It is feasible to have energy-efficient buildings, while the aesthetics part is still desired. The principal factor in achieving this goal is that the implemented strategies for reducing energy demand should be a feature of the design. Thus, it is conditional on the architect's knowledge about energy efficiency approaches and and the ability to apply them in the final design. Of course, in big scale projects, close teamwork between energy counsellors and designers would be required.

In general, the implementation of buildings whose design is based on an efficient energy system that is concerned with lighting, ventilation, air conditioning, and acoustic and thermal insulation will achieve environmental architecture that contributes significantly to sustainability.

Energy efficiency doesn't follow aesthetics. Our perception of aesthetics might follow energy efficiency though: things which are useful look more pleasant after some time.

Aleš Kralj , in a sense, yes ... but I would go further, I think that energy efficiency is the use of energy (free, from the sun); in this context, maybe sometimes large windows will work if we assume the desire to capture and accumulate energy from the sun?

Aryan Shahabian , there is something in it, first efficiency, then aesthetics ... Here I agree. I wonder when the moment is right, that the efficiency is already high enough to give way to aesthetics. You are just trying to find the answer

Alex; That's a good window.

One can build without a heating system in Canada to north of Edmonton, by using sufficient glazing, thermal mass, and insulation. If one were to use the phase change of water as ventilation pre-heating in the winter, one can build enough ice to provide refrigeration year round through most of Canada (not Victoria, and maybe not Windsor). One can use the phase change of wax to provide solar hot water on demand in most of Canda (hard in very cloudy locations - not rainforests). Solar electric in batteries can provide ventilation. Only need grid for providing heat for cooking - I haven't found a way around that.

The building ends up being 30' diameter, circular, with one 20' wide penetration - the south facing glazing that is 3 storeys tall. Walls and floors are soil-geotextile composites, stacked to carry compressive loads, and wrapped to carry shear stresses.

This is really quite simple, and would cost about the same as conventional construction to build. It would end up being a mass-shell structure, so some some unusual loading cases would have to be checked. But we don't do this - not even close. And I think because it would look quite different from conventional construction - aesthetics. So, in the real world, I think aesthetics trumps efficiency.

Until the cost of energy is high enough, it will always be trendy to demonstrate one's wealth and power by what we can afford to throw away. Once energy becomes sufficiently expensive, then we will tend toward being smarter. But it will be rare to be proactive.

Interesting question! However, one should ask first, what aesthetics in architecture actually means or is? If we consider that aesthetics refers to the way how architectural ie. functional, visual and technical elements are put together in a building, then it's clear that also energy efficiency influences architecture. But it is also possible to suppress or emphasize certain aesthetic aspects. Thus, it is possible, for example, to make a building look very energy efficient or ecological, although it is not much so, or vice versa.

La eficiencia energética en la edificación no contempla el factor estético como de diseño arquitectónico. La eficiencia energética tiene su propia estética. La estética clásica de la arquitectura del siglo XX se basa en el cubismo, en el racionalismo, en el estilo internacional, en el posmodernismo, etc., todos tendencias de moda según las circunstancias temporales, que nunca contemplaron el aspecto de la eficiencia energética.

Guillermo José Jacobo Probablemente tienes razón; ¿Y si la arquitectura actual y futura no debería tener en cuenta la eficiencia? Y si hay que tener en cuenta, ¿cómo? Quizás sea solo un campo de discusión, no solo el contexto, no solo la estética, sino también la eficiencia; Coches, teléfonos: los objetos cotidianos se han tenido en cuenta durante tanto tiempo.

There can be number of relationships between energy efficiency and aesthetics in architecture. Some of them can be:

Guillermo José Jacobo Es verdad que la estética clásica de la arquitectura del siglo XX no se basa en la eficiencia energética. Pero la aplicación de esta architectura ha tambien llevado muchas problemas técnicas, por ejemplo problemas de la humedad y agua en el norte. Credo que hoy en dia empezamos ver una nueva estética de la arquitectura que se basa en formas y structuras ecologicas y efectivas en energia, pero tampoco olvidando fundamental principios de estética como proporciónes, tensiónes, armonía, vistas etc. Es fundamental que todos los factores de la arquitectura no se contradigan.