Built environment is one of the major causes of the negative impact that human activity has on the environment. Building design should adopt such strategies that would help relieve this situation. Architects should therefore be able to grasp and implement all aspects of sustainable design, including cutting edge technologies, in a holistic and integral fashion. Building-Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV) represents an important field to explore, since photovoltaic systems have an enormous potential within the context of architectural and urban design. Their implementation though has to be part of the integral design process which is essential for the creation of quality sustainable architecture. Since the world urban population is constantly growing, sustainable approaches to architectural design need to be adopted with urgency in urban environment. Existing urban environment however presents great challenges to the implementation of any new technology. In an urban context we need not only design new buildings, but since the urban tissue is already in place, care must be taken not to damage the historical and architectural values. Furthermore, urban environment has many variations and offers a broad scope of possibilities for various approaches to BIPV. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the possibilities of BIPV in relationship to sustainable architecture and urban environment, focusing on explaining the necessity to provide architects with a methodology of working with advanced photovoltaic systems in architectural design, introducing the departure points for this intention, and demonstrating how such a methodology – a Design Manual – will be created.
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