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Draft. These pages were imported from the ARC Technical Criteria document (16 April 2026) and have not yet been reviewed in this format. Several thresholds are still being settled and are flagged on the pages concerned.

The Cool Buildings Programme

The five components of ARC's programme - design strategies, the dynamic adaptive-comfort model, building science resources, prescriptive measures and exemplar buildings.

These five components together make up the programme described in the introduction.

Design strategies

A simple and flexible 2-Step, 3-Zone strategy for designing buildings and planning building-improvement pathways. See the ARC framework.

Dynamic adaptive-comfort model

The interactive model acts as technical guidance and helps with target setting for effective thermal performance design and modelling.

It is a standardised, humidity-adjusted adaptive comfort model-based tool that provides key humidity-adjusted temperature thresholds for comfortable, healthy and safe conditions in building spaces. It aids investigation of building performance and provides validation of as-built performance to the ARC standard.

The standardised thresholds can be adjusted for local conditions as required, using localised comfort survey data. ARC complements this with guidance on simplified, evidence-based temperature limits for spaces within buildings. See the comfort model and success criteria.

Building science resources

A library of open-source research papers, and reviews of paywalled papers. Guidance and advice informed by peer-reviewed research literature, live environmental condition monitoring of buildings, and citizen-science activity and feedback. See resources.

Prescriptive measures

Context-informed scenarios to help identify appropriate building fabric and mechanical cooling and ventilation measures, resulting in a growing library of useful architectural features in the form of a 'pattern book'.

This is being co-created with international experts and communities, and shared free of charge with communities.

Exemplar buildings

Showcased buildings, sharing real-world insight into their performance and the stories of their designers, builders and occupants.


Source: ARC Technical Criteria - ARC's Cool Buildings Programme - Key components
Overview · confidence high · Imported 2026-08-29, not yet reviewed · next review 2026-11-29
Tags: programme, overview, resources
Citation key: cool-buildings-programme