Creating comfortable climatic cities: comfort and climate as instruments for healthy interior, architectural & urban (re)design

After decades of being deemed the idealistic hobby of a niche group of fanatics, Green has finally entered the mainstream of the architectural service industry. However, most architects and urban planners are not yet adequately equipped to translate the challenges of climate change and resource and energy depletion into integrated sustainable solutions. Parametric Bioclimatic Design is an approach that fuses the concepts of climate responsive design, resource efficiency and comfort at the interior, building and urban scales. It combines a range of existing methodologies and tools for elaborating design constraints to incorporate a broad range of sustainability issues into the design process. Climate and comfort are brought into alignment, forming valuable design instruments that link the realms of architecture, engineering and building. The aim is to develop regionally specific, climate responsive designs that are socially and culturally embedded in the local context through the appropriate use of materials, stateof-the-art technologies and building traditions. When combined with smart processes and financial constructions, this approach will help designers to contribute to the positive development of social, economic and ecological capital. The research chair for Sustainable Architecture and Urban (Re)Design at Rotterdam University of Applied Science is headed by Professor Duzan Doepel. Trained in South Africa and the Netherlands, Doepel draws on third world design and development strategies to inform the local sustainability discourse. His practice, DOEPEL STRIJKERS, strives to bridge the gap between research and design through the realisation of integrated sustainable interior and architectural projects and the development of urban strategies.