This research addresses the dual environmental impact of the building sector, operational energy use and embodied carbon, by investigating passive and bio-inspired techniques as alternatives to conventional HVAC systems. Focusing on temperate climates, techniques are categorized into three layers following the Behling Diagram: architectural form, passive systems, and active systems. Each technique is analyzed through literature review and applied to a test design for a residential building in The Hague, Netherlands. A ranking system evaluates both architectural integration, based on visual comfort, spatial quality, and social value, and carbon efficiency, calculated per supplementary m2. Results show that form & orientation and sunspaces perform best across both metrics. The results are combined into a catalog, which can be used during early design phases. While the methodology highlights promising strategies for sustainable design, it is also acknowledged that limitations related to context-specific performance and material assessment are present. This study offers a comparative framework to support low energy-impact architectural decision making.

This graduation thesis consist of two parts a P2 research paper and a P5 presentation of a design. The paper describes the housing shortage twofold through the shortage itself and influences on it through the process of ageing. Afterwards the concept of collaborative housing is introduced, one form of collaborative housing is a housing cooperative. Following the introduction of a housing cooperative this paper describes ways of facilitating a housing cooperative through design. A literature study and four case studies will be used in answering this question of how to facilitate. Through an elaboration of the process of starting a housing cooperative this paper identifies inclusion, physical meetings and information transfer as the main problems. Following these problems the following design methods are identified as solutions: Open building plan, incorporation of a meeting space and an Incremental housing system. Lastly the paper concludes the design of a housing cooperative should embody the filosophy behind the housing cooperative: a decommodified type of housing.

The P5 material is a proposal of a design and self building method that derived from the research paper.