Visionary scenarios for planning of energy-efficient buildings and neighbourhoods

Holistic approach is required to achieve energy-efficient design of buildings that are integrated to the neighbourhood energy systems. This paper presents selected phases of the design process in the form of visionary scenarios involving new technologies, numerical services and business models. Evaluation of potential impacts and the needed progress beyond the state of the art, as well as user requirements for the visionary stories are identified. As an example, visionary scenario for neighbourhood energy balancing in building design is presented in detail to demonstrate the usefulness of conducting energy analysis on a higher level, beyond a single building. The practical value of utilising the district energy analysis depends strongly on how the results are communicated to the relevant stakeholders and how they are utilised in the urban planning and related decision making. The district energy analyses, when performed iteratively during the progressing planning process, reveal to urban planners the effects of their decision choices. They could also provide sufficient base information for the decision making about the land use and urban development on the city level. To account for future changes that affect the energy system but are not handled properly in today’s design process, an eadaptability concept is introduced.