An approach towards energy efficient housing design in Western Balkan

Buildings are responsible for 40% of worldwide energy consumption. Therefore, the building sector has a major effect on climate change. In this context, the purpose of this thesis is to analyse the energy consumption in the Western Balkans to propose an approach for energy performance improvements on housing typology. This thesis contains a general description of approaches for energy efficient building designs in Western Balkan countries. The study has a description of the general standards of the energy efficient buildings designs in Europe. The motivation of this study is to discuss how much Balkan energy efficient building design is applied. After reviewing the European standards and the local regulations of the energy performance of buildings, this thesis focuses on some energy efficient building design strategies in Balkan, its impact on the energy use. This thesis aims to propose an approach towards energy efficient building design that will reduce the energy consumption of the housing building stock in the Western Balkan. The analysis of the factors of energy efficient development of buildings in Europe such as regulations and energy performance of buildings directives, and the review of the design approaches of energy efficient buildings in the Balkan are the first steps of the proposed method. In the second part of this thesis the general information of the cold climate, analyses of the Western Balkan region and the local regulations and its characteristics are represented. Also the energy efficient building design is explained and the housing type is emphasized in the third part, with its passive and active strategies. In the fourth part, based on the questionnaire, it includes the data collection of the housing typology, which leads to the formation of the representative housing, and the proposal of the energy efficient housing design. The fifth part includes the proposal of energy efficient design strategies. Furthermore it covers the energy modelling and the calculation. In the final part according to the results, this thesis highlights strategies towards energy efficient building design for the housing typology. The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to the improvement of energy efficiency of buildings in the Western Balkans. Keywords: Energy Efficient, Design Approach, Western Balkan, Housing Design