Author Description

Passive design has been widely identified as one of the most economical and effective strategies for sustainable building. The use of "animate" building space is one significant passive strategy in architectural design. It has two properties - organic and dynamic - and its type includes such as atriums, courtyards, wind towers, light wells, patios, sunspaces, etc. This book introduces a logical, scientific method of assessing building space performance. A multi-criteria approach was developed to validate and optimize the influence of animate spaces on sustainable buildings, with an emphasis on their influence on building environment quality and occupant satisfaction. Considering both the relationship between the building and people, and the building and the environment, and focusing primarily on of building design and building environment control, this book introduces an evaluation tool called SCTool. SCTool includes compasses that measure occupant satisfaction and indoor physical environment performance, and a Satisfaction-Comfort matrix that evaluates the fluctuating performances of animate spaces and the building's overall sustainable performance in building operating phase.