Environmental Design of Buildings

This volume envisions the most appropriate design strategies that guarantee the adequate environmental performance of buildings during phases of design and construction as well as use. The book addresses the design features of historic buildings.

A primer to green building design

The Elements of Architecture is a clear and well structured introduction to sustainable architecture, which concentrates on general principles to make an accessible and comprehensive primer for undergraduate students. The author takes a fresh and logical approach, focusing on the way aspects of the built environment are experienced by the occupants and how that experience is interpreted in architectural design.

By Blaine Erickson Brownell (University of Minnesota, USA)
Fundamental environmental challenges such as climate change, resource depletion, and pollution are still widely relevant in today’s world

The Green Studio Handbook remains an essential resource for design studios and professional practice. This extensive and user-friendly tool presents practical guidelines for the application of green strategies during the schematic design of buildings. Students and professionals can quickly get up to speed on system viability and sizing.

This book emphasizes the important message that architects and structural engineers must strive to ensure that the buildings they design and construct should not be major contributors to climate change. Rather, they should be exploring the use of green materials and building methods—such as timber, wood, and associated materials—in order to safeguard the environment. These sustainable materials are not only environmentally friendly, but they have the added benefit of being easy to manufacture, cost-effective, often locally available, and easily replenished. Moreover, it has been demonstrated that wood and timber are viable materials in the construction of a wide variety of building types, including medium and high-rise buildings.