Energy climate buildings: an introduction to designing future-proof buildings in New Zealand and the tropical Pacific

It is only in the last 100 years that mankind has harnessed enough energy from, primarily, fossil fuels to be able to construct buildings that have been able to ignore the climate around them and exclude the natural environment from within them. Energy has allowed architects to design buildings that can ignore natural ventilation, daylight and the sun’s energy by replacing it with an artifi cial environment that is air-conditioned, humidifi ed and artifi cially lit. This ability to use mechanical means to control the environment has allowed architects to freely experiment with the form, fabric and materials of a building in the knowledge that however poorly the building envelope performs, the internal environment of a building can always be remedied by using more energy for cooling, heating or lighting. Architecture must now move away from those designs and styles that exclude the natural environment and move towards those that select aspects of the environment in order to maintain control of the internal environment. These are designs that are characterised by a built form that maximises the use of ambient energy, takes account of the sun’s position and allow occupants to intervene in the control system. New Zealand has historically lagged behind European countries in introducing higher standards for the environmental performance of buildings. For example, it introduced a Building Code requiring double glazing some 30 years after the UK and a rating tool for assessing buildings some 20 years behind. At the beginning of the second decade of the 21st century New Zealand is still building glass boxes and calling them ‘sustainable’. There is at present a strange paradox where buildings can have a ‘sustainability’ rating of “best practice” and yet have a building envelope that is on the threshold of breaking the law (Building Code).