SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS as a methodical approach to the development of design strategies for environmentally sustainable buildings

The field of environmentally sustainable architecture has been under development since the late 1960's when mankind first started to notice the consequences of industrialisation and modern lifestyle. Energy crises in 1973 and 1979, and global climatic changes ascribed to global warming have caused an increase in scientific and political awareness, which has lead to an escalation in the number of research publications in the field, as well as, legislative demands for the energy consumption of buildings. The publications in the field refer to many different approaches to environmentally sustainable architecture, such as: ecological, green, bio-climatic, sustainable, passive, low-energy and environmental architecture.

This PhD project sets out to gain a better understanding of environmentally sustainable architecture and the methodical approaches applied in the development of this type of architecture. The research methodology applied in the project combines a literature study of descriptions of methodical approaches and built examples with a sensitivity analysis and a qualitative interview with two designers from a best practice example of a practice that has achieved environmentally sustainable architecture through an integrated design approach. The findings of the literature study and the qualitative interview have directed the PhD project towards the importance of project specific design strategies and an integrated and multiprofessional approach to environmentally sustainable building design. The project therefore focuses on the issue of design strategy development in an experimental application of sensitivity analysis as a methodical approach to the development of a design strategy for a new energy-efficient residential building in Denmark. The outset of the analysis is a single family reference building through which the sensitivity of parameters relating to energy and residential building design are analysed. In conclusion the PhD project discusses the strengths and weaknesses of sensitivity analysis as a methodical approach to design strategy development, and makes a suggestion for the development of a tool that supports project specific design strategy development.