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Energy Sufficiency in Buildings and Cities

Energy Sufficiency in Buildings and Cities

How can conditions be created for decent living standards for all without exceeding planetary limits?

Energy and climate policies have tended to focus on the promotion of energy efficiency and renewable energies, but there is no evidence that these measures alone will be able to meet climate and sustainable development goals. This special issue explores what the concept of sufficiency means for the built environment - both as a floor (minimum) and a ceiling (maximum) to ensure a "good life". Sufficiency is explored in many interconnected issues such as land use and density, space usage (size and adaptability), sharing of goods, services and spaces, and space conditioning (heating, cooling and ventilation) for health.

Guest editors: Tina Fawcett, Sarah Darby & Marlyne Sahakian

The papers in this special issue contribute to shared understandings around sufficiency among diverse actors including professionals and members of civil society; how studies aim at assessing the potential of sufficiency measures; what efforts are being made to learn from and build on existing sufficiency measures, as well as initiatives that seek to experiment with sufficiency; and what conceptual advances are being put forward relevant to sufficiency research and action.

In addition to energy, some papers in this special issue focus on one of the most difficult discussions around sufficiency in housing: reducing housing space per person. It is feasible to frame sufficiency as a way to promote wellbeing and the good life i.e. live better while consuming less.

Other papers help to chart future directions for research and action by relating to theories of justice, focusing on elite consumption, or considering ways to engage in sufficiency with existing material and institutional arrangements.

There is likely to be increased demand for reliable basic modern energy services from hundreds of millions of people who do not yet have access to them. How can these be met in ways that avoid the huge environmental and social costs of the last two centuries? The question of justice is integral to these reflections, particularly justice in recognition - of vulnerabilities, of limited agency, and of unacknowledged over- and under-consumption

Table of contents

Energy sufficiency in buildings and cities: current research, future directions [editorial]
M. Sahakian, T. Fawcett & S. Darby

Living smaller: acceptance, effects and structural factors in the EU
M. Lehner, J. L. Richter, H. Kreinin, P. Mamut, E. Vadovics, J. Henman, O. Mont & D. Fuchs

Are people willing to share space? Household preferences in Finland
E. Ruokamo, E. Kylkilahti, M. Lettenmeier & A. Toppinen

Sufficiency, consumption patterns and limits: a survey of French households
J. Bouillet & C. Grandclément

Imagining sufficiency through collective changes as satisfiers
O. Moynat & M. Sahakian

Provide or prevent? Exploring sufficiency imaginaries within Danish systems of provision
L. K. Aagaard & T. H. Christensen

'Rightsize': a housing design game for spatial and energy sufficiency
P. Graham, P. Nourian, E. Warwick & M. Gath-Morad

US urban land-use reform: a strategy for energy sufficiency
Z. M. Subin, J. Lombardi, R. Muralidharan, J. Korn, J. Malik, T. Pullen, M. Wei & Tianzhen Hong

Operationalising energy sufficiency for low-carbon built environments in urbanising India
A. Lall & G. Sethi

Operationalising building-related energy sufficiency measures in SMEs
I. Fouiteh, J. D. Cabrera Santelices, A. Susini & M. K. Patel

Implementing housing policies for a sufficient lifestyle
M. Bagheri, L. Roth, L. Siebke, C. Rohde & H.-J. Linke

Promoting neighbourhood sharing: infrastructures of convenience and community
A. Huber, H. Heinrichs & M. Jaeger-Erben

New insights into thermal comfort sufficiency in dwellings
G. van Moeseke, D. De Grave, A. Anciaux, J. Sobczak & G. Wallenborn

Energy sufficiency and recognition justice: a study of household consumption
Alice Guilbert

Structural barriers to sufficiency: the contribution of research on elites
M. Koch, K. Emilsson, J. Lee & H. Johansson

Promoting practices of sufficiency: reprogramming resource-intensive material arrangements
T. H. Christensen, L. K. Aagaard, A.K. Juvik, C. Samson & K. Gram-Hanssen

Latest Peer-Reviewed Journal Content

Journal Content

Retrofitting Norwegian residential buildings: an archetype-based dynamic stock model
L S A Rousseau, S Amini, S Akin & E G Hertwich

Decolonising time: vernacular villages and the politics of heritage temporality
R Al-Rabady

Commutes to alternative workplaces: GHG emissions and physical activity
J Taylor, L Thoen, A Espinosa Mireles De Villafranca, P Anashin, J Vanhatalo, D Milián Bernal & I Okkonen

Nine ‘myths’ about the building stock of Great Britain
S Evans, P Steadman, A Neto-Bradley, D Humphrey, R Liddiard,H Shamsi, J Palmer & G Simons

Critical Reconstruction Theory and the invention of post-disaster response
G Lizarralde, D Wachsmuth, F Özdoğan & M Cossu

Post-war reconstruction-as-knowledge practice: Fukui’s dual disaster recovery
A Y F Urushima & K Yamaguchi

Critical reflections on the process of interdisciplinary building science research
G T Morgan, M F Touchie, J Robinson, A Jakubiec & J Tran

Comparing technical disassembly potential methods for concrete and timber buildings
N Westerholm, A Tuure, S Pajunen & M Kuittinen

One-stop shops as leverage points for renovation sufficiency
G Pardalis & M Sula

Creating resilient cities: advocacy and planning for equity-based recovery
A Paidakaki

Impact of glazed balcony design on daylight in Finnish apartments
L Jegard, R Castaño-Rosa & S Pelsmakers

Climate-related risks: implications for municipal governments in Brazil
C Nastari Fernandes, P Ciminelli Ramalho & F Lima-Silva

Changing land-use metrics in mass housing: Türkiye case study
M S Çepni, A K Kutluca, T Salihoğlu, A Atmaca & S Mintemur

Personal comfort systems for adults with intellectual disabilities
K Exss, M Trebilcock, P Wegertseder-Martínez, S Schiavon & H Zhang

How buildings shape occupant movement: a systematic review and framework
G Chinazzo & N Wang

Rethinking the second life of post-disaster and post-conflict temporary housing
N Akdede, B Ö Ay & İ Gürsel Dino

Embodied carbon impacts of residential development siteworks: new assessment framework
P Comerford, O Kinnane, R O’Hegarty & P Crowe

Horizontal building extensions: potential in Finnish blocks of flats
J Tarpio & P Lehtovuori

Post-disaster reconstruction and ethics: the power of social capital
B Ubesingha, G Ofori, G Agyekum-Mensah & D Frings

Towards net zero: sectoral ambitions and global trends in building decarbonisation
C E Caballero-Güereca, J Vogel, N Alaux, C M Ouellet-Plamondon, J Silva Santana, G Foliente, T Lützkendorf & A Passer

Climate literacy and labour agency in vocational education and training
J Calvert, V Price, C Winch, L Clarke, M Sahin-Dikmen, P-L Bilodeau & E Dionne

Towards a new neighbourhood-scale climate risk-adaptation approach
C Rigoni, S Oliveira, O Romice, A Moreno-Rangel & A Chatzimichali

Sharing energy renovations know-how through citizen–professional knowledge networks
C Foulds, S Royston, A Aggeli, A Crowther & R Robison

Environmental impacts of reclaimed bricks: comparing different deconstruction methods
E Salmio & S Huuhka

eCOMBINE: framework for energy, comfort, behaviour and a multi-domain environment
V M Barthelmes, C Karmann, V Gonzalez Serrano, K Lyu, J Wienold, M Andersen, D Licina & D Khovalyg

Living labs as ‘agents for change’ [editorial]
N Antaki, D Petrescu & V Marin

See all peer reviewed articles

Latest Commentaries

Sao Paolo, Brazil. Image: Google Earth. Map data: Google Landsat / Copernicus Data SIO, NOAA, U.S. Navy, NGA, GEBCO. Imagery from the dates: 14/12/2015 – 01/01/2021.

At the 2026 Sustainable Buildings and Construction Summit Magnus Andersson, David Muthui & Reza Roodaki (Malmö University) argued that remote sensing should be a core evidence infrastructure for sustainable urban governance. Satellite derived and geospatial analysis can observe and monitor urban expansion, densification, land consumption, building form and material demand across jurisdictions and over time. A shift from two-dimensional to three-dimensional sensing and analysis provides new data to inform policies for housing, land-use efficiency, disaster exposure, public space, resource efficiency and resilient construction.

Disaster Reconstruction: Practitioner Insights Improve Outcomes

Regan Potangaroa (Auckland University of Technology - AUT), Kelvin Zuo (Massey University), Suzanne Wilkinson (AUT) explain why experience-led knowledge from the field, when triangulated with contemporaneous documentation, can constitute evidence for understanding post-disaster reconstruction systems. People working within reconstruction environments (engineers, builders, logisticians and community actors) provide crucial observations about how reconstruction systems function in practice, particularly supply chains, material flows, procurement and governance in post-disaster rebuilding. Integrating this knowledge can lead to better outcomes.

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