An interactive design framework for large-scale public buildings based on comfort and carbon abatement

Abstract

Large-scale public buildings usually use active means to improve indoor thermal comfort, such as cooling and heating by centralized air conditioning, which can increase building carbon emissions. It is urgent to balance the comfort and carbon abatement. Passive means have the potential to reduce building carbon emissions, such as the atrium. However, the effect of atrium on comfort and carbon abatement is influenced by outdoor environment, which is ignored in the traditional research. Therefore, this paper proposes an interactive design framework for outdoor environmental paving (O-EP) and indoor ventilated atrium skylight orientation (I-VA). Taking a large-scale public building in Xinghua city as an example, three common outdoor pavement forms (hard paving, shrub greenery, water bodies) and five building atrium skylight orientations (0°, 45°, 90°, 135°, 180°) are selected. Carbon abatement rate and adaptive predicted mean vote (aPMV) are used as evaluation indicators for carbon abatement and comfort respectively. The couple of O-EP and I-VA on building carbon abatement and comfort is obtained by analysis of correlation and ANOVA. Numerical simulations are validated by experimental data. The results show that (1) different combinations vary significantly, annual carbon abatement rates and comfort are 17.5% and 15% higher for the combination of water bodies of O-EP and 135° of I-VA than for the worst; (2) correlation analysis shows that carbon abatement rate is correlated with O-EP at the 0.01 level and not with I-VA; (3) in the warmer seasons, comfort is correlated with O-EP at the 0.01 level and not with I-VA; in the cooler seasons, comfort is correlated with I-VA at the 0.01 level and not with O-EP. This study can provide an important reference for design strategies for low carbon development and green buildings.