Achieving energy efficiency in buildings design through innovative planning and design solutions

Abstract

The idea that the, earth is a finite planet in the mathematical sense is commonly accepted today. In 1972, both the Club of Rome, in its report, (Meadows et al, 1972), and the first Earth summit in Stockholm expressed this idea. This amounts to all its resources including fossil energy being limited. Renewable resources, already partially tapped, will only replace a portion of this energy. This substitution will be difficult to accomplish since the level of predation of human beings on the planet is causing serious malfunctioning of the biosphere. The building sector does not escape from today’s spotlight on the environmental impacts of human activities. Buildings are major energy consumer during both construction and ‘usage, and also generate large quantities of waste. Built up structures are consumers of 40% of the global primary energy and generator of 24% co2 emission. As such, criticality of buildings and their role in minimizing energy consumption and promoting sustainability of human habitat assumes importance. The options relating to building materials, building technologies, landscaping, heating and cooling system etc have already been explored. It is logical to apply the principles of energy costing to building prospects and look for ways to minimize energy consumption during their entire lifetime. Accordingly, the paper focuses on design strategies for making building highly energy efficient and sustainable in terms of site planning, macro and micro climatic conditions, landscaping, orientation, fenestration and shading and building materials. It discusses two case studies from India incorporating innovative design solutions to achieve energy efficiency.