ABSTRACT
Abstract A significant element of the development of the theory and practice of environmental design in buildings in recent years has been the move away from wholesale reliance upon automatic controls of plant and other systems and the restoration of control to the occupants. In work first published in the 1980s the author proposed a distinction between two modes of environmental control the exclusive and the selective. The selective mode was characterised by the exploitation of ambient energy sources and the use of occupant control. This theoretical proposition was first applied in practice in the design and construction of a primary school at Netley in Hampshire, designed by the Hampshire County Architect’s Department. Recently the principles of selective design have become widely adopted in the design of buildings for a range of uses. This paper offers a critical reconsideration of the theory in the light of this practical experience and proposes further guidelines for the effective control of building environments by their users.
