Within the last few decades, many digital technologies have been integrated to the field of architecture. This in turn has developed a number of architectural trends based on these revolutionary changes. Kinetic skin is one of these trends that is directly related to visual performance and comfort, an important aspect. The feeling of comfort is related to the sense organs network; i.e. the eyes, ears, nose, tactile sensors, heat sensors and brain. Visual sensation is the most dominant one in human perception since the eye contains two thirds of the nerve fibers within human central nervous system. The use of kinetic facades for achieving visual comfort in spaces has been recently the subject of many researches, where various aspects have been explored. However, this paper will attempt to review these researches while identifying gaps and potential for future research.

The natural condition of Matano lake is heavily scenic includes the land, water, air, energy, and reasonably required to preserve. Exploration in the resort design with green building and design with nature concept is one of preservation effort to maximize the natural potency of the area based on the aspect of environment, socio-economics, and sociocultural. The method in the design process involve a green building and design with nature principles implementation in the site plan, structural design, natural energy to maintain the building thermal and natural lighting, and reuse rainwater management to optimize the resort function, green materials and prevent the residual material. The result explained the lakeside resort based on green building and design with nature principles increase the aesthetic potential view and environmental sustainability of Matano lake.

This paper presents a guideline for selecting ventilation fan based on empirical data. The research project was undertaken in a university classroom of 64 square meters. In a two-hour experiment, carbon dioxide levels exceeded 1600 ppm when not using any ventilation system. Subsequently, the carbon dioxide levels increased approximately at a rate of 11.49 ppm per minute for 15 students sitting in the room. The carbon dioxide levels within the tested classroom exceeded 1000 ppm after the 42nd minute. When students left the room, CO2 decreased approximately at a rate of 3.67 ppm per minute. Straight-line functions were used to model the increasing and decreasing behaviour of CO2 concentration in the classroom. An example of how to select an appropriate ventilation fan capacity is shown as an approximation guideline.

“Sustainable Design Camp” is a collaborative workshop organized by three Universities. Inter-disciplinary and international students are divided into several teams with their specialties as architecture and urban design, building systems, building structures and the landscape architecture under the instruction by the various experts. After the site survey with SWOT analysis, each team will find issues (weakness) and potentials (strength) of the target site. The proposed solutions will be evaluated by the environment evaluation tool CASBEE for community development. Throughout of the entire process, students will be well-educated and trained to facilitate how to utilize their specialties in the inter-disciplinary settings, and furthermore, international approach helps to find out the issues and potentials of the site objectively. This collaborative approach among Public, Academic and Private will be necessary to establish the city’s strategic plan for the sustainable future.

In the urban context, buildings play a key role as they are energy consumers. In well-established cities with a high percentage of aged building stock, the focus should lie on sensitive urban areas where the weakest population sectors and the worst physico-economic conditions are usually encountered. In this work, the energy refurbishment of social housing is proposed. A block of municipally owned buildings is selected as a case study to consider that public buildings play an exemplary role according to Directive 2012/27/EU. The group is formed by 12 buildings, which account for 120 dwellings. This study is grounded on two levels. First the urban level. The building is located in a prioritised urban Area of Rehabilitation, Renovation and Urban Regeneration (ARRU), according to the new local Land Plan. This area presents multidimensional vulnerability and considers urban, building, socio-demographic and socio-economic features. Second, the building presents very low energy performance. It was built in 1959 when a high demand of dwellings and the economic resources then available led to low-quality buildings that are far from meeting today’s standards. Some proposals are made, having in mind the specific features of the urban context. The energy refurbishment of the building is proposed, selecting the optimal solution, considering technical, environmental and economic criteria. The energy performance simulation shows a remarkable improvement of the energy performance, resulting in an improvement of the thermal comfort of the dwellers. Besides, a reduction in the energy consumption is reached, which would reduce the energy bills and, on the other hand, a reduction of the carbon emissions to the atmosphere, contributing to a better environment quality. Having in mind that the building is intended for social housing, energy poverty situations could be avoided, as dwellings are inhabited by low-income dwellers.