with the principles mentioned in the Mahoney tables to determine the degree of compliance of the architecture of this village with the climatic condition.

The results show that design principles have been used in all indicators discussed in the Mahoney tables. By applying these principles, not only did the acute weather conditions not prevent the initial settlement in the village location, they have not caused inhabitants to leave the site over time as well.

The impacts of bioclimatic design strategies on thermal comfort in hot desert regions are seldom studied. This research provides evidence-based and informed design recommendations that can help building designers and city authorities integrate bioclimatic design strategies at the earliest conceptual design phases in hot desert climates.

The purpose of this study is to give an informative map of sustainable architectural education by focusing on publishing trends, prominent publications, prolific contributors, research challenges and future research prospects. As a consequence, an efficient framework for collecting significant knowledge and identifying prevalent topics in sustainable architectural education towards more sustainable environments at the urban and building scales may be provided.

The methodology adopted in this study is based on examining the subjects of many consecutive rounds of the Passive and Low Energy Architecture (PLEA) conference, with an emphasis on the most recent five rounds. The PLEA's official website served as the main source for gathering all proceedings. Earlier rounds from 2016 to 2020, which cover a time span of five years, were utilized to analyze patterns during that time period. The rationale for selecting this time period was the limited availability of data required to observe the trends, area of interest and emerging themes in these fields that could be analyzed qualitatively.

The findings show that the following drive themes emerged around education and research-driven sustainable architecture: emerging design as a core idea; concentration on the way of delivering and developing education; constructing and shaping the building; assessing current practices; acquiring and recruiting knowledge and new concepts; reporting on the current condition; portraying the target audience and ensuring the long-term viability of the architectural educational process. This insight provides academics and professionals a greater grasp of the state of the art, allowing them to direct their research toward developing concerns in education and research-driven sustainable design.

The study results provide an effective framework for collecting relevant content and identifying prominent topics in sustainable, passive and passive low-energy architecture for the creation of more sustainable urban and building environments. Furthermore, this qualitative and exploratory study may serve as a framework for those researching, creating and verifying different research approaches in education and research-driven sustainable architecture.

Fieldwork in architectural conservation education is a proven practice to develop skills in documenting current conditions and start methodological engagements with a site's architectural and historical values. It is a vehicle to generate intensive learning experiences in comprehensive degrees or short courses. Review of the practice within conservation education is not extensive and the purpose of this paper is to reflect on enhancing pedagogy further.

This reflection was triggered by a major case study, a workshop to generate UG teaching capacity for an Architecture school in Colombia. This led to mapping the fieldwork spectrum, reviewing the authors' experiences (PG courses and external workshops) and activities planned in other MSc programmes. Fieldwork is often seen as skills training, so enhancement is explored through the affiliate geography and architecture UG curricula.

The Colombia workshop provoked strong engagement among students and tutors, and their commitment to make heritage meaningful to their projects is a measure of this pedagogy's success. Fieldwork around a site's essence, beyond skills development can induce conservation students into critical enquiries by motivating them to develop personalised contexts and enhance engagement with the unexpected through inversion of linear learning processes. Setting up site exercises early on PG programmes can encourage curiosity in exploring historic environments and contextualise surveying methods.

Student reaction to these ideas has still to be tested by designing new activities. The educational methods of this implementation need deeper analysis, beyond the paper's scope.

The paper maps the academic value of fieldwork in conservation education, investigating enhancement and cross-fertilisation from architecture and geography.

By promoting certain design values and priorities, institutionalized award schemes are here seen as important agents in the production and management of a more contemporary form of cultural heritage. The research presented compares the claims and actions of the designers and the evaluating committees regarding bioclimatic considerations in the design of award-winning houses in Cyprus. The analysis looks at the way the basic principles of bioclimatic design have indeed influenced the design and classifies each house for each of the principles considered.

Highly specialized or quantitative analysis is avoided since what is finally sought after is an evaluation procedure that can be effectively used by a committee composed of practicing architects rather than experts in any field.

The results suggest that bioclimatic principles do not have a strong impact in the design or in the evaluation by the committee. What this means is that the award systems promote an architectural culture that may use catchy terminology referring to bioclimatic design and sustainability, but they do not give much weight to such criteria when judging the quality of a project.

The originality of the research is twofold: it considers architectural award schemes as agents that currently play a role previously performed by the vernacular in the creation of architectural culture; the analysis tools used are designed in such a way to also be used in the proposal for an improved evaluation procedure.

This paper aims to shed light on adaptive reuse in traditional architecture (TA) in Erbil, Iraq.

An inductive approach and qualitative method were used in this study. The inductive research approach was used because there was no clear image of adaptive reuse in traditional cafés (TCs) in Erbil. Besides, there are no studies of TCs in Erbil particularly. Thus, there is a lack of knowledge about what adaptations took place in TCs in Erbil. The qualitative method extracted themes and issues from case studies of four TCs in Erbil citadel's buffer zone. This included a physical survey and observation of the TCs in Erbil and 18 semi-structured interviews with the owners, servers and visitors.

The analysis shows the flexibility of the TCs in Erbil as a face of adaptive re-use (AR) which is explained through the capacity linked to space modifications, the addition of modern devices, the function linked to space modifications, service addition, the condition linked to space modifications and the addition of modern devices. Also, TCs in Erbil has a spatial identity and architectural value that proves it is worthy enough to be preserved through unique spirituality linked to preserving the place.

The findings are limited to the cases of TCs in mountain regain and may not be applicable or appropriate to other cafés in other different countries.

There are three aspects of authenticity in the current research. Firstly, the TCs in Erbil have not been studied before. Secondly, TCs that have been discovered have made AR of themselves whilst maintaining their original function-serving beverages, to stimulate creativity. Thirdly, most of the studies of AR have dealt with historical and heritage architecture, whilst the current research paper is dealing with TA.

CasaZeroEnergy is the prototype for a building that does not use energy produced from non-renewable sources, but produces its require energy by using alternative energetic systems. Designed according to the principles of bioclimatic architecture, the building was integrated with passive systems for optimizing the site's climatic conditions for heating in winter and for cooling and ventilation in summer. The house was constructed with natural, renewable, recycled and recyclable materials. For this reason it can be classified as a “natural building”. Its main feature is the integration between the building and the alternative systems in order to produce energy from renewable sources: sunspace, solar collectors, photovoltaic panels, a geothermal system and a pellet boiler system. Home automation manages all the mechanical systems to ensure comfort and reduced energy consumption at the same time. The sunspace is a passive solar system used mainly for heating indoor spaces during the winter season. The building's cooling system is based on natural ventilation strategies and on geothermal heat pumps. The building is provided with shading systems. A smart system was devised to guarantee user safety and security. This kind of system can be controlled remotely and provides constant security for the building.