This study uses numerical thermal simulation to investigate the potential use of building geometry to eliminate or reduce current and future thermal discomfort overheating risk in UK Passivhaus dwellings. The study focused on the optimum inclination of a south façade to make use of the building shape to self-protect itself. Dynamic simulation modelling software was used to test a range of different inclined façades with regards to their effectiveness in reducing overheating risk. The research found that implementing a tilted façade could completely eliminate the risk of overheating for current UK climates, but with some consequences for natural ventilation and daylighting. Future overheating was significantly reduced by the tilted façade. However, geometric considerations could not eradicate completely the risk of thermal discomfort overheating, particularly by the 2080s.
This essay criticises prevalent current sustainable architecture and proposes a conceptual framework for sustainable design practice. It argues that sustainable building standards, have failed to capture a more multi-dimensional and inclusive worldview, and therefore many influential architects have neglected implementing such principles. An analysis of literature shows that a large body of research published in the field of sustainable architecture takes a positivistic perspective and that few published articles have looked at sustainable architecture from the standpoint of the critical humanities, allowing non-positivistic viewpoints. The proposed conceptual framework, adapted from Ken Wilber's integral theory and substantiated through the lens of Gumbrecht's identification of a culture of meaning and a culture of presence, provides an opportunity to oscillate between positivistic and non-positivistic ideologies and between subjective and objective values. The framework's usefulness is demonstrated through case studies of Glenn Murcutt's work. Architects are invited to practise sustainability through this integral framework: to entangle subjective and objective, individual and collective approaches, and to exercise the physics and metaphysics of sustainable design through consideration of the culture of meaning and the culture of presence. 1
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