Shady Attia

A Case Study for a Zero Impact Building in Belgium: Mondo Solar-2002

This paper presents the Solar-2002 zero impact renovation project in Belgium. Its characteristics are based on fundamental principles taking advantage of natural resources by diverting the sun shine and rain in the building design. The building has been renovated aiming to achieve principals of occupant health and comfort, energy efficiency, renewable energy production, resource conservation and reduction of environmental impacts. The paper reviews the design concepts including the passive and active strategies and compare building actual performance to actual monitoring results. Innovations related to architectural design, building system performance and simulation are presented. Results show that the house achieved energy and carbon neutral balance, closed water cycle and almost a cradle to cradle building material cycle. However, monitoring results shows the difficulty to maintain optimal thermal comfort during extreme summer and winter periods. Achieving the environmental zero impact objectives is not economically feasible without the subsidies from the federal and regional government.

Regenerative and Positive Impact Architecture: Learning from Case Studies

Regenerative design holds great promise for a new era of sustainable and positive impact architecture, sparking considerable interest among architects, building professionals and their clients. Until now, there are no green buildings with an overall positive impact on environment and health. In this regard, the professional and scientific potential of regenerative architecture can only be fully realised by the setting a design framework that guides designers during projects design, construction and operation. This book introduces readers to key concepts of circularity in the built environment, highlight best practices, introduce opportunities to create value learn from real cutting-edge case studies. In this book, we present a novel framework for regenerative building design that can be applied to future constructions based on professional expertise and exposure, towards healthy, resource efficient and green buildings in the AEC industry. We compare four state-of-the-art buildings to address the critical principles, strategies and steps in the transition from the negative impact reduction architecture to the positive impact regenerative architecture, utilising life-cycle analysis. The case studies analysis and comparison can serve as an inspiring eye-opener and provide a vision for architects and building professionals in the fields of high-performance buildings, resource-centred thinking and regenerative architecture.