Keeping Things as They Are: How Status Quo Biases and Traditions along with a Lack of Information Transparency in the Building Industry Slow Down the Adoption of Innovative Sustainable Technologies

Climate change is one of the biggest challenges of this century. To contain its effects, the way we act would have to change significantly. Especially in the building sector, much progress can be made. Attempts have been made to stimulate sustainable behavior in the industry, for example, by implementing sustainable building measures in...

Prêt-à-Loger: Zero-energy home with maximum living quality increase

At the Solar Decathlon Europe 2014 (SDE2014) competition (Versailles, France), the team from the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) took a stance by not constructing a new-built house but demonstrating the energy renovation of a typical Dutch terraced house. Around a quarter of Dutch housing consists of terraced houses built between 1946...

Sustainable building practices: Legislative and economic incentives

Sustainable building has become the buzz word of commercial construction in the U.S. during the past decade. While sustainable building practices and energy efficiencies have been on the building industries radar screen for a number of years, the media intensity and owner interest seams to ebb and flow with the cost of energy. However since the...

A venturi-shaped roof for wind-induced natural ventilation of buildings: Wind tunnel and CFD evaluation of different design configurations

Wind tunnel experiments and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) are used to analyse the flow conditions in a venturi-shaped roof, with focus on the underpressure in the narrowest roof section (contraction). This underpressure can be used to partly or completely drive the natural ventilation of the building zones. The wind tunnel experiments are...

Analysis of material and energy efficiency of Mexican, Peruvian and Dutch dwellings using the three-step-strategy

Buildings consume resources and produces emissions to the environment during their life cycle. They consume materials during their construction, maintenance and renovation activities, consume energy and water during their use, and produce waste at the end of their useful life. There are several sustainable building methods for environmental...

Performance agreements for sustainable building in the renewal of post-war housing areas

Opportunities for the integration of energy conservation in the asset management of landlords

The use of fiscal instruments in sustainable building policies

Although progressive government guidelines and knowledge about sustainable building exist, sustainability measures are not adopted in large scale. Several barriers have been identified, especially the perceived costs of implementing environmental management and the lack of market demand. The choice of fiscal instruments is an important issue in...

Sustainable building and indoor air quality

Policies and regulations for sustainable building: A comparative study of five European countries

Sustainable housing in Europe

There is considerable variation in the extent to which environmental measures are adopted in housing construction in various European countries. Whereas sustainable housing is dearly part of day-to-day building practice in some countries, in others the topic seldom receives serious attention. None of the environmental measures which are...