Sun, Wind, and Light: Architectural Design Strategies, 3 edition

Book Preface

Purpose and evolution of Sun, Wind & Light The purposes of this third edition of Sun, Wind & Light (SWL) are aligned with those outlined in the fi rst edition preface: to help architectural designers who are not energy experts understand the energy consequences of their most basic design decisions. With this information they can then use energy issues to generate form rather than seeing them simply as limits that must be accommodated. Furthermore, this new edition is meant to provide designers with the preliminary design tools and strategies to meet and exceed the Architecture 2030 energy and carbon targets.

SWL has expanded in this edition from 109 to 150 Analysis Techniques and Design Strategies. It helps architects to design net-zero energy buildings by assisting them in creating sustainable designs based on site forces of sun, wind and light. SWL addresses issues of how to heat with the sun, cool with the wind and earth, light with the sky and make power with renewable energy. SWL serves both design professionals and students of design.

The new edition is not simply an update. Instead, it is a complete redesign and a mapping of the knowledge of preliminary phase net-zero energy design. Key to this new approach are three new methods:
1) The Design Strategy Map method, which allows us to map existing design strategies, identify missing strategies and reveal their hierarchical ‘vertical’ scalar structure.
2) The method of Strategy Bundles reveals the synergistic interrelationships among the strategies and issues.
3) A third approach, the Design Decision Chart, uses a design question-driven method for selecting design strategies and linking them together into Bundles.

Finally, we combine all these methods and resources into a searchable electronic resource, SWL Electronic, accessible in numerous ways not possible in print.