Carbon-Neutral Architectural Design

The energy used to operate buildings is one of the most significant sources of greenhouse gas emissions. To lessen the impact on climate, it is necessary to reduce these building-related emissions. While it is possible to achieve many of these reductions through appropriate climate-responsive design, many architects are not trained to do this. Filling an urgent need for a design reference in this emerging field, Carbon-Neutral Architectural Design describes how to reduce building-related greenhouse gas emissions through appropriate design techniques. The book presents strategies and methods to achieve CO2 reductions, with an emphasis on control of energy flows through the building envelope and passive heating and cooling strategies. This new edition will add four new chapters (Active Heating, Renewable Energy, Daylighting, and Case Studies), and include numerous updates throughout.

Pablo La Roche is a Professor in the Department of Architecture at California State Polytechnic University Pomona and adjunct professor of the Lyle Center for Regenerative Studies. He has also taught at the University of Southern California and Universidad del Zulia in Venezuela. He has an Architecture and Masters of Science degree from Universidad del Zulia and a PhD from the University of California Los Angeles. His research interests include passive cooling systems, green roofs, low energy architecture and sustainable, affordable housing, having published more than 120 papers in these topics in conferences and journals. He has been a guest lecturer around the world and a memeber of competition juries or a technical reviewer and session chair in local, regional or international events such as Savings by Design AIA awards and PLEA, USGBC and ASES conferences. Professor La Roche was the principal author of the book published by the Passive Low Energy Artchitecture Association PLEA, "Keeping Cool: Guidelines to Avoid Overheating in Buildings" in 2001 and he authored "Carbon Neutral Architectural Design" published by CRC Press-Taylor Francis in December of 2011. He was selected for the exhibit "New Blood: Next Gen" in the A+D Architectural Museum in Los Angeles. La Roche has been a registered architect in Spain and Venezuela, and is an Assoc AIA, and a LEED accredited professional in the USA. He has received multiple awards and fellowships including UCLA. His design projects have been published or received awards in the United States, Venezuela, Mexico and Spain. In 2008 he led a team of Faculty and students that won the NCARB Grand Prize. He is also Director of Sustainable Design at HMC Architects where he heads HMC ArchLab, an in-house building science studio dedicated to the research and development of advancing high-performance architecture. At HMC he has worked in numerous projects on the areas of healthcare and education.