Mitja Košir

University of Ljubljana · Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering

This book examines bioclimatic design with a focus on the application of climate adaptability in the design of future buildings and renovation of existing energy-efficient buildings. It addresses the challenge of how to construct and renovate buildings so that they maintain desired performance even as the climate changes in future decades. The book...

Daylight is ever more recognised as a major synchroniser of circadian rhythms, linking us to the 24 h solar day. However, the time that urbanised humans spend outdoors has decreased substantially during the last century, which highlights the importance of appropriate indoor daylighting. Quality and quantity of daylight in indoor environments are pr...

The presented study aims to clarify the implications of passive design measures on heating and cooling energy use of single-family residential buildings under European representative climates. In order to address this matter, different values of thermal transmittance (opaque and transparent), window to floor ratio, window distribution, shape factor...

The study provides an overview of the research focus on vacuum insulation panels (VIPs). Scientific literature published between 1960 and 2022 is identified, and a database covering 423 documents is amassed. In the first phase, research documents were categorised into three groups: product, other and buildings. In the second phase, data about the s...

Since the non-image-forming (NIF) effect of daylight on the human circadian system is widely accepted, adequate exposure to daylight is now considered one of the elements of a healthy life. In urban environment, one of the prerequisites for adequately lit indoor spaces is the amount and quality of daylight reaching the window, which is highly depen...

Daylight spectral simulation is crucial for designing functional, healthy spaces and predicting light interactions. It is essential for accurate non-image-forming effects of light calculations. This study addresses the knowledge gap in reproducing indoor daylight spectral conditions in the built environment. Using varying levels of geometry (LOG) a...

INTRODUCTION: The construction industry is considered conservative in adopting new products/ technologies, and environmental characteristics are one of the most important features of novel solutions. In this context, our study aims to present a building design-oriented assessment of a novel building product by extending the functional unit scope an...

The study aimed to develop a holistic, evidence-based calibration strategy and define a hybrid step-by-step methodology for building thermal simulations during the warm season. The methodology was demonstrated using the thermal performance of a naturally ventilated single-family log house in a temperate climate. The calibration process was supporte...

With rising global temperatures and the increasing frequency of heat waves, addressing overheating in buildings becomes crucial for ensuring occupants' comfort, well-being, and energy efficiency. The paper reveals the existing overheating prevention measures implemented in residential buildings across three climate zones in Montenegro. Comprehensiv...

Climate change significantly impacts the built environment, causing changes in temperature, precipitation, and extreme weather events. These changes are affecting the performance of the built environment, as the approaches of the past are no longer sustainable due to their reliance on cheap fossil fuel energy. Therefore, the paper investigates the...

This study aimed to identify the most effective passive design measures to prevent overheating in a log house in a temperate climate. The study was conducted with a calibrated thermal model under a future climate projection (SRES A2 scenario) utilising an EN 16798–1 adaptive comfort model for the building operated under free-run mode during summer....

Climate zoning is fundamental to improving building energy efficiency through bioclimatic design principles and passive design strategies. In Sri Lanka, buildings consume approximately 37 % of primary energy and about 33 % of total generated electricity. This study aims to carry out bioclimatic zoning and estimate the passive design potential for e...

The use of super insulating materials in the construction industry, including vacuum insulation, closely corresponds to the ever-increasing requirements for the construction of low-energy and passive buildings. Their indisputable advantage is their excellent thermal insulation properties at low thickness compared to conventional thermal insulation...

Identifying environmental hotspots and comparing design options are the most common goals in building life cycle assessment (LCA). Our paper focuses on the latter by identifying and evaluating various concepts for interpreting LCA results that can be applied when comparing multiple design options. The term LCA interpretation concept is introduced....

The study aimed to assess the overheating vulnerability of an existing multi-apartment building built in 1971 in Podgorica, Montenegro. The building consists of 80 apartments and is mostly still in its original state. Firstly, the building was modelled in EneryPlus, and a parametric study was performed with jEPlus. The energy need for heating and c...

The study deals with a three-storey log house located in the suburbs of Ljubljana, Slovenia (temperate climate). Firstly, the calibrated thermal model of the log house was defined. The calibrated model had an hourly NMBE between −2.12 % and 1.84 % and a CV(RMSE) between 3.16 % and 3.57 %. Then, the adaptive thermal comfort during the warmer part of...

The study deals with a three-storey log house located in the suburbs of Ljubljana, Slovenia (temperate climate). Firstly, the calibrated thermal model of the log house was defined. The calibrated model had an hourly NMBE between-2.12 % and 1.84 % and a CV(RMSE) between 3.16 % and 3.57 %. Then, the adaptive thermal comfort during the warmer part of...

The difference between the functioning of the human non-visual and photopic systems has elicited the need for complex in situ measurements or time-consuming multi-spectral simulations to accurately predict the non-visual luminous content of the indoor environment. As such methodologies are time-consuming, the aim of the present study was to determi...

This study is devoted to the possibility of using advanced insulation materials, such as Vacuum Insulation Panels (VIP), in the insulation and reconstruction of buildings, in connection with the green elements that are installed on the facade in the case of the use of external thermal insulation composite systems (ETICS). The use of VIP as part of...

Montenegrin building stock is highly energy inefficient, while the country has a high potential for using solar energy. Therefore, the potential for implementing passive solar heating and overheating in residential buildings was assessed in four locations among the country's three climate zones, namely the Coastal zone, the Continental zone and the...

Complex multispectral simulations and measurements of the luminous environment are required to assess daylight's Non-Image Forming (NIF) effect accurately. In the study, a cellular office located in Ljubljana, Slovenia, was modelled at different levels of detail (LOD) and levels of information (LOI) to determine their impact on the accuracy of the...

Global warming will seriously affect buildings, and the Montenegrin building stock is no exception. Since the country is one of the most inefficient energy users in Europe, improving the energy efficiency of buildings is essential. Therefore, the study implemented a novel multi-aspect approach to energy retrofitting, linking building thermal perfor...

In the last few decades, building design has been shifting toward more energy-efficient and better-performing buildings. Although the main focus is usually on the reduction of energy use for the operation and construction of buildings, the awareness regarding the benefits of higher occupant comfort and health has shifted the focus toward a more hol...

Superinsulating materials have seen very strong development in recent years and have become standard materials in a number of industrial applications (especially in refrigeration). In the last decade, they have also started to develop significantly in the construction sector, so it is very important to optimise their entire life cycle and to consid...

Light, especially daylight, has been recognized by advances in science over the past decades as the main coordinator of the daily biological rhythm of people with a 24-hour solar rhythm. The photoreceptor responsible for the non-visual perception is more sensitive to the blue component of light than the visual perception system. Therefore, it is ne...

Visual comfort can affect building occupants’ behaviour, productivity and health. It is highly dependent on the occupant and how they perform a task indoors. In that regard, an occupant centred approach is more suitable for evaluating the lighting perception of the indoor environment. Nevertheless, the process of rating and estimating the visual co...

In the early phases of building design, it is essential to quantify the relevance of passive design measures in order to assure the desired thermal performance of buildings throughout their lifespan. In the present research work, the authors investigated the relevance of the selected passive design measures for heating and cooling energy use of sin...

Climate change is expected to expose the locked-in overheating risk concerning bioclimatic buildings adapted to a specific past climate state. The study aims to find energy-efficient building designs which are most resilient to overheating and increased cooling energy demands that will result from ongoing climate change. Therefore, a comprehensive...

An average working individual in today's society spends a considerable amount of a typical day in an office environment. This, in turn, can negatively influence her or his circadian system if the indoor built environment is not designed to provide adequate luminous conditions. Therefore, the presented paper's main objective was to address the exten...

Colour of interior surfaces has to be considered in order to provide optimal visual and non-visual performance. Colour selection is often related to the occupant's colour preferences. First part of the presented study was a questionnaire-based cross-sectional study among the employees of the University of Ljubljana conducted in December 2019 in ord...

Simulation and experimental investigation of the indirect green façade (IGF) impact on thermal behaviour of buildings is presented in the paper. The study was conducted in Punat, Krk, Croatia, in the summer of 2018. The IGF reduced the incident solar radiation by up to 505 W/m2 and façade temperatures by up to 13.5 K. Experimental results were used...

Due to the profound impact that building sector has on the environment and consequently the sustainability of our society, the evaluation of environmental impacts through life cycle assessment (LCA) should become part of building design. The number of published environmental product declarations (EPDs) is growing, which indicates that they can beco...

An adaptive thermal comfort study was carried for assessing the thermal comfort requirements of students working in naturally ventilated (NV) university workshop building in the composite climate of India over two seasons (Autumn and Winter). 1332 complete surveys, 516 and 816 from autumn and winter season, respectively were collected and analyzed....

The attempt at a more sustainable land use by the increase of urban density may have a negative effect on the daylighting of residential buildings. In densely built areas, obstructions generated by the surrounding buildings can substantially reduce the available amount of daylight, causing poorly daylit spaces and a less healthy indoor environment...

An experiment was designed in order to evaluate daylighting of a real cellular office, where a hypothetical worker's perceived luminous environment was monitored in order to assess the relation between circadian potential and visual demands. The results demonstrate that control over the horizontal illuminance through shading of the workplace signif...

An experiment was designed in order to evaluate daylighting of a real cellular office, where a hypothetical worker's perceived luminous environment was monitored in order to assess the relation between circadian potential and visual demands. The results demonstrate that control over the horizontal illuminance through shading of the workplace signif...

In most parts of Europe, the projected climate change will affect the increase in air temperatures as well as the occurrence of extreme weather events. Therefore, the study focuses on the calculation of the overheating potential of six European locations, namely Athens, Milano, Ljubljana, Berlin, Moscow and Helsinki. For these locations, the biocli...

In most parts of Europe, the projected climate change will affect the increase in air temperatures as well as the occurrence of extreme weather events. Therefore, the study focuses on the calculation of the overheating potential of six European locations, namely Athens, Milano, Ljubljana, Berlin, Moscow and Helsinki. For these locations, the biocli...

The focus of the presented research was to construct a simple, easy-to-mount, low-cost indirect green façade (IGF) in order to analyse its impact on solar irradiance incidence and external surface temperatures in case of a classic ETICS façade. The analysis was done in a Mediterranean climate on the island of Krk in Croatia in a period between June...

The focus of the presented research was to construct a simple, easy-to-mount, low-cost indirect green façade (IGF) in order to analyse its impact on solar irradiance incidence and external surface temperatures in case of a classic ETICS façade. The analysis was done in a Mediterranean climate on the island of Krk in Croatia in a period between June...

According to the Köppen-Geiger climate classification, Europe is under the influence of at least ten different climate types. Thus, various climates can be found, from the polar tundra (ET) and cold climate (e.g. Dfc) in the Alps and northern European regions, to hot-arid climate (e.g. BSh) in southern parts of Spain. This level of climate diversit...

Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) is a key issue in the design and renovation of any indoor building environment. It is comprised of different aspects (e.g. visual, thermal, acoustic comfort, etc.), which directly affect the building occupants' wellbeing. Studies on this topic have grown rapidly in recent years, as the time that occupants spend in...

For the application of the analytical bioclimatic design method introduced in Chap. 2 a suitable methodological tool, must link climate characteristics to building performance, particularly occupant’s thermal comfort. Bioclimatic potential calculation based on the bioclimatic charts is an example of such a tool. With the use of bioclimatic charts,...

In a similar manner as plants, through the millennia animals and humans have adapted to the environmental constraints. In addition, buildings have evolved in order to respond to the environment. Bioclimatic building design is an engineering practice where the primary focus is on the building’s performance in respect to the given environmental condi...

Understanding climatic conditions is crucial for the design of bioclimatic buildings and governs the selection of appropriate design approaches. Together with occupants’ physiological, psychological and cultural demands discussed in the previous chapter, climate defines the boundary conditions under which the building should be designed. Therefore,...

The last chapter of the book will focus on the importance of the projected future climate change on the design process of bioclimatic buildings. In particular, this means that for a successful bioclimatic design, striving towards climate adaptation, not only current, but also the state of the future climate has to be considered. The main idea is to...

Built environment encompasses the whole of human-made construction, from bridges, pipelines to office towers and residential buildings. The built environment is so omnipresent that we do not even notice it as a distinct entity within the larger natural environment that is the Earth’s biosphere. The present chapter will outline the origins of buildi...

Climate analysis using bioclimatic potential calculations described in Chap. 4 defines the extent to which buildings at a certain location can use the environmental conditions to provide for the occupants’ indoor thermal comfort. However, these potentials are merely guidelines or reinterpretations of climate data, pointing to the appropriate design...

As the evidence for anthropogenic climate change is mounting, the need to evaluate its potential impacts in upcoming decades is becoming ever more important. As urbanised environments will be substantially affected, the evaluation of climate change impacts on building performance is crucial to ensure the sustainability and resilience of the built e...

In recent decades, high level of urbanization, air pollution and climate change have caused a frequent occurrence of urban heat islands, resulting in thermal discomfort and increased energy use of buildings. As a response, a lot of attention has been paid to building envelope characteristics, with an increasing number of studies investigating build...

Nowadays, engineering students tend to focus on computer simulations for the study of real-world phenomena, although in many cases they do not understand the basic principles behind the specific software. Therefore, in the time of computers, using a heliodon (physical device for solar analysis) for educational purposes might be an encouragement. Th...

Off-site construction can represent a potential solution for worldwide mass housing demand and has gained a lot of attention during the refugee crisis in Europe. In particular, modular construction is one of the most cost-effective off-site methods for various types of buildings. Its characteristics are cost-effectiveness, quality control and quick...

During early building design stages, decisions are made regarding building’s form, orientation, distribution, and size of glazing. Although these features are crucial for building energy performance, designers rarely base their decisions on elaborate energy simulations. The paper presents a study of the interconnectedness of building form, orientat...

Bioclimatic potential analysis is one of the starting points for bioclimatic building design. However, as climate changes are being brought into the spotlight, bioclimatic potential is being put into question as well, because traditionally used passive strategies at a specific location may no longer represent properly balanced approach. Therefore,...

The number of children enrolled in daycare centres is increasing, while indoor environmental quality of Slovenian children daycare centres remains insufficiently investigated. The purpose of this paper, as Part I of the larger study "Indoor environmental quality (IEQ) in Slovenian children daycare centres", was to holistically assess indoor environ...

In the process of building design it is important to consider the interconnected impact of occupants' behaviour and building characteristics on the quality of indoor environment. Moreover, it is necessary to identify how potential energy renovation measures may influence the indoor environmental quality. For this reason, this paper, as Part II of t...

Thermal response of building envelope exerts a substantial influence on the formation of overall indoor comfort conditions as well as on the energy performance of buildings. For the majority of Central and Northern European countries it can be said that legislators as well as designers focus primarily on the optimization of building performance in...

doi:10.18086/swc.2017.21.04 As bioclimatic design is becoming increasingly important in contemporary buildings, various analytical tools must be developed and introduced to the designers in order to guide them through the design process. Therefore, the BcChart v2.0 software was developed. It executes bioclimatic potential analysis of a location bas...

As bioclimatic design is becoming increasingly important in contemporary buildings, various analytical tools must be developed and introduced to the designers in order to guide them through the design process. Therefore, the BcChart v2.0 software was developed. It executes bioclimatic potential analysis of a location based on the theory of Olgyay’s...

As the environmental awareness of the public is rising and at the same time contemporary buildings are becoming more and more energy efficient, the focus is shifting towards the usage of environmentally friendly building products. Human decisions are often driven by emotions and perceptions. Consequently, there exists a strong tendency towards pref...

The determination of solar irradiation is crucial when planning the installation of solar systems. There are different GIS models for determining solar irradiation, which differ from each other in terms of input data, hardware requirements, performance, reliability and suitability, depending on the specificity of the study area and the nature of th...

In recent years the use of wood based products in building industry has expanded. Although lightweight timber constructions essentially decrease environmental impact of a building, their consequential low thermal mass can lead to overheating during summer. Therefore, the purpose of this paper was to investigate various examples of enhanced lightwei...

In recent years, the construction industry has been comprehensively focusing on energy performance of buildings and on achieving higher standards of living comfort. One of the most sophisticated ways to attain both at the same time is (re)achieving building’s climate balance by using bioclimatic design. Therefore, the main goal of this paper was to...

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The term sustainable development has been known since 1987 and means balancing four aspects of development: economic, environmental, social and health. These aspects should be equally represented in the design of sustainable buildings. The purpose of this article is to check on the case of single-family prefabricated house by Slovenian manufacturer...

In recent decades the construction industry in the EU has been focused on the improvement of energy performance of buildings. The principal focus is on the reduction of transmission and ventilation losses of a building, where transmission losses are predominantly reduced by thermally insulating the building envelope. Therefore, the U value of a bui...

The problem of energy consumption of buildings is complex and multidimensional, as it is a cross section of building envelope performance, indoor environmental conditions and user demands and preferences. In order to fulfil the EU goal stated in the 2020 climate and energy package and beyond, the implementation of high-performance buildings is cruc...

Quality of indoor environment as well as energy consumption in buildings are a growing concern in the context of overheating of buildings, as the EU legislation is primarily focused on heating season. The statistical data of EU have shown that there is already a large amount of buildings not comfortably cool during summer and the trend is increasin...

The early building design phase is crucial for the definition of building shape, orientation of building envelope as well as in defining the window-to-wall ratio (WWR). All of the mentioned aspects of building design are crucial for achieving energy efficient buildings and therefore also the EU goal of nZEB by 2020. Despite this, in most cases desi...

Daylighting in buildings is generally a neglected aspect of building design. Situation has even intensified during the last few decades due to the extremely biased point of view on building efficiency, where in most cases designers were optimizing building energy consumption without considering the indoor environment. Therefore, the influence of gl...