Housing and its architectural characteristics physically change in step with changes in culture, social demographics, behavior and environmental structures. These physical changes influence the environment and housing because of contemporary life-styles and behaviors. The cultural identity which...

This paper introduces designs, technologies, and best practices aimed at reducing the cooling energy demand in buildings. It covers the basic principles of why occupants need cooling to meet thermal comfort requirements and how heat is transferred into buildings from the outdoor environment....

Clay is a local construction material used in a traditional building, it has many environmental, social and cultural benefits. The present research study focuses on improving the thermophysical properties of clay extracted from Erfoud city in the south-east of Morocco by incorporating natural...

One of the top priorities in the building design process is minimizing energy consumption. Moreover, the level of occupants' comfort directly affects their learning ability Therefore, this paper uses a multi-objective approach to optimize the architectural design features, including some newly...

Recent studies suggest a core-periphery pattern of energy poverty in the European Union. The energy vulnerability of Romania, Bulgaria, and the economies of the Visegrad Group as peripheral countries is frequently attributed to the legacy of the centrally planned economy and post-communist...

This paper evaluates a field experiment in Mexico in which a quasi-experimental sample of new homes was provided with insulation and other energy efficient upgrades. A novel feature of our study is that we deploy large numbers of data loggers which allow us to measure temperature and humidity at...