Bioclimatic Architecture

1. Bioclimatic architecture is concerned with designing buildings based on the local climate, to ensure coolness in the summer and natural heating in the winter, utilizing solar energy and other environmental resources.

Basic principles of bioclimatic architecture:

• Use of window and door frames that are highly air-tight and have a low heat transfer.
• Organization of the interior in relation to the wind directions.
• Usage of materials with high heat capacity.
• Use of appropriate vegetation.
• Reducing heat loads by using surfaces with a high reflectivity coefficient.
• Usage of shading systems.
• Correlation of barrier buildings - open spaces and avoiding the Bernoulli phenomenon.
• Situating the building properly (correlation of height and distance).
• Ensuring an unhindered sky view for the external areas.
• Usage of insulation on the shell of buildings.
• Avoiding thermal bridges (with the installation of proper insulation).
• Usage of buffer zones.
• Proper orientation of zones.
• Positioning of properly measured openings ensuring direct solar thermal results.
• Usage of passive systems of indirect solar results.
• Usage of adequate thermal mass.
• Ventilation of interiors of the buildings ensuring optimal conditions of night ventilation.
• Installation of light radiation control systems for the distribution of natural light and protection against dazzle.
• Taking advantage of the heat capacity of the building to control the internal temperature.
• Usage of solar chimney.

With the bioclimatic design, we save up to 45% of energy. Our company has extensive experience in bioclimatic architecture.

2. Particulars on bioclimatic architecture orientation and positioning of the building.

• The house we are going to build should be oriented to the south to ensure maximum use of solar radiation. In the winter the sun moves low in the southern sky and can easily penetrate the house through the windows. Thus, in the winter our house can warm up to 60-70% from the sun, if we have large windows facing south. The northern side of the building is valuable during the summer months as the north winds that blow into the house through the openings can keep our home cool throughout the season.

CONSTRUCTION PLANNING

• Zone orientation in a bioclimatic house. The dining room and the kitchen are placed on the eastern side of the building for the light and the solar energy of the first hours of the day. The bedrooms better be placed in the southern part of the building to collect the thermal energy of the sun in the afternoon. Stairs, corridors, warehouses, built-in garages are placed on the northern side of the building.
• Window orientation A bioclimatic house should have large windows facing south and small ones facing north.
• Ventilation of a Bioclimatic house
• Passive Solar Systems Passive systems (such as solar walls, patios, etc.) are key elements of the bioclimatic design as they are installed in order to take advantage of the environmental sources for heating, cooling and lighting of the building. Solar walls act as solar radiation collectors. Solar patios are interiors with glass roofs and function as greenhouses, trapping the thermal radiation of the sun.

3. Basic elements of a bioclimatic design are the passive systems (canopies, awnings, pergolas) which are incorporated in a building to make use of the natural resources for the heating, cooling and lighting of a building. The thermal efficiency of a building depends on the following:

• Sunshine
• Outside air temperature
• Relative Humidity
• Winds blowing in the region
• Vegetation In the region
• Shading from adjacent buildings

4. Building protection systems aimed at reducing the thermal load during the summer months.

• Roof garden
• Natural airing
• Solar radiation barrier (awnings, kiosks etc).
• Overshadowing of frames through awnings, pergolas, balconies etc.
• Reflective exterior surface coatings
• Hybrid ventilation (ceiling fan)
• Ventilation chimney
• Solar chimney

5. The energy benefits gained from the application of bioclimatic architecture are rendered through the following:

• Saving Energy by using thermal stop frames.
• Use of structural components that repel radiation in the summer and collect the thermal radiation of the sun in the winter.
• Thermal energy production through solar energy systems.