Mechanisms of climatically responsive building and principles of low-energy building design

Building working with climate is an important aspect of implementing low-energy or even zero-energy buildings. However, the use of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems to obtain a comfortable indoor environment in modern buildings remains a widespread “blind spot” in the theory and practice of modern architectural design. Furthermore, using these systems causes high energy consumption and costs, involves low utilization of natural climate resources, and lacks regional characteristics. Extensive field tests have demonstrated that “warm in winter and cool in summer” and low energy consumption are basic attributes of traditional regional architecture; however, its scientific principle and mechanism of climate adaptation are rarely discussed, resulting in the lack of application of its experience in modern design. Investigating the climate adaptation mechanism of traditional buildings and developing a climate-responsive theory and method for building energy-efficient design is the fundamental approach for designing and constructing low-energy buildings, inheriting and improving the ecological experience of regional buildings, and implementing “new regional architecture”. By integrating architecture, climate and building environmental science and examining the correlation between people, space, and the dynamics of climate in traditional regional buildings, all-around field tests covering all the climate zones in China are performed. These all-around field tests combine experiment and theoretical analysis, project demonstration, and standard application. Furthermore, the adaptation process of humans to natural climate and built environment, as well as the response mechanism and adaptation law of buildings to climate, are investigated, the key design indexes and parameters for controlling indoor climate through architectural design are suggested, and the critical threshold law of human being in the natural environment is obtained. Based on this, the low-energy building design method of implementing low-energy consumption operation and low-cost construction is proposed. This enables the building envelope structure and its enclosure space design to be responsive to dynamic climate fluctuation, thereby providing theoretical support for the inheritance of the ecological experience of regional buildings in China and the diversified regional manifestation of modern energy-efficient buildings. © 2023 Chinese Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.