Early design evaluation of low-rise school building morphology on energy performance: Climatic contexts of Southeast Europe

Abstract

Contemporary societies have shifted their focus towards sustainable and resilient public buildings, transcending the institutional and functional role of the physical structures. School buildings remain the second highest expenditure of municipalities' total running costs. The impact on well-being and improved knowledge, and the average lifespan of school buildings, imply the necessity to pay special attention to its expected performance from the early design phase.The present research aims to estimate the impact of early design evaluation of open-school building morphology on energy performance in four climatic contexts of Southeast Europe. Design variables, including building shape and orientation, are selected for a comprehensive whole-building energy performance analysis. The results highlight the method's efficiency in reducing a maximum of 35.4% of the annual energy demand and increasing a maximum of 1.21 °C the thermal comfort in classrooms through geometry optimization. Suggestions are made on the appropriateness level of each typology for each studied climatic context. A fundamental framework for early design decision-making stages is generated through the performed simulation results.