Energy-efficient design and sustainable development

It is now widely acknowledged that designing buildings that are energy efficient, healthy, and comfortable requires an underlying combination of scientific and creative skill and understanding (Sassi 2006). In order to make informed design decisions that deliver energy-efficient and sustainable buildings, a holistic understanding and demonstration of the core areas that underpin the design and engineering of well-designed building environments are needed particularly in higher education and practice. There are many approaches to defining these “core” areas in both the architectural and engineering literature and practice, some of which include at a conceptual level: thermal comfort, natural ventilation, solar gains, and associated solar protection and daylighting (Pelsmakers 2012; Gething and Puckett 2013).