Historic city centres have a large amount of dwellings in Europe, which were built to provide a comfortable shelter with the absence of mechanical means. The knowledge of climate responsive design strategies can play a significant role in reducing the energy demand of extant buildings, paving the way for its sustainable development in the face of the rising threat to its occupants of climate change. The residential architecture, developed, in most cases, in dense urban centres, was built using both available materials and traditional and academic construction technologies. This paper thoroughly investigates the extant urban conglomerate in Cádiz and analyses, in a qualitative and quantitative manner, which bioclimatic design strategies were applied and the city’s adaptation for future climate scenarios. The results indicate that historic housing in Cádiz is creatively adapted to the local natural conditions by means of a combination of climate responsive strategies, and there is significant scope for improvement in the ongoing response to global warming.

Lighting in heritage is complex because of the forms intervening in it. The historical evolution of cultures has not been analytical and therefore, the shapes involved differ greatly from the cuboids typically found in 21st century architecture. As a vector, light inevitably attaches to surface sources. In this research, we focused on 3D curved geometries. Following a different trail to radiative transfer by virtue of detailed knowledge of the spatiality of volumes, we present new expressions, previously undefined in the literature, that are derived from a combination of surfaces that we have found in many archaeological sites around Asia. In the discussion, we start from the particularities of spherical surfaces where a normal vector has to pass through the center. By means of easy calculations, we deducted innovative laws. These in turn, allowed us to formulate several new expressions for configuration factors based on the adroit use of spherical fragments. The method easily extends to organic shapes that are often contained in the sustainable architecture of the past. The method finishes with suitable algorithms to assess the reflections in such curved forms. Finally, we implemented the results in our creative software. In this way, we enhanced the sustainable paradigms for heritage structures in Asia that we present as a conclusion of the article.

Heritage issues have increased significantly in recent years. However, they tend to remain in the cultural sphere and are often resistant to scientific analyses. If we have to deal with the contradictory matter of sustainability in design for ancient buildings, such hindrances appear frequently. A crucial aspect in Architecture has always been its capacity to dispose internal spaces and apertures in a manner that enhances the balance of light and thus provides attuned perception and well-being. Poor performance in that respect raised objections against the prestige of admirable works and famed artists. If we reject the absurd idea of accurately reproducing identical buildings in the same place repeatedly, how are we supposed to benefit from the said knowledge without the help of any objective design tools? It is easy to agree that at least we would need some scientific support to transmit such proper effects. Aware of the former notions, authors have developed a novel simulation software called DianaX, which is based on mathematical models and equations produced and expanded by Joseph Cabeza-Laïnez, from roughly 1990 to 2018. This non-commercial software deals with radiative exchanges in all kinds of surfaces (for instance domes, vaults, cylinders, hyperboloids and curves in general). It also includes direct sun in the simulations unlike most programs. Therefore, it is ideally suited for the analysis of heritage architecture and especially that which identifies with the Renaissance, baroque and neoclassical epochs. The case of temples from the baroque period resumes the conflict expressed in the first paragraph and the Jesuit Church of Saint Louis (1699–1731) is one of the most relevant examples of efficient illumination found in Mediterranean latitudes, having been recently restored. In this article, we would like to discuss the subtle and interesting implications of employing our simulation software for lighting in such a complex baroque temple. The methodology would be to identify the main energy sources within the church in order to construct a suitable model for simulation. Subsequently we apply the said software DianaX to such model and establish the most significant results trying to compare them with available on-site measurements. Finally, a strategy to enhance day-lighting and supplement it with other light sources in the church is proposed.

The aim of this article is to orient the evolution of new architectural forms offering up-to-date scientific support. Unlike the volume, the expression for the lateral area of a regular conoid has not yet been obtained by means of direct integration or a differential geometry procedure. In this type of ruled surface, the fundamental expressions I and II, for other curved figures have proved not solvable thus far. As this form is frequently used in architectural engineering, the inability to determine its surface area represents a serious hindrance to solving several problems that arise in radiative transfer, lighting and construction, to cite just a few. To address such drawback, we conceived a new approach that, in principle, consists in dividing the surface into infinitesimal elliptic strips of which the area can be obtained in an approximate fashion. The length of the ellipse is expressed with certain accuracy by means of Ramanujan’s second formula. By integrating the so-found perimeter of the differential strips for the whole span of the conoid, an unexpected solution emerges through a newly found number that we call psi (ψ). In this complex process, projected shapes have been derived from an original closed form composed of two conoids and called Antisphera for its significant parallels with the sphere. The authors try to demonstrate that the properties of the new surfaces have relevant implications for technology, especially in building science and sustainability, under domains such as structures, radiation and acoustics. Fragments of the conoid have occasionally appeared in modern and contemporary architecture but this article discusses how its use had been discontinued, mainly due to the uncertainties that its construction posed. The new knowledge provided by the authors, including their own proposals, may help to revitalize and expand such interesting configurations in the search for a revolution of forms.

We present a scientific discussion about Chinese historical architecture and cultural paradigms in order to analyze the formation of building patterns objectively connected to environmental features. In this regard, we will demonstrate the process of standardization from architectural modules related in different levels of composition around “voids”, onto cosmological urban tissues in harmony with nature. The conclusions show that we can only understand Chinese architectural patterns in relation to Dào or nature, and in turn, they possess profound social and environmental values from which we receive useful lessons to advance towards sustainability in architecture and urban planning. The authors believe that it is critical for China and the world to find a new approach to the building construction industry with an ecological and philosophical background recognizable as “Chinese” and based in its own past. In order to support the information provided in the first part of the article, the authors have conducted an environmental analysis of the traditional Chinese urban layout whose results greatly confirm the initial hypotheses, i.e. the historical fashion of constructing neighborhoods improves conditions of the town in terms of comfort and is able to save energy, thus reducing pernicious change effects.