Buildings and Cities

The Buildings and Cities research programme is orientated toward the key values of Energy Strategy 2050 and the targets set by the ideals of the 2,000 watt society. The SIA path toward energy efficiency serves as an instrument to evaluate how well each building meets targets. Efficiency and emission-free generation of energy are still the main themes, however, increasing attention is being directed toward the influence of users.

Current research priorities

Sites and districts

Further development of sustainability strategies; Optimised interaction of production of energy, storage, distribution and consumption; Buildings and sites as energy service providers; resiliency with respect to the global climate development microclimates in urban centres.

Buildings

Long-term reduction of the energy consumption of old buildings; BIM in life cycle assessment;Embodied energy, minimisation of material flows, use of energy, material and building data at planning and operation stages; Building shell: conflict between areas, innovative systems, new technologies; Cooling in view of the future climate; Building automation, monitoring and system optimisation; Heating systems with low CO2 emissions and low electricity consumption in the winter.

Consumers, market, policy

Feedback systems; Incentive systems for sufficiency; Acceptance of building automation solutions: influence of privacy and security, flexibility of use, user interfaces.