# Sustainable Modularity Approach to Facilities Development Based on Geothermal Energy Potential
## 2 Materials and Methods
### Architectural Model--Design Premises
The issues of sustainability and resilience were addressed on several levels:  
* program--defined to be sensitive to local needs and capacities, conceived for gradual development (reflected on various design aspects);
* adaptive capacities--aimed at enabling year-round functioning bearing in mind seasonal changes as well as prospective changes (anticipated and unexpected) throughout the facility's lifespan;
* infrastructure independence--aimed at off-grid functionality, especially for the remote sites;
* carbon footprint--aimed at carbon-neutral developments; \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c c c c c} \hline  & **January** & **February** & **March** & **April** & **May** & **June** & **July** & **August** & **September** & **October** & **November** & **December** \\ \hline
**Avg. Temperature** (°C) & 0.8 & 2.5 & 7.4 & 13.2 & 18 & 21.9 & 23.9 & 23.9 & 18.6 & 13.2 & 7.9 & 2.2 \\
**Min. Temperature** (°C) & -2.3 & -1.4 & 2.5 & 7.9 & 12.6 & 16.5 & 18.5 & 18.5 & 14 & 9 & 4.6 & \(-\)0.6 \\
**Max. Temperature** (°C) & 4.3 & 6.7 & 12.4 & 18.2 & 23 & 26.7 & 28.7 & 28.9 & 23.4 & 17.9 & 11.8 & 5.4 \\
**Precipitation/Rainfall (mm)** & 43 & 43 & 46 & 60 & 67 & 75 & 64 & 56 & 55 & 49 & 50 & 53 \\
**Humidity** (\%) & 80 & 76 & 69 & 63 & 61 & 58 & 57 & 64 & 71 & 77 & 81 \\
**Rainy days (d)** & 6 & 6 & 6 & 8 & 8 & 9 & 7 & 6 & 6 & 6 & 7 \\ \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 1: Weather data for Vojvodina [31]. Figure 6: Number of proposed wellness and spa/medical facilities regarding (**a**) the need for and availability of accommodation, and (**b**) seasonal sensitivity. * local production--supported by the choice of proposed building technology and materials. While resource efficiency in material use with reference to the 3R (reduce, reuse, recycle) concept remained as a general design goal, specific design strategies were proposed for energy efficiency, stressing the impact of architectural design on minimizing demand, thereby enabling coverage from on-site (renewable) energy sources. Program-specific energy efficiency design strategies focused on a wide range of passive design measures that integrated the technology related to necessary active systems from the conceptual design phase. Water management in these facilities is very dependent on water composition, flow and temperature yet needs to be treated with extreme delicacy case be case to preserve the unique hydrogeological characteristics. All proposals were designed with extreme care to maximize porous surfaces, minimize potential contamination of surface water, and to make recommendations for rainwater collection and use where appropriate. Design goals were addressed through a variety of design strategies, which were applied to 20 sites with wellness and spa facilities that ranged in size from small mobile units for balneotherapy to complex multifunctional developments. The main design strategies, developed mainly based on bioclimatic architecture, [32] included  
* modularity,
* sizing and positioning of open-air and indoor features,
* passive design, and
* use of on-site renewable energy sources. The general concept was developed with south-facing wellness and spa/medical units and corresponding utility spaces in the centre with optional additions of hospitality and medical facilities (Figure 7). However, adjacent medical and hospitality facilities might be planned with program-specific design strategies, so they were not further discussed in detail at this stage of the research.