Integrated Systems of Buildings' Upgrade and New Constructions

The design solutions presented in this paper are not necessarily new, because a lot of great ideas have been postulated over the recent years, but they are integrated in a compact package that can be used as a blueprint for different climates and different materials. In other words, the design solution is based on building physics. A realization that sustainable, energy efficient buildings require good indoor environment to provide well-being of people and increase their productivity, ensure durability of materials and systems and link moisture management in structures with indoor environment leads us to a new design paradigm for design of new construction as well as for retrofitting of the existing buildings. In both cold or hot climates we need to use thermal mass, thermal insulation and airtightness. Yet, we pay a penalty for too much thermal mass and thermal insulation in mixed climates. So undertaking to develop a system for moderating both indoor temperature and humidity that can be applied for both new and existing buildings we need to consider integration of the building enclosure with the heating, cooling and ventilation. If we succeed at this, we will be on the track to a substantial impact in the built environment. When talking about new materials, we find that methodology for predicting their field performance is often missing. Thus, to enable development of new technology we must also expand the capability for evaluation of material performance.

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