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Context

Millions of people are living in cold and isolate regions all over the world and particularly in Asia. In such regions living conditions are very hard due to the “isolation”, the lake of access to basic services such as energy and cold temperatures in winter. In order to heat a building, cook or develop productive activities, payment must be made for fuel and/or time spent to go out and gather wood or dung. Furthermore the fuel used for heating may have an impact on the environment and the climate when fuel is sourced from the non-renewable source, and unhealthy habitat due to the smoke emissions. Last but not least, the poor quality of building conception and insulation, imply quite low indoor temperature that does not allow the practice of invoice generating activities or good children education conditions.

There are currently a number of cost effective, social and environmental friendly alternatives that help to mitigate the energy problems. The bioclimatic architecture (energy efficient building with the use of solar passive power) and renewable energy is of particular interest in cold Asian regions to participate to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) achievement. With upstream planning of the building’s physical orientation, its design, its insulation, and the use of renewable energy, it is possible to reduce the need for heating energy and thus scale down fuel consumption. Sustainable architecture and energy can also make a building more comfortable to be in and healthier for its users.

Bioclimatic Architecture & Renewable Energy

benefits in cold regions.
Social -  Improvement of living conditions ensuring comfortable temperatures.
-    Reduction, or even disappearance, of smoke in dwellings thus limiting eye and lung diseases.
-    Reduction of the work load of children end women collecting burning material for heating and cooking.
Economics - Development of income generating activities by increasing productivity (agriculture, stockbreeding, etc) or by creating new activities.
-    Development of local expertise on the production of energy and on the use of modern construction techniques.
Environmental -   Use of local material and local renewable energy sources.
-    Fighting against deforestation created by an excessive demand of biomass.
-    Fighting against climate change by reducing greenhouse gases.


Number of local, national and international NGO’s, firms and authorities are working for the development of such appropriate solutions. These stakeholders have developed specific capacities and relevant experiences to carry out their projects as successfully as possible.

Nevertheless, there are very little time and few means devoted to knowledge management, exchange and dissemination. Besides, lots of projects have demonstrated that large scale impacts are achievable, but need methodologies, specifics knowledge and known-how as well as long terms efforts.