In an increasingly hotter world, what policies, designs, technologies & behaviours can provide thermal adequacy for coolth?
Buildings and cities have become highly dependent on air-conditioning and mechanical ventilation. Without significant intervention demand for air-conditioning (AC) is projected to rise by 700% by 2050. The implications of an unsustainable increase in cooling demand are being recognised in many countries around the world.
Recent discussions about ‘build back better’ after the Covid-19 pandemic afford an opportunity to reconsider many contemporary practices in the built environment: health and wellbeing, thermal comfort and the agency of building occupants, adaptation to climate change, energy use and environmental impacts, economics and equity, social expectations and demographics, design and innovation, thermal characteristics of buildings and cities. In addition, many countries have stipulated that new buildings must be carbon neutral. Climate change will create an increasingly warmer world – impacting on summer overheating in buildings. This is an urgent concern for both mitigation and adaptation: how can thermal comfort be provided during hotter summers without the GHG emissions? ‘Conventional’ air conditioning will soon be technologically redundant. Can our cities and buildings be designed to have little or no mechanical intervention?
Guest editors: Brian Ford, Dejan Mumovic, Rajan Rawal
This special issue explores alternative approaches to providing thermal comfort and ventilation in different climatic zones across the world at the scales of building, neighbourhood and city. It considers the implications of these alternatives across a range of issues: health, wellbeing, air quality and heat stress; technical / design solutions; social expectations and practices; climate change; policy and regulation; supply chain and procurement; education and training. It includes a range of disciplines: geography, sociology, anthropology, behavioural sciences, architecture, engineering, public health, economics, energy and environmental assessment.
Collectively the papers in this special issue describe a range of viable approaches to ‘alternatives to air-conditioning’ and contribute to an understanding of the opportunities for better informed practice and policy. These alternatives embrace much more than a technological issue: they require holistic design thinking, and include social aspects (expectations, behaviours, practices).
However, the special issue reveals a number of significant gaps which are discussed in the editorial. New pathways to successfully implement alternatives to air conditioning need to be led by policy and regulation, as well as new business models in creating market demand. In this transition to a low carbon future the questions are not just ‘What?’ and ‘Why?’, but primarily ‘How?’. A critical issue will be redefining professional practices, design decision processes, performance standards and capabilities for designing for performance and optimisation processes.
Alternatives to air-conditioning: policies, design, technologies, behaviours (editorial)
B. Ford, D. Mumovic & R. Rawal
Technological
transitions in climate control: lessons from the House of Lords
H. Schoenefeldt
Living with air-conditioning:
experiences in Dubai, Chongqing and London
N. Murtagh, S.
Badi, Y. Shi, S. Wei & W. Yu
Understanding
air-conditioned lives: qualitative insights from Doha
R. Hitchings
Ceiling-fan-integrated
air-conditioning: thermal comfort evaluations
M. Luo, H. Zhang,
Z. Wang, E. Arens, W. Chen, F. S. Bauman & P. Raftery
Outdoor PM2.5
air filtration: optimising indoor air quality and energy
E. Bellas &
D. Lucina
Summertime
overheating in UK homes: is there a safe haven?
P. Drury, S.
Watson & K. Lomas
Energy retrofit
and passive cooling: overheating and air quality in primary schools
D. Grassie, Y.
Schwartz, P. Symonds, I. Korolija, A. Mavrogianni & D. Mumovic
Integrating low energy cooling and ventilation strategies in
Indian residences
M. J. Cook, Y.
Shukla, R. Rawal, C. Angelopoulos, L. Caruggi-de-Faria, D. Loveday, E. Spentzou
& J. Patel
Internal thermal
mass for passive cooling and ventilation: adaptive comfort limits, ideal
quantities, embodied carbon
T. de Toldi, S.
Craig & L. Sushama
Overheating
assessment in Passivhaus dwellings: the influence of prediction tools
V. L. Goncalves,
V. Costanzo, K. Fabbri & T. Rakha
Comfort,
behaviour and energy: geothermal air-conditioning in a residential development
L. Thomas, A.
Woods, R. Powles, P. Kalali & S. Wilkinson
An alternative
approach to delivering safe, sustainable surgical theatre environments
C. A. Short, A.
W. Woods, L. Drumright, R. Zia & N. Mingotti
Air-conditioning
in New Zealand: power and policy
H. Byrd, S.
Matthewman & E. Rasheed
Providing Adequate Thermal Comfort in a Hotter World
E. Blennerhassett
Practical Approaches to Cooling: A UK Perspective
J. Godefroy & A. Mylona
Governments' Role in Providing Thermal Adequacy
B. Dean and E.W. Chege
Evaluating mitigation strategies for building stocks against absolute climate targets
L Hvid Horup, P K Ohms, M Hauschild, S R B Gummidi, A Q Secher, C Thuesen, M Ryberg
Equity and justice in urban coastal adaptation planning: new evaluation framework
T Okamoto & A Doyon
Normative future visioning: a critical pedagogy for transformative adaptation
T Comelli, M Pelling, M Hope, J Ensor, M E Filippi, E Y Menteşe & J McCloskey
Suburban climate adaptation governance: assumptions and imaginaries affecting peripheral municipalities
L Cerrada Morato
Urban shrinkage as a catalyst for transformative adaptation
L Mabon, M Sato & N Mabon
Maintaining a city against nature: climate adaptation in Beira
J Schubert
Ventilation regulations and occupant practices: undetectable pollution and invisible extraction
J Few, M Shipworth & C Elwell
Nature for resilience reconfigured: global- to-local translation of frames in Africa
K Rochell, H Bulkeley & H Runhaar
How hegemonic discourses of sustainability influence urban climate action
V Castán Broto, L Westman & P Huang
Fabric first: is it still the right approach?
N Eyre, T Fawcett, M Topouzi, G Killip, T Oreszczyn, K Jenkinson & J Rosenow
Gender and the heat pump transition
J Crawley, F Wade & M de Wilde
Social value of the built environment [editorial]
F Samuel & K Watson
Understanding demolition [editorial]
S Huuhka
Data politics in the built environment [editorial]
A Karvonen & T Hargreaves
European building passports: developments, challenges and future roles
M Buchholz & T Lützkendorf
Decision-support for selecting demolition waste management strategies
M van den Berg, L Hulsbeek & H Voordijk
Assessing social value in housing design: contributions of the capability approach
J-C Dissart & L Ricaurte
Electricity consumption in commercial buildings during Covid-19
G P Duggan, P Bauleo, M Authier, P A Aloise-Young, J Care & D Zimmerle
Disruptive data: historicising the platformisation of Dublin’s taxi industry
J White & S Larsson
Impact of 2050 tree shading strategies on building cooling demands
A Czekajlo, J Alva, J Szeto, C Girling & R Kellett
Social values and social infrastructures: a multi-perspective approach to place
A Legeby & C Pech
Resilience of racialized segregation is an ecological factor: Baltimore case study
S T A Pickett, J M Grove, C G Boone & G L Buckley
Latest Commentaries
Time to Question Demolition!
André Thomsen (Delft University of Technology) comments on the recent Buildings & Cities special issue ‘Understanding Demolition’ and explains why this phenomenon is only beginning to be understood more fully as a social and behavioural set of issues. Do we need an epidemiology of different demolition rates?
Where are Women of Colour in Urban Planning?
Safaa Charafi asks: is it possible to decolonialise the planning profession to create more inclusive and egalitarian urban settings? It is widely accepted that cities are built by men for other men. This male domination in urban planning results in cities that often do not adequately address challenges encountered by women or ethnic and social minorities. Although efforts are being taken to include women in urban planning, women of colour are still under-represented in many countries, resulting in cities that often overlook their needs.