City planning and energy efficiency: towards an integrated urban design and planning process

Urban environments are great consumers of energy. In Spain, the housing-services sector is responsible for almost 30% of the total energy consumption, There are many initiatives towards the reduction of energy consumption in buildings. However, many of the alternatives are diminished due to a lack of a holistic approach in the planning, design, and building of new communities. This paper reports a new methodology that integrates concepts of energy efficiency in the overall planning and design process. A community in Toledo, Spain, serves as a case study to extract conclusions later applicable to other areas. The methodology evaluates energy efficiency solutions at different scales and stages within the planning and building process of both neighbourhood and buildings. It then revises the planning and building protocols for the optimization of the community's energy efficiency, contemplating their practical applicability. With this, the proposed integrated methodology is improved and adapted to a wide-reaching design of energy efficient urban communities.