This special issue of Perkins and Will Research Journal is dedicated to capturing proceedings of the 2nd Workshop on Architecture and Engineering of Sustainable Buildings, sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF). This two-day workshop was organized by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Perkins+Will, and was held at the Perkins+Will’s Chicago office on July 26 and 27, 2012. The event brought together invited participants from different universities, design/architectural and engineering firms, and national laboratories, representing multidisciplinary and multi-faceted perspectives on sustainability issues relating to buildings and urban design. The main objectives of the workshop were to discuss cutting-edge research and development, as well as design methods for sustainable, high-performance communities and buildings, and to identify current research gaps that should be addressed in order to advance the state of knowledge.

The workshop was organized around these main categories:

• Sustainable urban design and cities

• Role of technical research in the design of high-performance buildings

• Climate-responsive and energy-efficient buildings

• Passive design strategies

• Low-energy mechanical systems

• Role of integrated design in sustainable architecture and engineering.

The articles that are included in this special issue capture the essence of the workshop, and the state-of the art research that was presented by the participants.

“Constitutional Ecology: The Case of Aligning Science and the Law in Urban Design” discusses current trends in research relating to the design of cities. It focuses on the relationships between regulations that are employed to control urban development, and the outcomes resulting from these regulations. This article suggests that regulations have a significant impact on health, safety and welfare of the population, and that there should be legal and scientific mechanisms in place to monitor the efficacy of the adopted regulations. The article suggests that there should also be a mechanism to modify the existing and adopted regulations, if they are not implementing sustainable urban development principles for cities.

“Building Simulations and High-Performance Buildings Research: Use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) for Integrated Design and Analysis” discusses relationships between building performance simulations and design, and the role of building performance research in architectural practice. The first part of the article discusses Perkins+Will Tech Lab, its research focus and research activities relating to the design of high-performance buildings. The second part of the article discusses the role of performance simulations in the design of high-performance buildings, methods for integrating analysis procedures with the design, as well as case studies that illustrate these processes.

“North House – Prototyping Climate Responsive Envelope and Control Systems” presents an interdisciplinary design research project, with the primary objective to develop a full-scale prototype of a net-positive energy solar powered residence, optimized for cold climates. The article describes the project’s high performance objectives, design aspects, development of a specialized facade system with integrated photovoltaic panels, coordination of all building systems (passive and active), and control mechanisms that have been implemented to track and monitor energy usage, operation and engage building occupants in the operation of this high-performance residence. Conclusions suggest that there is a critical relationship between performance of building systems, energy demand reduction and occupant behaviors.

“Current Trends in Low-Energy HVAC Design” provides an insight how HVAC systems are changing to meet the necessity to design energy-efficient buildings. The article discusses different systems and methods, such as decoupling of ventilation and heating/cooling that either partially or completely separates the ventilation air from the cooling and heating. The article also discusses some of the emerging types of HVAC systems, such as chilled beams and radiant floor heating. Also, use of simulation tools for energy modeling or computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling are necessary for the design decision-making, and must be integrated with the design process. The last part of the article discusses a case study where CFD modeling was performed to verify the design approach using radiant floor heating.

In this special issue of the Perkins+Will Research Journal, we have included summary of the workshop outcomes, identified research gaps, and next steps that need to be addressed in order to advance the current state of knowledge, and promote design and construction of future sustainable, high-performance buildings and cities.