The energy consumption for heating has in many countries been greatly reduced over the last few years. This is mostly achieved by the use of traditional energy conservation and solar technologies. The total energy consumption, especially in residential buildings, is, however, still large and warrants considerable effort. To obtain a significant further reduction in the energy consumption for heating, and also to reduce the consumption for cooling, ventilation, and lighting, it has become necessary to develop new building concepts.

The Canadian Commission on Building and Fire Codes, senior committee in a national consensus structure dedicated to the writing of model codes under the auspices of the National Research Council of Canada, is preparing a new Canadian energy efficiency code for new buildings, to replace the Measures for Energy Conservation in New Buildings, published in 1978 and 1983. 

Commission, the UN commission for development and the environment, has recommended a great effort on more efficient energy use, so drastic that the industrial countries would half their use of energy. Already today, it is possible to reduce the energy use in buildings with the help of known and economical technology. The technical committee ISO/TC 163, Thermal insulation, of the International Organization for Standardization, ISO, has produced some of the tools we need in order to determine the energy flows in buildings.

This paper will therefore deal primarily with the design of a specific building complex.

The model demonstration house described in this paper was designed to optimize occupant health by minimizing indoor air pollution. This was accomplished by the use of three primary principles:  ELIMINATION, SEPARATION, AND VENm.ATION.1 Pollutant source strength reduction has come to be regarded as the most effective method of reducing indoor pollution. This is often easily achieved by ELIMINATING potentially polluting materials wherever possible, and using more benign low outgassing materials instead.