This paper gives a synthesis of four complementary research works that are contributing to the same objective: proposing solutions to reduce the buildings’ energy consumption by the way of modifying the local climate. The first one focuses on one parameter of direct relevance to urban heat island phenomenon: the surface albedo. The albedo of a city or a district depends on surfaces’ arrangement, materials used for roofs, paving, coatings, etc., and solar position. The second one proposes a simulation tool that permits to evaluate the impact outdoor urban environment on buildings’ energy consumption. The third work explores urban forms: it proposes methods to describe them and analyze the climatic performances of classified urban forms. This analyze permits us to propose morphology indicators that permits to compare the relative efficiencies of different typologies. The last work concludes about the relevance of using indicators (based on physics or morphology, related to site or to built form) in urban design process and proposes a methodology to produce indicators.
papers about climate change: