Environmental Technology, Materials Science, Architectural Design, and Real Estate Market Evaluation: A Multidisciplinary Approach for Energy-Efficient Buildings

The aim of this paper is to illustrate a multidisciplinary approach to selecting, designing, and evaluating sustainable solutions for energy-efficient buildings that are integrated into their neighborhoods at the early design stage. The paper discusses the Strategic Choice Approach (SCA), a tool which supports decision-makers in shaping problems in complex contexts. SCA is proposed as a tool for developing a sort of preliminary “platform” in which information derived from four disciplines (environmental technology, materials science and technology, architectural design, and real estate market evaluation) could be shared and accessed by stakeholders during the early design stage in order to manage the multidimensionality and uncertainty of building design. The challenge is to structure a support tool for designers, builders, developers, and urban planning authorities involved in sustainability-oriented land administration.