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.

Introduction

What this document is, who it is for, and ARC's aim of a building standard for hot and hot-humid climates where Passivhaus in one step is not realistic.

This document sets out the ARC expert group’s current understanding of various key technical aspects of thermal comfort and wellbeing. It includes our thinking on how to increase building performance resilience in the face of intermittent power supply and problems related to the cost and availability of key building materials and mechanical services equipment. It outlines ARC’s building performance standard for minimising occupant overheating in buildings in hot, and hot and humid climates. The ARC Cool Buildings Standard is conceived as being helpful for countries in climate-vulnerable regions, where there exist challenging socio-economic conditions that do not favour easily delivering new and refurbished buildings to the Passivhaus Standard in one step. The document should also be used as reference for those using ARC’s educational materials.

As our understanding and experience increases, this document will be updated – please regularly check that you are referencing the latest version.

ARC Protocols for Cool Buildings

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Source: ARC Technical Criteria - 1
Overview · confidence medium · Imported 2026-09-12, not yet reviewed · next review 2026-12-12
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Citation key: introduction