Towards a sustainable aesthetics - Architects constructing energy efficient buildings

The official Norwegian policy regarding how to stimulate a sustainable development in the building sector has primarily been based on either controlling the energy consumption by using relative prices, or to stimulate the development of new technologies where the basic assumption is that good technology spreads by it self. In that respect the efforts has been directed unilaterally towards macro political measures that are meant to work on the micro-level (end-users or building owners). Thus, the official energy efficiency policy have few strategies for affecting the actors on the middle or the meso level, that is the professions and institutions in the building sector that give advice and have a say in decisions about how to design and operate buildings.