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Climate change means that buildings must greatly reduce their energy consumption. It is however paradoxical that climate mitigation in Denmark has created negative energy and indoor climate problems in housing that may be made worse by climate change. A literature review has been carried out of housing schemes where climate mitigation was sought through reduced space heating demand, and it is shown that extensive problems with overheating exist. A theoretical study of regulative and design strategies for climate mitigation in new build housing has therefore been carried out, and it is shown that reducing space heating with high levels of thermal insulation and passive solar energy results in overheating and a growing demand for cooling.

Climate change is expected to reduce space heating and increase cooling demand in housing. An analysis of new build housing using passive solar energy as a climate mitigation strategy has therefore been carried out in relation to future climate change scenarios. It is shown that severe indoor comfort problems can occur, questioning the relevance of passive solar energy as a climate mitigation strategy. In conclusion, a theoretical study of the interplay between climate adaptation and mitigation strategies is carried out, with a cross-disciplinary focus on users, passive design and active technologies. It is shown that the cumulative use of these strategies can create an adaptation buffer, thus eliminating problems with overheating and reducing energy consumption. New build housing should therefore be designed in relation to both current and future climate scenarios to show that the climate mitigation strategies ensure climate adaptation.

This study investigates the impact and economic viability of energy-efficient building envelope and orientation for contributing net zero energy building (NZEB) and suggests optimum thermal insulation thickness, optimum wall thickness, appropriate orientation and glazing types of window in the contexts of unique Bangladeshi subtropical monsoon climate.

The whole study was conducted through energy simulation perspective of an existing office building using building information modeling (BIM) and building energy modeling (BEM) tools which are Autodesk Revit 2017, Autodesk Green Building Studio (GBS) and eQUEST. Numerous simulation patterns were created for energy simulation considering building envelope parameters and orientations. A comprehensive data analysis of simulation results was conducted to sort out efficient passive design strategies.

The optimum thermal mass and thermal insulation thickness are 6.5 and 0.5 inches, respectively, considering energy performance and economic viability. This study highly recommends that a building should be designed with a small window-to-wall ratio in the south and west face. The window should be constructed with double glazing Low-E materials to reduce solar heat gain. The studied building saves 9.14% annual energy consumption by incorporating the suggested passive design strategies of this study.

The output of this work can add some new energy-efficient design strategies to Bangladesh National Building Code (BNBC) because BNBC has not suggested any codes or regulations regarding energy-efficient passive design strategies. It will also be useful to designers of Bangladesh and other countries with similar subtropical climatic contexts which are located in Southeast Asia and Northern Hemisphere of Earth.

Passive design strategies contribute to improving indoor comfort conditions and reducing buildings' energy consumption. For several years, courtyards have received wide attention from researchers because of their significant role in reducing energy demand. However, the abundance of multi-story buildings and the courtyards' incompatibility with them, the courtyard is currently limited. Therefore, it is necessary to search for alternatives. This paper aims to bridge the gaps in previous limited studies considering skycourt as a passive alternative on the vertical plane of the facades in contrast to the courtyard.

This research presents an overview and a bibliometric analysis of the evolution of the courtyard to the skycourt via VOSviewer software and the bibliometrix R package.

The research provided various concepts related to skycourt as a promising passive design strategy, which can be suitable for multi-story buildings, starting with its evolution, characteristics, configurations, benefits, and challenges.

The findings can urge designers, researchers and policymakers to incorporate such an important passive alternative.

Researchers, instructors, educational specialists, faculty members, and decision-makers can provide design motivation for skycourt in buildings, in addition to achieving awareness about skycourt and its significant benefits and its role as an important passive design strategy.

The research highlights the possibilities of the skycourt and its role as a passive design element as an extension of the courtyard in addition to identifying design indicators that help designers determine the appropriate designs.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate passive techniques used in traditional and indigenous architecture in order to decrease energy use in the buildings and to increase thermal and users’ comfort. The city of Erbil is explored where in the rapid transformation and import of Western architectural styles and materials have resulted in ignorance of climate-responsive tradition existing in the city since thousands of years.

In order to propose a design strategy for modern residential buildings in Erbil city, a descriptive and interpretative approach is used as a methodology of this study. A literature review is done to explore the traditional use of passive techniques, and Waziran district of the city is analyzed and used as a pilot site in this study.

Due to the shortage of electric power in the city, residential buildings have limited access to electric power. Therefore, thermal comfort and reduction of the energy use in residential buildings have become vital for Erbil. The use of passive techniques in architectural design will help to reduce energy dependency.

This study is limited to residential function in Erbil. Waziran district is used for the design proposals where dwellings are in a row context. The proposals are made on a geometrical basis and plan organization; however, the selection of construction materials is not included.

There is a proposal to reduce the use of electricity, which currently has limited access in Erbil city.

This paper aims to address Passive Design Strategies (PDSs) in the traditional houses of Sabzevar and to assess the adaptation level of these strategies to the climate of the region.

Identifying the Sabzevar climate, five samples of traditional houses have been chosen to be analyzed via two stages. In stage one, the efficiency of each strategy is weighted through qualitative analysis, and in stage two, the houses are simulated in EnergyPlus 9.3.0 to quantitatively evaluate their heating and cooling performances.

The obtained results from the energy performance analysis of the case studies indicate that the houses present diverse energy performances in different seasons. Those buildings with PDSs for both cold-arid and hot-arid climates, however, are more adaptable cases to the climate of the region.

The results of this study are expected to provide a basis of materials and methods for the climatic assessment of the traditional buildings, specifically traditional houses and will open new doors to future studies about the integration of these potential PDSs with the new technological developments and climate considerations as well as protecting the conservation policies of these buildings by means of optimizing and improving their energy performance and implementing effective retrofit scenarios.

The dearth of green standards (GS) in sub-Saharan Africa is alarming and the green cost premiums (GCP) in seeking certification in emerging markets are scanty. This paper studied the Building Energy-Efficiency Code of Nigeria (BEEC) and estimated the potential GCPs associated with the various energy-efficiency ratings.

The study retrofitted 150 conventional residential bungalow and maisonette buildings using BEEC's energy-efficiency interventions and performed analytical estimating of the retrofitted designs. The mean cost premium associated with each energy-efficiency intervention is presented as well as their financial benefits and payback periods. The benefits are achievable financial-savings due to a reduction in energy consumption and savings in electricity payment estimated from the average energy demands of each building. An independent t-test was further conducted to determine the cost differential between energy-efficient design (ED) and conventional design over a five-year period.

The potential GCPs and their payback periods are actually less than feared. The study showed that less than 5% and 21% extra funding would be required to achieve 1 to 4-Star and 5-Star energy-efficiency ratings involving passive design interventions and photovoltaic systems. Passive and active design interventions produced a financial savings of $8.08/m² in electricity payment and $2.84/m² per annum in energy consumption reduction. The financial-savings ($10.92/m²) was objective to pay-off the GCPs in less than four years. The independent t-test analysis showed the cost of ED is more economical after four years into the project lifecycle.

The research provides cost benchmarks for navigating cost planning and budgetary decisions during ED implementation and births a departure point for advancing energy-efficient construction in developing markets from the rational economic decision perspective.

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.

Energy codes for residential buildings in India prescribe design guidelines for each climate zone. However, these guidelines are broad and similar for different cities under the same zone overlooking climatic variations due to altitude, location and other geographical factors.

To develop strategies addressing the city-specific requirements, a stepwise simulation approach was used. Integrated Environmental Solutions–Virtual Environment (IES-VE) was used to create a prototype of a singly detached residence. The applicability of strategies is studied during the day and night times. Optimum orientation, the thickness of insulation, Window–Wall Ratio, the impact of cross-ventilation and shading depth are determined for two cities – Tiruchirappalli and Coimbatore under the warm-humid climate zone of India.

Results indicate that optimum insulation thickness and WWR vary between both cities during daytime and night time. In Tiruchirappalli, roof and wall insulation using polyurethane board (100 mm) and foam concrete (25 mm) offers a maximum reduction of 2.2°C indoors. Foam concrete (25 mm) insulation for roof and expanded polystyrene (25 mm) for walls reduce a maximum of 2.6°C during daytime in Coimbatore. Further, night ventilation with 20% WWR allows an average decrease of 0.5–0.6°C in triply exposed spaces facing the South. The use of a 2'0" depth shading device shows a maximum reduction of 0.1–0.3°C.

The contribution of this work lies in developing city-specific inputs presenting the advantage of easy replicability for other cities in the Indian context.

Commercial buildings, which include office buildings, are one of the three major energy-consuming sectors, alongside industrial and transportation sectors. The vast increase in the number of buildings is a positive sign of the rapid development of Malaysia. However, most Malaysian government office buildings tend to consume energy inefficiently due to lack of energy optimization. Most of the previous studies focused on the performance of green buildings in fulfilling the green development guidelines. As such, it is essential to study the energy performance of existing government office buildings that were constructed before most energy-efficient standards were implemented to mitigate energy wastage due to the lack of energy optimization. This study aims to analyse the energy performance of existing non-green Malaysian government office buildings and the factors that influence building energy consumption, as well as to evaluate the efficacy of the existing energy conservation measures.

This study was conducted by a literature review and case study. The chosen buildings are six government office building blocks located in Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia. In this study, a literature review has been conducted on the common factors affecting energy consumption in office buildings. The energy consumption data of the buildings were collected to calculate the building energy intensity (BEI). The BEI was compared to the MS1525:2019 and GBI benchmarks to evaluate energy performance. SketchUp software was utilized to illustrate the solar radiation and sun path diagram of the case study buildings. Finally, recommendations were derived for retrofit strategies based on non-design factors and passive design factors.

In typical government office buildings, the air-conditioning system consumed the most energy at 65.5%, followed by lighting system at 22.6%, and the remaining 11.9% was contributed by office appliances. The energy performance of the case study buildings is considered as satisfactory as the BEI did not exceed the MS1525:2019 benchmark of 200 kWh/m2/year. The E Block recorded the highest BEI of 183.12 kWh/m2/year in 2020 due to its north-east orientation which is exposed to the most solar radiation. Besides, E Block consists of rooms that can accommodate large number of occupants. As such, non-design factors which include higher occupancy rate and higher cooling demand due to high outdoor temperature leads to higher energy consumption. By considering passive design features such as building orientation and building envelope thermal properties, energy consumption can be reduced significantly.

This study provided a comprehensive insight into the energy performance of Malaysian government office buildings, which were constructed before the energy-efficient standards being introduced. By calculating the BEI of six government office buildings, it is found that the energy performance of the case study buildings fulfils the MS1525 benchmark, and that all their BEIs are below 200 kWh/m2/year. Malaysia's hot and humid climate significantly affects a building's cooling load, and it is found the air-conditioning system is the major energy consumer of Malaysian government office buildings. This study discusses the efficacy of the energy-saving measures implemented in the case study buildings to optimize energy consumption. Recommendations were derived based on the non-design factors and passive design factors that affected the energy consumption of the case study building. It is envisioned that this study can provide practical strategies for retrofit interventions to reduce energy consumption in Malaysian office buildings as well as for office buildings that are in a similar climate.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a set of affordable retrofit packages that can be applied to existing residential buildings in hot-humid regions to improve occupants’ thermal comfort and reduce energy consumption.

A critical review of relevant literature to identify passive design strategies for improving thermal comfort and reducing energy consumption in hot-humid climates with focus on the building envelope was conducted in addition to a simulation study of an existing building typology in study area.

There is enormous potential to reduce energy costs and improve thermal comfort through building retrofit packages which is a recent concept in developing countries, such as Nigeria. Analysing the results of the retrofit interventions using building energy simulation helped in developing affordable retrofit packages which had optimum effect in improving indoor comfort temperature to the neutral temperature specified for hot humid Nigeria and further down to 3°C less than that of the reference building used. The use of passive design strategies to retrofit the building might help homeowners reduce their annual energy consumption by up to 46.3 per cent just by improving the indoor thermal comfort.

In addition to improving thermal comfort and reducing energy consumption, this research identified affordable retrofit packages and considered its cost implications especially to low-income earners who form a larger population of Lagos, Nigeria, as this was not considered by many previous researchers.