Preface

Abstract

Admittedly, the world is witnessing a current urgency around environmental issues. The contribution that architecture and engineering can make towards a more sustainable world is considerable. Perhaps these professional communities have only just begun to embrace the basics of environmentally responsible design in practice. Over the last decade, even before the new millennium, we have witnessed a gradual improvement of the thermal performance of building components. Equally though, thermal comfort standards have become more stringent than ever, particularly within cities, where we have come to work, live and entertain ourselves in more civic ways. Similarly as the modes of transport and its efficiency have equally improved, we are still witnessing a serious degradation of air quality. The urban built environment has been dramatically affected by this two-pronged effect, both at building level, as well as on an urban scale, where the end result has brought about a drastic increase in carbon emissions. This comes at a time when design of new build and refurbishment of buildings has been driven by directives and standards towards curtailing energy demand in buildings and the deployment of more efficient ‘state of the art’ environmental control systems.