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Following the energy crisis, in 1973–1976, architecture schools proposed adding 10 cm of insulation to walls and solar panels on roofs. At no time has the energetic aspect been taken into consideration in the architectural act or the building design.

We offer an alternative to this, one possible answer among other possible answers, without claiming it to be the answer or the ultimate truth.

Our starting point is the observation that every building that we build or renovate is located somewhere, set within a certain climate. All these climates present positive and negative aspects. It is only humid tropical lowland climates that have exclusively negative aspects. The positive aspects are sometimes only at night, or simply because we are at a certain altitude and this enables us to act to guarantee the comfort of the occupants.

For us, from the design phase to the realization phase, the architectural act has two goals. The first is the search for the best match between the habitat – the building, the climate in which the building is located – and the occupant. The occupant is particularly important, because it is them who bring forward the comfort requirements. The four comfort requirements related to energy consumption are winter comfort, summer comfort, breathing comfort and visual comfort. In Belgium’s housing facilities, there is no difficulty in the summer to avoid the use of air conditioning, because buildings can be properly ventilated and offer adequate visual comfort during the day. However, in some cases, there is no way to meet these comfort requirements, and therefore we have to use additional elements, often mechanical ones. This leads us to the second goal: the search for the best possible match between the habitat, the additional facilities and the occupant.

We suggest that architects work in this manner: to design the building that meets the occupant’s goals as much as possible. If this is not enough, then we resort to technology, but not the other way around, as is often the case. When we have completed the entire design process, we will find what type of energy fits it best.

To be able to meet both goals, there are certain notions that the architect must understand, not simply know, but understand in order to be able to play with them. These notions are related to the climate and its characteristics, the comfort requirements of an individual, and the building’s physical features. We pondered how to present these physical notions to architects, so that they could easily understand them and naturally integrate them into their architecture. Thus, strategies were developed, meeting the goals of the above-mentioned four types of comfort: the heating strategy (when the building needs to be heated), the cooling strategy (when it needs to be cooled), the natural lighting strategy, and the ventilation strategy. Each of these strategies is based on a number of physical concepts.

Therefore, bioclimatism means taking the climate into account from the very first design plans: considering the positive aspects of a climate on the one hand, and protecting oneself from the negative aspects, on the other.

So, bioclimatic architecture is not like the trend that is present today: stuffing buildings with more and more systems.

After 20 years, these concepts have begun to be integrated into some buildings. In this context, I ask you a series of questions:

Are we not, in a certain way, stopping architecture? We tell ourselves that we cannot stop architecture. Everything that is said here is at the service of architecture, in no way diminishing the architect’s creativity, or the architectural quality of the architect’s work. I would even say the opposite: taking these notions into account and this approach will increase the architectural quality of the project and the architect’s creativity.

Is there not a risk of habitat mechanization nowadays? What are the responsibilities and the rights given to the occupant nowadays? Can the occupant still open the window? This may sound trivial, but in some recently-built buildings, they say, “above all, do not open the window”.

Is there not a risk of forgetting about other consumption? We focus on winter energy consumption, but there are plenty of other types of energy involved in the building. Is there not a risk of consuming more gray energy than use energy?