Summer thermal adaptation in residential buildings for heating-dominated temperate climates: assessment and perspectives on low-energy single-family houses in Wallonia.

Rising temperatures and more frequent heatwaves increasingly challenge our built environment. Understanding how buildings and occupants can adapt to these changing conditions has become a critical research and policy priority. Focusing on low-energy single-family houses in Wallonia, this thesis critically examines how design practices can evolve to more effectively support summer thermal adaptation through passive strategies in a context where such adaptation has not historically been culturally embedded. Drawing on monitoring data, field surveys, and whole-building energy simulations, the research highlights the extent of summer thermal discomfort currently experienced and its expected intensification under climate change. It also identifies the sociotechnical dimensions that shape current practices through surveys and interviews conducted with occupants, building professionals, and public policymakers. The thesis shows that summer thermal adaptation in buildings cannot be addressed as a purely technical challenge, but must also be understood as part of evolving social practices. It therefore advocates for paradigm shifts grounded in transdisciplinary perspectives, linking building engineering with the social, climate, and health sciences, and calls for new design approaches that better support adaptation processes, with the aim of fostering more effective and socially embedded practices.

Affiliations

UCLouvainSST/LAB - Louvain research institute for Landscape, Architecture, Built environment

Citations

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Dartevelle, O. (2026). Summer thermal adaptation in residential buildings for heating-dominated temperate climates: assessment and perspectives on low-energy single-family houses in Wallonia. [Pergamon]. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/280574