Lesson Overview

Compactness describes the ratio between the area of the building envelope and the conditioned space (area or volume).

The compactness of the building has a huge influence to the energy demand and the initial cost of the building. The compactness is an essential part of the building massing and is therefore an important part in the first design step. The design concept of the building compactness is explained and the technical formulation is introduced.

Lesson Goals

The designer will be prepared to consider the building compactness as one of the most important design decisions in the first design steps. The awareness of how to reduce the energy demand when the building is more compact will be provided. The goal is to be informed about the advantages of a compact building.