LoginClimate change and increasing frequency and intensity of heatwaves highlights a shift in building practice in cold and moderate climates: from focusing on heating needs to addressing cooling demand, overheating risks, and thermal resilience. Designers typically rely on national building codes on indoor environmental quality (IEQ) and energy performance when assessing overheating risks. Within this context, ventilative cooling is recognized as a key strategy. It not only helps meet cooling demand in standard weather conditions but also reduces CO₂ emissions and enhances resilience during extreme scenarios such as heatwaves.
Yet key questions arise: Do current building codes adequately reflect the realities of climate change? What methods and requirements for overheating are in place, and how do they apply across residential and non-residential buildings? And is the impact of ventilative cooling taken into account?
The objectives of this project are to:
- provide practitioners with an overview of the current status of national building codes regarding IEQ and energy performance, with a focus on how they address overheating and ventilative cooling in buildings. The review focuses primarily on building codes applicable to new buildings in cold and moderate climates, where regulations have traditionally prioritized heating performance.
- highlight international good practices to inform and inspire policy makers, standard writers and legislators.
A cross-country survey was developed together with steering committee members of venticool and conducted in 2024-2025, gathering insights into how different countries and regions are tackling both overheating and ventilative cooling.
The survey targeted 19 countries/regions - Australia, Austria, Flanders (Belgium), Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and England & Wales (GB).
This survey gathered detailed information on assessment methods, performance requirements, and the integration of passive cooling concepts in both residential and non-residential buildings in current regulations. All information provided reflects the interpretation and judgment of national experts based on their understanding of applicable regulations.
National experts were recruited through professional and academic networks and selected based on their expertise in national building regulations and building performance assessment.
All survey responses will be systematically compiled and presented in comparative tables and summary figures throughout a report (Technical Note), providing a comprehensive overview of regulatory practices across the participating countries.