Search

Countries in Eastern-Europe have similar characteristics due to their common historical and economic backgrounds. A large part of the housing stock has been built during the Soviet era, applying uniform solutions and similar standards, but similarities extend to other periods as well. On the other hand, the differences should also be noted – although the climate is mainly continental, there are significant variations between South and North and between mountainous and flat areas. In this paper, a detailed comparative analysis is presented for Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary and the Czech Republic. The results are based on the residential building typologies developed within the TABULA/EPISCOPE project co-funded by the Intelligent Energy Europe Programme. Typical building types will be presented, covering building structures and systems. Important energy performance indicators are identified and compared, supported by available statistical data about the housing stock. The added value of the paper consists of the analysis of heterogeneous data sources and collecting and comparing the information of the housing stock under a common comparison framework of building typology data between countries, and the contribution in the harmonization of the building typology approach.

Green building assessment is currently being introduced into Serbian building practice. Since there is no Serbian certification system which could support building assessment, and especially lighting design evaluation, this paper analyzes and compares the lighting design criteria of three international certification systems, LEED, BREEAM and CASBEE. Specific requirements for each considered criterion, as well as the grading structure and stringency of these systems, are also analyzed. Based on the conclusions of these analyses, a new set of criteria, some of which are original, are offered in order to be incorporated into the future Serbian certification system. Taking into account that the structure of the future system is unknown, the basic applied principle was simplicity for application and, therefore, a single requirement is defined for each criterion. Finally, a hierarchy within the new set of criteria is established for both indoor and outdoor lighting. Mandatory criteria are selected first, while the remaining criteria are divided into two groups based on their relevance. Although predominantly intended for the improvement of Serbian building practice, the proposed set of assessment criteria is general and can be used throughout the world.