Paola Sassi

Strategies for sustainable architecture

Filling a gap in existing literature on sustainable design, this new guide introduces and illustrates sustainable design principles through detailed case studies of sustainable buildings in Europe, North America and Australia. The guide will provide the reader with a deeper understanding of the design issues involved in delivering sustainable buildings, and giving detailed description of the process of integrating principles into practice. Approximately one hundred case studies of sixty buildings, ranging from small dwellings to large commercial buildings, and drawn from a range of countries, demonstrate best current practice. The sections of the book are divided into design issues relating to sustainable development, including site and ecology, community and culture, health, materials, energy and water. With over 400 illustrations, this highly visual guide will be an invaluable reference to all those concerned with architecture and sustainability issues.

Built Environment Sustainability and Quality of Life (BESQoL) Assessment Methodology

The BESQoL (Built Environment Sustainability and Quality of Life) Assessment Methodology is a tool for professionals and students associated with the built environment designed to help develop sustainable low carbon developments that provide capabilities for a high quality of life for all members of the community. Developed as a teaching tool for postgraduate students of Oxford Brookes University’s masters programme MSc Sustainable Building: Performance and Design, it has been applied to live built environment developments in the Oxfordshire area of the United Kingdom and in 2014 to two projects in Brazil in collaboration with local universities, stakeholders and professionals. The methodology involves a multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary approach involving experts from different disciplines and stakeholders associated with the area of development. The methodology includes examining five categories relevant to the development site: (1) the natural environment and natural capital, (2) the built environment, (3) movement, (4) economics, and (5) human capital and quality of life. By enabling a more holistic and informed approach to built environment developments through the application of the BESQoL assessment method, it is argued that students, professionals and local stakeholders (a) begin a transformative learning experience that addresses professional and personal values and can help refocus their professional contribution; (b) begin to understand the scope that needs to be addressed to create sustainable environments and learn to appreciate the relevance and importance of the various disciplines involved; and (c) are better placed to developed holistic and informed strategies that provide sustainable high quality of life solutions for all community members while impacting minimally on the local and global natural environments.

Thermal comfort and Indoor Air Quality in super-insulated housing with natural and decentralised ventilation systems in the south of the United Kingdom

ABSTRACT Improved energy performance standards are resulting in better insulated and more airtight building. In such buildings, ventilation can be provided by natural means alone or in conjunction with extract mechanical ventilation or with whole-house mechanical ventilation with or without heat recovery. This paper reports on a study funded by the NHBC Foundation of the indoor environment of eight super-insulated homes with natural and decentralized ventilation systems in the south of the UK. The aim was to examine the effectiveness of such ventilation options. The buildings were monitored for one year in relation to temperature, relative humidity, CO2, CO, NO2, CH2O and TVOC. The building occupants’ feedback and IES building modelling triangulated the site data. The study showed that natural and decentralized ventilation systems provided good air quality in the case-study buildings and allowed users to create comfortable thermally differentiate environments in response to their preferences.