nZEB avant la Lettre: An architects' perspective.

During the past almost two decades, the European Union launched and systematically updated Directives that aim to keep under control the use of energy in buildings. In this context, the "Strategy 20-20-20" (launched in January 2005), aimed to reduce greenhouse gases by 2020 with 20% and on the other hand, to increase the use of renewable energy consumption by 20%, in an effort to ensure the improvement of energy efficiency by 20%. It was followed in 2010 by the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive - that was revised in 2018 - and by the Energy Efficiency Directive in 2012, amended in 2019. Furthermore, in December 2021, the Commission proposed a revision of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, that sets new and ambitious targets regarding the buildings - either new or old - that match the provisions and expectation of the European Green Deal. "As of 2021, all new buildings must be nearly zero-energy buildings (NZEB) and since 2019, all new public buildings should be NZEB. When a building is sold or rented, energy performance certificates must be issued and inspection schemes for heating and air conditioning systems must be established" is stated on the Energy page of the site of the European Commission. However, as strange as it may seem, preoccupations for a fair energy management is probably almost as old as mankind as the building is the product with the longest life span: we have millennial buildings that not only stand but are still functioning. It was not a calculation or a direction that designed the buildings, it was the genius of architects. While not denying the political will and the strategies that it brings forth, it must be emphasized that energy efficient buildings were created long before the need to measure the building performance from the point of view of the energy it uses. And, as one of the greatest architects of the XX-th Century said "Architecture is the will of an epoch translated into space" (Ludwig Mies van der Rohe). And this epoch has the technological means of producing energy from alternative resources that can be embedded in building products. Hence, why not use them?! As means not as targets, in order for the building to continue to fulfil the Vitruvian triade: firmitas - utilitas - venustas (structural strength - utility - beauty). The paper is a plea for the prevalence of the architectural concept over rigid quantitative measures of energy efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]