This paper for the first time presents a set of background, theory and practice of energy saving architecture of buildings that allows harmonization of appropriate thermal “behaviour” of the building itself with the energy saving behavioural actions of the people in it depending on year-round and daily dynamics of renewable energy of an environment and incoming solar radiation. Energy saving architecture offers a solution to the two-fold task of saving energy and ensuring acceptable internal conditions due to the beneficial influence of natural processes of the building and human behaviour. It is aimed to provide year-round acceptable parameters for the internal microclimate and sanitary-hygiene conditions and to minimize heating, cooling, and ventilation energy consumption. This paper presents the derivation of the formula on the dimensionless indicator of the building’s energy efficient form; its values of the real building forms; examples of solved computational optimization of the location, orientation, and size of the building, and its rooms and thermal envelope components (especially windows and doors). Considerations include issues of minimizing the effect of thermal bridges, especially architectural ones, as well as the structural and operational bridges from the author’s classification. The architectural, constructional, and operational practices are demonstrated by: passive gain and prevention of solar heating; heating and cooling by natural ventilation.

The known theory and experience of energy-saving architecture allow solving the article's task and ensuring sufficient insolation, passive solar heating, and occupants contact with nature through semi-basement windows. The goal is a full-fledged use of the semi-basement space achieved for seismically active regions with a moderate, cold, and hot climate by ensuring the normative seismic-resistance, energy-efficiency, and microclimate of the building and preventing influence of thermal bridges and mold growth. The set of recommendations also covers the provision of the required sanitary-hygienic conditions in the semi-basement rooms. The multidisciplinary problem is solved by integrating the methodologies of various fields of science. By means of numerical investigations, it established that the soil adjacent to the semi-basement foundation wall increases the thermal mass and building envelope heat-protection capacity. The isotherms and the intensity of heat fluxes made it possible to eliminate the effect of thermal bridges that interact with the soil and outside air. The expedient thickness and width of the additional layer of thermal insulation of thermal bridge zones in excess of the normative layer of the enclosure's thermal insulation were established. The graphical dependence of the wall's inner corner temperature from this width allows selecting the microclimate level. A multilateral contribution to building improvement is derived from a single-family home example: comfortable microclimate conditions have been created in the semi-basement for placing main rooms there; energy savings for heating this space is 16-20%; saving of monolithic frame and foundation concrete is 10-12% ensuring the higher than normative building seismic-resistance.

Widespread low-rise residential buildings with a seismically resistant concrete frame and brick infill walls have lower microclimate levels in cold seasons due to low temperatures on the inner wall corner surfaces.These temperatures are lower if there is a corner column. For Bishkek, this temperature is 4.6 °C lower than that for permissible microclimate, even when the external wall has the required 70 mm of mineral wool slab insulation. It is caused by the negative effect of the wall corner thermal bridge. This effect is determined by ArchiCAD 20 software packages by visualizing the temperature distribution in the cross-section of the corner, which needs an additional thermal insulation layer of 40 mm. Using the LiraSAPR 2013 software package, the authors reduced the square cross-section dimensions of the column by 40 mm to allow for that additional thermal insulation layer. The optimal width of this layer is determined for different options for the meeting angle of two external walls from 70° to 180°. For a typical 90° angle, an acceptable width is 860 mm. With this insulation, it is possible to achieve the required temperature at the corner. The authors eliminated the negative thermal effect of the corner by rounding it with cement-sand plaster. Using the isotherms, it was determined that the rounding radius of 300 mm allowed for equal temperatures on the corner and inner surface of the external walls. The achieved results show that the microclimate formed as in a room without external wall corners.

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The adopted concept and examples of energy-saving architecture were the basis for improving the energy efficiency and thermal microclimate conditions of the building, reducing its greenhouse gas emissions. The appropriate location, shape, orientation, and dimensions of the building, its rooms, and enclosures, especially windows, and doors, are determined. The daily, seasonal, and year-round effects on the building of renewable energies of incoming solar radiation and the environment – the energy of outdoor air, base soil, wind, sky, and surfaces facing the building are considered. Buildings with small thermal envelope surfaces in a form of a national Kyrgyz yurt and a sphere have no architectural thermal bridges that cause microclimate disturbance and mold growth. The straw bale solar passive building has a similar performance to the Nearly Zero Energy building and the Green Building. It has minimal energy consumption, CO2 emissions, embodied energy, and a low carbon footprint of used straw bales, wood frames, and clay plasterwords.