Energy sufficiency in buildings, a synonym for passive and low energy architecture (PLEA)

ABSTRACT

Energy sufficiency in buildings means making the most of the environmental energy that can be exploited directly by the building’s physics. To happen this requires a full dialogue with place and proper design and materials to respond, as much as possible, to the energy needs within the building, typically related to the provision of comfort and the overall wellbeing of its occupants. It can be said that the Passive and Low Energy Architecture movement, PLEA, has promoted, for over thirty-five years, all avenues for energy sufficiency in buildings through the exploitation of ‘sound architectural’ design potentials. Between the approach of vernacular architecture, particularly relevant in the Mediterranean basin, and the concept of energy sufficiency, there is an opportunity to facilitate, enrichen and clarify the dialogue with energy service stakeholders and related policy makers to result in better architectural design, contributing towards the advancement of PLEA’s perspective, strategy, wisdom and practice.

KEYWORDS:

• Energy sufficiency
• designing with the climate
• adaptive comfort

Acknowledgements

This paper is based on and extends upon a conference paper by the same title presented at the Passive Low Energy Architecture Conference in Edinburgh, Scotland, in July 2017 (Samani, Santos, and de Oliveira Fernandes 2017). The authors gratefully acknowledge the funding of Project NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000010 – Health, Comfort and Energy in the Built Environment (HEBE), co-financed by Programa Operacional Regional do Norte (NORTE2020), through Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional (FEDER).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Hugo Santos http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5331-5901

Pouya Samani http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7843-5280

Eduardo de Oliveira Fernandes http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5694-3599

Additional information

Funding

The authors gratefully acknowledge the funding of Project NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000010 – European Regional Development Fund (FEDER, Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional).