Despite recent improvements in energy efficiency being made in new build it is important that the existing commercial building sector also take action to meet emission reduction targets. The objectives and challenges of such action will reduce the risk of the sector becoming obsolescent due to high energy use and poor environmental performance. This book presents a theory-based, practice-support methodology to deal with environmental retrofitting opportunities for existing commercial buildings in warm climates using bioclimatic design as the basis. The book has four main sections focusing on the context of climate change effects, the technological and behavioural contexts of the existing building sector in which policies, modeling, monitoring and trend analysis in respect to energy and environmental performance are covered. Next, the retrofitting brief as a 'design guide' for existing buildings highlighting the significance of architectural design and engineering systems for energy performance is presented.
The final part gives ten case studies showing the effectiveness of strategies suggested for effective environmental performance The book provides compelling information for all involved in the design and engineering of retrofitting projects.