Integrating Climate Responsive Principles into the Design Process: Educating the Architect of Tomorrow

Abstract

In the 20th century the world hailed a new type of construction. Following modernists’ theories for minimalistic and functional buildings, a contemporary unified style based on standardization evolved into the International Style buildings.Steel, concrete, and glass-wall high rise buildings respond neither to different functional demands nor to different urban environments and climates. Such design choices influence thermal comfort and potential for natural ventilation negatively. Compensation with AC leads to higher energy cosumption. In times of vigorous debate about rapid climate change this architectural style threatens the ecological equilibrium. Nowadays, the architect's role should be to design energy efficient buildings embedded in sustainable urban environments. Therefore, the need for corresponding principles and strategies must be included in an academic curriculum to shape conscious architects. The paper reports about experiences from a university course. It starts with an analysis comparing an International Style office room and an optimized one at 14 locations worldwide covering all main different climates. The used different tools combining energy and design aspects are presented as well as results and conclusions for the design process. Furthermore, the desire and fitting time for using climate responsive principles and the manageability of the multiple stages of design were tested through surveys distributed to students in construction-related disciplines.