Sustainable Design Guide of the Japan Institute of Architects

Amory Lovins advocates for 'green design' that integrates biologically informed human comfort, high-performance technology, and community-rooted architecture. He argues that combining Japanese sensibilities regarding dynamic environments with Western innovations—such as 'superwindows' and advanced daylighting—can reduce building energy use by 80-90% while improving productivity and well-being. The text highlights several case studies, including the ING bank headquarters in Amsterdam and DeMontfort University in England, to demonstrate that sustainable design can enhance financial performance and human health without increasing capital costs.

• Modern commercial buildings often fail to provide genuine comfort because they isolate humans from natural conditions using static, artificial environments, whereas humans thrive in 'subtly dynamic' environments.
• Improving labor productivity through better thermal, visual, and acoustic comfort is significantly more valuable to businesses than energy savings; RMI case studies show productivity increases of 6–16 percent in such spaces.
• Integrating climatically responsive architecture with 'superwindows' and efficient lighting can reduce normal cooling loads by four- or five-fold and lower total building energy use by 80 to 90 percent.
• The NMB (now ING) bank headquarters in South Amsterdam demonstrates that an organic building integrating art and natural light can reduce absenteeism by 15% and improve a company's market position without increasing cost per square metre.
• Green design can eliminate the need for cooling and air-handling equipment through natural convection and thermal mass, as seen in DeMontfort University's engineering building in Leicester, England.
• Sustainable design should prioritize 'superefficient energy use' and a thermally passive building envelope before implementing energy supply technologies like solar cells to avoid inefficiency.
• Traditional compensation structures for design teams are counterproductive because they reward spending rather than efficiency; teams should instead be compensated for the savings they achieve.

APA

LOVINS, A. B. (1996). Sustainable Design Guide of the Japan Institute of Architects. RMI. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_D96-03_SusDsnGuide.pdf

Chicago

LOVINS, AMORY B. Sustainable Design Guide of the Japan Institute of Architects. RMI, 1996. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_D96-03_SusDsnGuide.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=LOVINS |first1=AMORY B. |title=Sustainable Design Guide of the Japan Institute of Architects |publisher=RMI |date=1996 |url=https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_D96-03_SusDsnGuide.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{lovins1996sustainable, author = {LOVINS, AMORY B.}, title = {{Sustainable Design Guide of the Japan Institute of Architects}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {1996}, url = {https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_D96-03_SusDsnGuide.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }