Windows

PASSIVE RESILIENCE

Recorded by Sofie Pelsmakers, images by Essi Nisonen and Veera Saastamoinen

KEY READINGS 

• Pelsmakers, S.  The Environmental Design Pocketbook, RIBA

• Pelsmakers, S., Donovan, E., Hoggard, A., Kozminska, U., Designing for the climate emergency, a Guide for Architecture Students, RIBA (2022).

• Nick Baker and Koen Steemers, Healthy Homes: Designing with Light and Air for Sustainability and Wellbeing, 2019, RIBA Publishing

• Vivienne Brophy and J. Owen Lewis, A Green Vitruvius: Principles and Practice of Sustainable Architectural Design, 2012, Routledge

• Huw Heywood, 101 Rules of Thumb for Low Energy Architecture, 2021, RIBA Publishing

INSPIRATIONAL BUILT EXAMPLES

• Henning Larsen, Frederiksbjerg School, Aarhus, Denmark

• Helen & Hard – Vindmollebakken Housing, Stavanger, Norway

• AHR, Keynsham Civic Centre, UK

WINDOWS

Windows are an important design aspect of your project because they affect and are interconnected with many aspects of your design. Windows provide spatial delight and atmosphere, enable solar gains when desirable, and natural summer ventilation and cooling when needed and they allow light, views and connection to the outside. All of these aspects are important for comfort, health and wellbeing and energy use and associated carbon emissions in buildings. It is therefore important in your project that you consider windows from all its different aspects: ., their orientation, location, sizing, shading, thermal specification (U-values and g-values) but also their usability, openability and cleaning ability