SUSTAINABILITY THROUGH BIOCLIMATIC BUILDING DESIGN IN NORTH-EAST INDIA Manoj Kumar Singh 1 , Sadhan Mahapatra 2 , S. K. Atreya 1 1 Instrument Design and Development Centre Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi 110016, India 2 Department of Energy, Tezpur University, Tezpur 784028, Assam, India 1 E-mail: mksinghtu@gmail.com ABSTRACT Building construction and operation have an enormous direct and indirect impact on the environment. The issues of sustainable building design are multi-facets and highly lateral in nature. However building sustainability largely focus on the operation of the building and construction process. Bioclimatism is a critical parameter for achieving sustainability of modern architecture. This concept takes into account the solar passive techniques and micro-climatic conditions in building design; which improves the building artificial energy efficiency and thermal comfort conditions in the built environment. Vernacular architecture based on bioclimatism concepts were developed and used through the centuries by many civilizations across the world. A questionnaire based survey has carried out at seventy five functional vernacular architecture of north eastern region of India. Temperature, humidity and day lighting data both inside and outside of the buildings are collected at all these houses. We came across some interesting findings related to bioclimatism, socio-economic status, cultural setup and sustainability in this vernacular architecture. We found that social and cultural values are closely associated with building design style and function. So these parameters needs due importance towards comfort and sustainability analysis of buildings. We also found different solar passive features available in most of these houses related to temperature control and promotion of natural ventilation. These houses are constructed using locally available building materials. Since these materials have low embodied energy and are from the same climatic zone, they fit into the local environment perfectly and represent a unique example towards achieving sustainability. INTRODUCTION Sustainability and quest for ‘sustainable development’ is not a new idea. Throughout the human history it has always remained an important issue. Many cultures have recognized the need of harmony between natural environment, society and the economy for all round development [Tweed & Sutherland 2007]. In present time building sector sustainability focuses on secondary and complex issues such as life cycle analysis, carbon emission, waste management, recyclability etc. But building construction, structure and operation are governed by the local and regional parameters; which are direct response to the local climate. Buildings based on these features provide uniqueness, sense of belonging, social and cultural identity [Kua & Lee 2002, Singh et al. 2008]. World energy consumption pattern shows that 25 percent of the world’s population (living in cities of developed countries and large cities of developing countries)