13th – 17th June Zurich, Switzerland
www.sbe16.ethz.ch

The regional conference provides a platform for exchange between researchers and practitioners of the construction sector to foster system thinking in the built environment. Andrea Klinge and Eike Roswag-Klinge (Roswag Architekten) presents the latest project results with regards to benefits of natural building materials in light of natural ventilation.

Consuming over 40% of total primary energy, the built environment is in the centre of worldwide strategies and measures towards a more sustainable future. To provide resilient solutions, a simple optimisation of individual technologies will not be sufficient. In contrast, whole-system thinking reveals and exploits connections between parts. Each system interacts with others on different scales (materials, components, buildings, cities) and domains (ecology, economy and social). Whole-system designers optimize the performance of such systems by understanding interconnections and identifying synergies. The more complete the design integration, the better the result.