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Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) have been proposed to be additional architectural design mediums for at least 25 years (Dagit, 1993). Despite rapid technical and technological development, it has not been adopted into architectural design practices as compared to academia and research. Surveys from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and Royal Institutes of British Architects (RIBA) demonstrate the state of architectural practices; 72% of architects and 65% of architects respectively are not using any kind of virtual, augmented, or mixed reality in their practices(RIBA and Microsoft, 2018; Hampson, 2020). In this paper, the authors investigate the state of practices, issues, challenges, and opportunities of the utilization of virtual, augmented, and mixed realities in six architectural practices in the Danish context. Three of the practices are large architectural practices, one medium-sized practice specializing in institutional, healthcare and cultural architecture, and one firm designing private family houses, kindergartens, daycares and places for people with disability and, one experimental design studio. All these practices have used VR/AR in their projects to various degrees. In recent years Danish architectural practices have been involved in various VR/AR-based exhibitions, demonstrations, and tool developments to promote the usage of the same in design practice. Through a set of qualitative interviews with personnel from key architectural practices, the authors would like to demonstrate the present state of practices. The investigation explores the usage of VR and AR in Danish architecture practices by identifying challenges and opportunities regarding skill levels, architectural typology, use cases, toolchains, and workflow and shows similarities and differences between traditional and VR-based design processes. The main findings show how VR/AR-based visualization helps architects to perceive spatiality and also ushers creativity through immersion and overlays.

Climate change is a threat. Houses we inhabit should conform to changes in the environment. The housing sector is vulnerable to climate changes, since the inhabitants are more exposed than in commercial buildings. Studies find modern sustainable buildings are at risk from thermal changes due to lower resilience from a focus on energy savings. Through simulation studies of three sustainable houses in Denmark, their viability to climate change is tested. Four thermal adaptation strategies were simulated: defensive, reactive, embedded, and air conditioning. The operative temperature and energy use for heating is registered for occupancy rooms in the buildings. The simulations show a tendency that adaptation through passive means use the same or up to 5% less energy as the unmodified buildings in the simulations but are unable to uphold thermal comfort, where active technologies use 25%-260% more energy than the baseline in 2080. Reactive strategies provided best thermal comfort in most rooms and scenarios, balancing energy and thermal environment. Air conditioning removed most thermal discomfort but increased the energy use with 45%-260% by 2080. The recommendation would be to enable upscaling of mechanical ventilation by a factor of two over the minimum regulation of 0.3 l/s/m2 with the ability to bypass heat recovery, aided by passive solutions such as strategic planting of deciduous trees and solar shading to reduce energy use further.

Since a large portion of greenhouse gases are emitted by the building sector, there has been a push towards sustainable low energy architecture, which could help mitigate the effects of climate change. Although climate change is considered inevitable, adaptive measures must be taken in the field of architecture to alleviate its impact. Creating an overview of the state of the art in the field of architecture as it adapts to climate change will help identify the problems and possibilities of architectural adaptation. The aim must be to create buildings that are as suitable to the current climate as they are to the climate of the future. It is challenging to reconcile the energy requirements for contemporary buildings with rising temperatures and extreme weather. The literature on the subject is explored through iterative searches in scientific databases. In discussions about the possible adaptations to climate change, there needs to be a focus on human adaptation facilitated by architecture and the built environment's utilization and support of ecosystem services in adaptation strategies. There are plenty of strategies and technologies from which to draw but little focus on how these should support the design of a building and its inhabitants.In the future it will be necessary to look at the adaptive capacity of a building itself and how the building can benefit its surroundings. Since a large portion of greenhouse gases are emitted by the building sector, there has been a push towards sustainable low energy architecture, which could help mitigate the effects of climate change. Although climate change is considered inevitable, adaptive measures must be taken in the field of architecture to alleviate its impact. Creating an overview of the state of the art in the field of architecture as it adapts to climate change will help identify the problems and possibilities of architectural adaptation.The aim must be to create buildings that are as suitable to the current climate asthey are to the climate of the future and maintain an ability to resist the impacts of climate change; this ability to resist potential change is defined as adaptive capacity. It is challenging to reconcile the energy requirements for contemporary buildings with rising temperatures and extreme weather in temperate climate zones. The literature on the subject is explored through iterative searches in scientific databases.In discussions about the possible adaptations to climate change, there needs tobe a focus on human adaptation facilitated by architecture and the built environment’s utilization and support of ecosystem services in adaptation strategies, since the scope of climate change reaches beyond the singular building. There are plenty of strategies and technologies from which to draw but little focus on how these should support the design of a building and its inhabitants. In the future it will be necessary to look at the adaptive capacity of a building itself and how the building can benefit its surroundings.

Climate change will affect the same climate zones relatively similarly. When considering how to design residential architecture for future climates it is therefore relevant to understand how residential architecture can adapt within the specific climate zone. Denmark is placed within the oceanic climate zone and shares many of the same problems that countries in similar climates do. However, the architectural responses have developed radically different. Denmark has been building heating efficient housing for the last decade, which have lately caused increased overheating problems and surging energy demands for cooling. This paper compares the architecture of different oceanic zones with Danish architecture. The strategies for adapting to climate change represents a broad variety. Western European tradition has itself created varied methods for coping with the climatic struggles their societies meet. Danish architecture has for centuries been focused on heavy robust constructions that would withstand the large amount of precipitation and wind that is predominant in the country. In Holland flood danger has been a constant threat to society, which has led both to defensive and reactive measures in the form of dykes and amphibious housing. On the other side of the globe, New Zealand’s traditional architecture has adapted to similar problems but with a much lighter construction, leading to architecture that is resilient to lateral forces like wind and earthquakes. While lacking the thermal properties of northern European houses the New Zealand homes show a remarkable flexibility and mobility through simple timber-frame constructions. The vulnerabilities in the Danish building stock is due to an unwillingness to invest in adaptive measures. It might be necessary to integrate a flexible building style to future sustainable housing and build up a different expectation for how a house is used. In the face of climate change, architecture need to be adapted to the problems apparent on the building site and draw on experiences from other cultures that might have faced similar problems in the past. Danish architects might likewise use the non-rocky ground for water retention through planting and landscaping strategies in relation to architecture.

Several projects constructed during the last years demonstrate that it is possible to design buildings which can be defined as “zero-energy buildings”. However, research show that it can be difficult to meet the expected low energy consumption. Studies suggest that one of the reasons for this is that occupants' behaviour and lifestyle strongly influence the final energy consumption. This paper presents a preliminary study of a larger research project that studies the relation between energy use and user practice and habits as well as the users' expectations to and experiences of living in a newly built nearly zero-energy youth housing complex in Denmark. The objective of this study is to examine to what extend user practice and habits influence the energy consumption and on that basis to identify representative user characteristics within this specific user group. Methodologically this is done through a case study where data on measured energy consumption for space heating is juxtaposed with the results of a questionnaire survey. The study indicates that variations in heat consumption across the apartments are not primarily related to apartment type, orientation or floor, but rather related to the inhabitants' use of their apartment.

Sustainability certification schemes experience grooving popularity. Few years ago, Denmark got its own sustainability certification scheme based on the German DGNB certification scheme run by Green Building Council Denmark. Investigations of the design processes underlying four Danish DGNB certified healthcare centers show that the architectural design has been taken too fare in the initial phases without analysing and documenting several DGNB criteria. It creates a “point of no return”, which means it is not possible to prioritise the assessment points in the certifications scheme when needed. Further, it confirms the importance of multidisciplinary collaboration, including the DGNB consultant, from the early design stages. The research suggests further investigations of challenges regarding design process and decision-making on a more common level to verify the findings on a more general level. The objective of the study presented in this paper, is to investigate the challenges related to the design process experienced by practice when designing sustainable buildings using the Danish DGNB certification scheme. Questionnaires are sent to all Danish DGNB consultant and auditors to be able to cover a wide variety of projects and level of experience with the DGNB scheme.The preliminary results show that DGNB projects require a large amount of documentation and the design process requires a large amount of manual data input in different tools handles by different stakeholders, e.g. tools for calculating life-cycle assessment, energy use and daylight etc. Furthermore, the study discovers a need for developing methodologies and tools to support the initial design phases securing an iterative design process and decision-making on sufficient level of knowledge. Sustainability certification schemes experience growing popularity. Denmark got its own sustainability certification scheme based on the German DGNB certification scheme. Previous work based on four case studies – DGNB certified healthcare centres, suggests further research on how to improve and support the iterative design process in the initial design phases. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to investigate the design process on a more common level experienced by Danish DGNB consultants when designing sustainable buildings using the Danish DGNB certification scheme and thereby possibly verify the findings of previous work, on a more general level. To be able to cover a wide variety of projects and levels of experience with the DGNB scheme, a questionnaire is distributed to Danish DGNB consultants. The survey shows that the design teams to a smaller degree use the DGNB consultant along the design process and particularly so in the early design stages. At the same time, it shows that especially LCA, LCC and acoustical comfort are hardly implemented before the final stages of the design, questioning the holistic nature of the design. The study shows a potential in developing methods and tools to support the initial design phases.

Several projects constructed during the last years demonstrate that it is possible to design buildings which can be defined as “zero-energy buildings”. However, research show that it can be difficult to meet the expected low energy consumption. Studies suggest that one of the reasons for this is that occupants’ behaviour and lifestyle strongly influence the final energy consumption.This paper presents a preliminary study of a larger research project that studies the relation between energy use and user practice and habits as well as the users’ expectations to and experiences of living in a newly built nearly zero-energy youth housing complex in Denmark. The objective of this study is to examine to what extend user practice and habits influence the energy consumption and on that basis to identify representative user characteristics within this specific user group. Methodologically this is done through a case study where data on measured energy consumption for space heating is juxtaposed with the results of a questionnaire survey. The study indicates that variations in heat consumption across the apartments are not primarily related to apartment type, orientation or floor, but rather related to the inhabitants’ use of their apartment.

In Europe, energy and climate policies started to take shape from the 1990s onwards culminating with the ambitious 20-20-20 climate goals and the Low-Carbon Europe roadmap 2050. The European Commission empower the importance of achieving the objective of the recast Directive on energy performance of buildings (EPBD) that new buildings built from 2021 onwards will have to be nearly zero-energy buildings. The general belief is that the energy performance optimization of buildings requires an integrated design approach and cross-disciplinary teamwork to optimize the building's energy use and quality of indoor environment while satisfying the occupants' needs.In this context, there is a substantial need for professionals such as architects and engineers specifically trained and educated in integrated design approach and trained to work in cross-disciplinary teams. To be able to push forward the development, it is essential that educational institutions foster professionals with such knowledge, skills and competences. An initiative toward this direction is the EU-project of IDES-EDU: "Master and Post-Graduate education and training in multi-disciplinary teams".The paper describes the necessity of more integrated and cross-disciplinary approaches to building design through state-of-the-art of the building sector and educational initiatives in the participating countries in the project, and through theory of design processes. The paper also communicates the results of newly developed cross-disciplinary education established by fifteen different educational institutions in Europe. Finally, the paper explains and discusses the challenges encountered during development and implementation of the education across different professions and countries. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved., info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Sustainability certification schemes experience grooving popularity. Only few years ago, Denmark got its own sustainability certification scheme based on the German DGNB certification scheme run by Green Building Council Denmark [1]. The objective of this study is to investigate if and in what way a DGNB-certification scheme will affect the decision-making and design process. The study takes point of departure in four Healthcare Centres, all DGNB silver certified – A case study design, using semi-structured interviews. The results show that it is important to collaborate in the design team from the beginning also with the DGNB consultant and create commitment to the project. Additionally, the research show that in some cases the architectural design have been taken too fare in the initial phases without analysing and documenting several sustainable parameters. It creates a “point of no return”, which means it is not possible to priorities the assessment points in the certifications scheme when needed. Therefore, the paper recommends firstly, more focus on the planning of future design processes using DGNB. Secondly, the paper suggests further research about how to improve and support the iterative design process in the initial design phases securing decision-making on sufficient level of knowledge. Sustainability certification schemes experience grooving popularity. Only few years ago, Denmark got its own sustainability certification scheme based on the German DGNB certification scheme run by Green Building Council Denmark [1]. The objective of this study is to investigate if and in what way a DGNB-certification scheme will affect the decision-making and design process. The study takes point of departure in four Healthcare Centres, all DGNB silver certified – A case study design, using semi-structured interviews. The results show that it is important to collaborate in the design team from the beginning also with the DGNB consultant and create commitment to the project. Additionally, the research show that in some cases the architectural design have been taken too fare in the initial phases without analysing and documenting several sustainable parameters. It creates a “point of no return”, which means it is not possible to priorities the assessment points in the certifications scheme when needed. Therefore, the paper recommends firstly, more focus on the planning of future design processes using DGNB. Secondly, the paper suggests further research about how to improve and support the iterative design process in the initial design phases securing decision-making on sufficient level of knowledge.

In recent years, research and the building industry have increasingly focused on issues regarding the lowering and optimising of operational energy use in buildings. This has resulted in several pilot projects illustrating how these can be achieved, e.g. Danish projects like ‘The Comfort Houses’ (some of the first Danish passive houses) and ‘Home for Life’ (active/zero energy houses). Besides exemplifying construction techniques and technical service systems as well as documenting energy use, the mentioned projects were evaluated according to the resulting indoor environment, qualitatively and quantitatively. The findings of ‘The Comfort Houses’ project show challenges in fulfilling elements of the indoor environment, primarily due to problems with overheating during summer. The study also concludes that the design process needs to contain analysis of the indoor environment, besides the development of the design, to make sure the demands can be fulfilled. The research further concludes that there should be more focus on occupants’ lifestyle and behavioural traits when designing and planning passive and active systems, as the assumptions in many cases did not fit. In one case, for example, a family was concerned about their child’s safety if opening windows sufficiently to allow cooling and therefore chose not to do so, with overheating as a result. Hence, user-friendly solutions should be important considerations to allow the ‘correct’ operation of systems while also considering realistic user behaviour. Similar findings appear in the research of ‘Home for life’. Overall, the project concludes that 50% of the altered preconditions are due to factors in the building, control and technology, and 50% are due to the family’s behaviour that was at variance with the original estimations. With regard to the passive house requirements, the main focus is on energy use. However, the passive house standard includes an overall demand for thermal comfort. Nevertheless, this is analysed by using values of the monthly temperatures in the calculation method on the overall geometry of the building. An hour-by-hour dynamic simulation, or at least a simple check of the 24-hour maximum temperature for the critical rooms, would be a more reliable methodology to state the risks of overheating in the actual design. This methodology would also allow testing of different scenarios of user-behaviour and thereby test the robustness of the design. Unmistakably, the abovementioned research states that the user-behaviour and every day practices of the occupants are of major importance in the performance of the indoor environment – issues that are not sufficiently taken into account in today’s practices. Along with the development of different low-energy and zero-energy concepts, voluntary sustainability certification schemes (BREEAM, LEED, DGNB) have been developed around the world – certification schemes that have a wider approach to sustainability than solely energy. However, the first-generation schemes still have a large focus on energy. Recently, the Danish sustainability certification scheme, DGNBDK, was developed taking its point of departure from the German DGNB certification scheme. The scheme is voluntary; however, increasing numbers of clients have requirements for sustainability and today very few buildings are built as certified passive houses in Denmark. Some of the first passive houses were built in 2008, and the last ones registered in the Passive House database were in 2013. Today, the passive house’s standard seems to have been be outperformed by DGNB. DGNB seems to appeal to many stakeholders in the Danish building industry. The certification scheme has a wider approach to sustainability and focuses on the whole life-cycle of the building while taking into account accessibility, flexibility, life cycle assessment and life cycle cost besides general issues like lowenergy use and indoor environmental goals. If the popularity of DGNB keeps growing, the criteria within the assessment will have a significant influence

In future years the building industry will face great challenges in fulfilling stricter energy demands. One way to meet requirements is to build passive houses. In Germany passive houses have been constructed for many years but in Denmark the building industry has just begun. The pilot project, named Comfort Houses, aims to show the industry that it is possible to construct traditional Danish houses as passive houses and promote them as comfortable houses. For this to be a success in the future, it is necessary to fulfil the occupants’ needs and wishes. This study aims to communicate how the occupants of the Comfort Houses experience living in a passive house and if their lives and everyday practices have changed after moving in. This is done through interviews with the occupants about their everyday life both in their previous home and in the Comfort House. The results show that the occupants’ everyday lives have changed – some as a result of the architectural and structural solutions, others as...

This paper presents a new education and training programme on integrated energy design developed by fifteen European universities collaborating within the IDES-EDU project (2010-2013), funded by Intelligent Energy Europe. IDES-EDU aims to accelerate the implementation of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) by proposing Master and Post Graduate education and training in multidisciplinary teams. To speed up transition from traditional, sub-optimised building projects with discipline-oriented, segregated budgets and operations, IDES-EDU developed comprehensive, multidisciplinary educational programmes targetting integrated project design at the interface of architecture and engineering. Taking into account local variations in climate, construction and pedagogical approaches, the programme facilitates gradual implementation towards full integration of energy efficiency in building education according to local capacity and legislation. This paper summarises the evaluation process of the first implementation of the educational material in the 15 universities, by academic staff, national industry and professional organisations, and reference students from each university. Included are expected learning outcomes, level of integration in existing curricula and alignment with theory and assessment methods. Measures for improvement as well as further dissemination to other European educational facilities are proposed. In this manner, the project will contribute to make the multiple opportunities for energy efficiency a reality., Intelligent Energy Europe programme for its financial support, Grant agreement no.IEE/09/631/SI2.558225

Buildings fulfilling all requirements related to energy, economy and environment are necessary to be designed by interdisciplinary teams with efficient transfer of information and good knowledge base. IDES EDU is a project co-funded by the Intelligent Energy Europe program in which 15 European universities make a concerted effort to develop and implement balanced master and postgraduate courses on Sustainable Energy Design providing skills and knowledge that exceed the requirements of the EPBD. The resulting courses focus on different aspects of sustainable building design from the perspective of architecture, building construction and building technologies.

Buildings fulfilling all requirements related to energy, economy and environment are necessary to be designed by interdisciplinary teams with efficient transfer of information and good knowledge base. IDES EDU is a project co-funded by the Intelligent Energy Europe program in which 15 European universities make a concerted effort to develop and implement balanced master and postgraduate courses on Sustainable Energy Design providing skills and knowledge that exceed the requirements of the EPBD. The resulting courses focus on different aspects of sustainable building design from the perspective of architecture, building construction and building technologies.

The pilot project, named Comfort Houses, aims to show the industry that it is possible to construct traditional Danish houses as passive houses and promote them as comfortable houses. For this to be a success in the future, it is necessary to fulfil the occupants’ wants and needs. This study aims to communicate how the occupants of the Comfort Houses experience living in a passive house and illustrate how their behaviour affect the performance of the house. This is done through qualitative interviews with the occupants compared with quantitative measurements of the performance of the Comfort Houses. A total of 3 residential units have been examined and the results show that the occupants’ everyday lives have changed – some as a result of the architectural and structural solutions, others as a result of the technology integrated in the houses. The study determines the importance of considering the occupants behaviour and everyday lives already in the design process to be able to fulfil the wishes of the occupants and to fulfil the desired performance of the Comfort House.

In recent years in Denmark there has been an increasing focus on implementing passive and active strategies in buildings to fulfil low energy demands like for example the Passive House Standard. From a technical rational perspective, plenty of pilot projects and commercial projects have shown that it is possible to build this type of houses, but the knowledge and discussion about the architectural quality in the buildings is hardly present. The question is if the strategies for optimising energy use and indoor environment collide with the architectural qualities of buildings. This paper brings forth this discussion based in literature and four case studies. The paper highlights cases on how passive strategies for optimising energy use and indoor environment affect, restrict, inspire or create possibilities for the architectural expression and there through the architectural quality of the building.

Currently, the built environment accounts for about 40% of the total energy consumed in the European Union and this level is continuing to increase. This high level of energy consumption is partially a result of attempts to create an optimum indoor environment for the occupants of buildings. New buildings and renovation projects on existing buildings need to improve their energy performance while maintaining a good and healthy indoor environment. One way of saving energy is to build passive houses. This paper presents the results of a case study of some of the first certified passive houses in Denmark, called Comfort Houses. The indoor environment is evaluated using both quantitative measurements of these houses and qualitative interviews with the occupants about their experiences of the indoor environment. The combination of these two sets of knowledge leads to a more complete and holistic picture of the indoor environment. It is shown that attention needs to be paid to the objectives in the design process, the documentation of the designs and on the occupant’s lifestyle and behaviour. Finally, it is important to educate the occupants on how to live in an appropriate manner to achieve a comfortable indoor environment.

The building industry in Denmark and the rest of Europe is facing challenges in fulfilling the EU directive of 2002. New buildings and renovation projects need to improve the energy performance to be able to fulfil the Kyoto agreement from 1998 (Directive 2002). In Denmark it has resulted in new building codes according to energy use, which contains a classification of low energy buildings, which will be strengthened the following 5-10 years. By implementing tighter energy demands and energy labelling for existing buildings the awareness of energy performance groves and the energy performance of buildings become a competitive parameter. For the Danish building industry it means that they are facing new challenges both in developing new intelligent and holistic building concepts but also new challenges for the manufacturer of products.

Udgivelsesdato: SEP Over the last year there has been a remarkable change in politicians' attitudes within Denmark and EU member states to the issue of climate change. This change in the political mindset is a result of the increasing frequency of high winds and flooding in Denmark and Europe, as well as in many other places around the world in recent years. This has resulted in an increasing challenge in terms of the planning, design and building of more sustainable buildings in order to reduce the use of energy for heating and cooling in new housing projects by bringing down the emission of CO2 by reducing the amount of fossil fuel consumed by the built environment. This is crucial since carbon dioxide is one of the so-called greenhouse gases that is playing a major role in global warming. There is thus an increased focus on reducing the CO2 level on a national and global scale. This article will look at the architectural and legislative changes in Denmark in relation to the increased political interest in the consequences of climate change. The article also discusses a survey of different types of approaches to the sustainable design of buildings and shows examples of new Danish housing projects that can minimise the use of energy for heating and cooling in the shape of detached houses, as well as a master thesis on high-rise houses.

Paperet præsenterer resultater fra både kvalitative og kvantitative undersøgelser af indeklimaet i projektet Komfort Husene. Husene er nogle af de først certificerede passivhuse i Danmark. Den kvantitative evaluering udføres på baggrund af målinger af husenes indeklima, hvor den kvalitative evaluering udføres på baggrund af semi-strukturerede forskningsinterview med beboerne i husene. Resultaterne sammenlignes for at undersøge, om der er uoverensstemmelser mellem de to metoder, men også for at give et mere udførligt billede af indeklimaet, hvor de kvalitative interview kan bruges som årsagsforklaring af målingerne. Resultaterne viser, at både det termiske og atmosfæriske indeklima kan og skal forbedres for at beboerne oplever komfort. For at opnå dette, er det vigtigt at have indeklimaet for øje gennem hele projektet, både i skitserings-, projekterings- og udførelsesfasen. Derudover er information og oplæring af beboerne efterfølgende også vigtig.

This paper focuses on a study of window details from "The Comfort Houses" in relation to "traditional" Danish construction solutions. The aim is to evaluate different ways of solving a window detail and to identify both architectural and technical consequences. It is important to investigate both aspects of a detail because the best technical solution might not be the best architectural solution. A proposal from "The Comfort Houses" - a brick passive house, will be used as a basis. This paper focuses on a study of window details from "The Comfort Houses" in relation to "traditional" Danish construction solutions. The aim is to evaluate different ways of solving a window detail and to identify both architectural and technical consequences. It is important to investigate both aspects of a detail because the best technical solution might not be the best architectural solution. A proposal from "The Comfort Houses" - a brick passive house, will be used as a basis.

The "Comfort Houses" is the most ambitious building project in passive houses in Denmark until today. Eight single family houses are built and designed by seven different consortiums. Besides fulfilling the German passive house standard the goal was to build the houses according to Danish tradition of architecture and construction. The objective of this research was to clarify the different design processes according to method, tool and teamwork. The processes are evaluated according to the "Integrated Design Process" and the "Traditional Design Process" and show very different take-offs. Analysing the data we can see that: All consortiums agree that it is necessary to work as a team from the early stages of the design process. There is a tendency in all processes that they are not using the tool that are available to document some of the parameters of indoor environment. According to the architectural qualities some of them are often cut back in the process primarily because of cost savings. The "Comfort Houses" is the most ambitious building project in passive houses in Denmark until today. Eight single family houses are built and designed by seven different consortiums. Besides fulfilling the German passive house standard the goal was to build the houses according to Danish tradition of architecture and construction. The objective of this research was to clarify the different design processes according to method, tool and teamwork. The processes are evaluated according to the "Integrated Design Process" and the "Traditional Design Process" and show very different take-offs. Analysing the data we can see that: All consortiums agree that it is necessary to work as a team from the early stages of the design process. There is a tendency in all processes that they are not using the tool that are available to document some of the parameters of indoor environment. According to the architectural qualities some of them are often cut back in the process primarily because of cost savings.

Over the last year there have been remarkable changes in the politicians' attitude in Denmark and in the EU member states to the climate changes. This was provoked by the increasing rate of gale activity and flooding in Denmark and Europe as well as in many other places in the world over the last years. This brings forward an increasing challenge to plan, design and build more sustainable buildings in order to be able to contribute to or reduce the use of energy for heating and cooling in new housing projects and thereby bring down the emission of CO2 when using less fossil fuel. This is crucial since carbon dioxide is one of the so called greenhouse gasses playing a major role in the overheating of the globe. Thus there is focus on reducing the CO2-level on a national and global level. This paper will look upon changes in interest and the different types of approaches to sustainable design of buildings and show examples of houses that can minimise the use of energy for heating and cooling in shape of detached houses, sky scrapers and some student's projects with high raised houses.