Handbook of Retrofitting High Density Residential Buildings: Policy Design and Implications on Domestic Energy Use in the Eastern Mediterranean Climate of Cyprus

This book investigates energy use and measures to improve the energy efficiency of public housing, using post-war social housing development estates in Cyprus as its example. On this Mediterranean island, which experiences hot and humid temperatures throughout the year, residential buildings need to adapt to the climate to improve the thermal comfort of their occupants. The book assesses the domestic energy use of inefficiently built residential tower blocks and their occupants’ thermal comfort by considering the significant impact of overheating risks on energy consumption and occupants’ thermal comfort and well-being, with the intention of evaluating the current energy performance of base-case representative residential tower blocks (RTBs). In particular, considering the cooling energy demand in the summer, using Famagusta, Cyprus as a case study. It seeks to identify the impact of occupancy patterns and habitual adaptive behaviour of households on home energy performance in order toprovide bases for the information needed to calibrate building energy performance of targeted households. 

Dr. Bertug Ozarisoy (PhD, MA, MSc, BSc) is an architect and expert in building energy modelling in Cyprus. He holds a BSc (Hons) in Architecture, MSc in Architecture, MA in Architecture, Cultural Identity and Globalisation (University of Westminster, UK) and a PhD in Environmental design and engineering (University of East London, UK). His research focuses on understanding the theory between architecture and energy policy design in conjunction with exploring the impact of passive cooling systems on domestic energy use and households’ thermal comfort. He is interested in environmental design and the development of novel design applications throughout his architectural practice. He has focused on developing a novel methodological framework to assess overheating risk of buildings to tackle the detrimental effects of long-term heatwaves experienced as a result of climate change in Europe. He has an intensive ten years’ experience in teaching, academic research, and architectural practice. He has been involved with the BSc (Hons) Construction Management programme at the University of East London between September 2016-2018. He is also the first author of over 25 journals and conference papers relevant to the building engineering field. He has been mostly involved with research projects in the Sustainable Development of the Built Environment (SDBE) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Europe.

Prof. Dr. Haşim Altan (BArch, MArch, PhD, PGCE, FHEA) is Professor of Sustainable Design and Architectural Engineering in the Faculty of Design, and Director of Research Centre at Arkin University of Creative Arts and Design (ARUCAD) in Kyrenia, Cyprus. He is a Chartered Architect (RIBA) and a Chartered Engineer (CIBSE) with over 20 years of academic and practice experience in the field of Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) in the Built Environment in UK, Europe, Middle East and North Africa (MENA) regions. Prof. Dr. Altan sits on a number of editorial boards and reviews project proposals for the European Commission, UK Research Councils, and Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF) by Qatar Foundation. Since 2004, he has, singly or jointly, secured and directed 32 research grants worth over £21 million. He is a founding member of the International Network on Zero Energy Mass Custom Home (ZEMCH), which has so far organised eight international conferences, several design workshops, and numerous technical visits. As well as having supervised 17 successful PhD students, Prof. Dr. Altan has published over 280 refereed journal and conference papers, international edited books and book chapters in related fields.