Both professionals and students are increasingly committed to achieving high-performance metrics in the design, construction and operation of residential buildings. This book responds to this demand by offering a comprehensive guide which features:

• architectural innovations in building skin technologies which make lighter more transparent buildings high performing
• energy-free architectural design principles and advances in building-integrated photovoltaics
• essential engineering principles, controls and approaches to simulation for achieving net zero
• the advantages of integrated design in residential construction and the challenges and opportunities it engenders
• detailed case studies of innovative homes which have incorporated low-energy design solutions, new materials, alternative building assemblies, digital fabrication, integrated engineering systems and operational controls.

Divided into four parts, the book discusses the requisite AEC (Architecture, Engineering and Construction) knowledge needed when building a high-performance home. It also communicates this information across four case studies, which provide the reader with a thorough overview of all aspects to be considered in the design and construction of sustainable homes. With contributions from experts in the field, the book provides a well-rounded and multi-faceted approach.

This book is essential reading for students and professionals in design, architecture, engineering (civil, mechanical and electrical), construction and energy management.

Approaches the subject of building technology from the perspective of theory Encourages the larger field of architectural technology to think more critically about the deployment of its methods, products and processes Written in highly intelligible language to convey complexities clearly and succinctly to the reader.

The untold story of America’s first independent female architect   Minerva Parker Nichols (1862–1949) was the first American woman to practice architecture independently. Her specialty was residential spaces—though her commissions also included an iron foundry and a macaroni factory—and she was a significant figure in the design of the emerging railroad towns just outside of Philadelphia, where she was in active practice from 1883 until 1896. She was also a writer, teacher, and active participant in several reform movements of the era. Creating an archive in the absence of one, this book recovers Nichols’s forgotten story to document a career that spanned seven decades, engaging with contemporary questions about absences in the historical record, the challenges of architectural history and preservation, and the need for new tools and frameworks to address these gaps. A catalogue raisonné of her completed architectural works includes illustrations drawn from historical materials as well as newly drawn plans for five of her most significant designs. Archival material, paired with new photography documenting more than 30 extant buildings in the Philadelphia and beyond, offer a full and fully illustrated reconstruction of Nichols’s life and career. Distributed for the Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania