Good House

The separation between technical architectural science and design is reflected in the curriculum structure of many architecture and design schools around the globe. This has led to a difficulty in integrating building science and environmental systems with responsible and sustainable design. Whilst many books exist which cover either architectural design or architectural science, this book specifically integrates these elements together for the first time, in one volume. This book brings architectural science and environmental systems, together with other issues such as cost considerations, into design and design processes. It will discuss relevant related issues to the design stage that a designer is going through in a design project of a small scale building. For each design stage being discussed, the book presents a range of possibilities to deal with the problems, points of reference or other sources of information, as well as examples from other projects from around the world. Finally, detailed performance evaluation of real houses from across the globe and in a range of climatic areas will also be reported including their indoor conditions, energy and water uses, operation costs and occupant satisfactions. Inspired by the authors' years of experience in teaching architecture students based on the project-based learning/teaching approach, and observing students' learning experience in designing a small dwelling for a real client on a real site, the book provides: a focused use and application for designing and evaluating designs of small scale buildings, mainly residential buildings relevant information and design strategies that a designer can easily explore and apply in every design stage instead of presenting a range of topics or strategies without linking them to the design and evaluation processes and clear and honest information about the performances (user satisfaction, environmental performance and cost) of occupied houses, so that the readers can learn what design approaches can be more successful or less successful This book is about learning to accomplish a good, 'responsible' building and how to understand the integration between the theory and practice of design. It is essential reading for any student or new practitioner designing today.