Evaluating environmental performances of sustainable technologies: from the building to the city scale

This paper reports the first results of an on-going research, which aims at bridging the gap between the sustainable building design and its expected potential benefit or impact considered at different urban scales. It proposes the concept of the urban matrix as a tool allowing a more holistic analysis and design of sustainable buildings. Some key performance indicators are singled out for reporting the relationships between sustainable design and the metabolism of the urban matrix; they are expected to be holistic, and usable as a tool for a sustainable design integrating buildings and cities.