Building Design Strategies Research Articles

Climate responsive building design strategies of vernacular architecture in Nepal

Vernacular architecture is the result of hundreds of years of optimization to provide a comfortable shelter in a local climate using available materials and known construction technologies. Due to the absence of mechanical means, traditional buildings use solar passive measures to achieve thermal comfort conditions. In most developing countries it can be observed that with the modernization of the building sector this traditional knowledge of smart and climate responsive design is being lost. Instead the modern building design is dominated by universal architecture that neglects local climate conditions and traditional construction techniques and materials. This paper reviews examples of vernacular architecture and its building elements in Nepal and analyses in a qualitative manner which bioclimatic design strategies were applied.

The physics and simulation of occupant traffic flow in the case of evacuating public building area

In cases where public building areas need to be evacuated, a large number of occupants are expected to be routed through exit(s) effectively. This paper combines two aspects of this problem. On the one hand, the traffic flows must be routed through the exit(s) according to some requirements, e.g., the time required to get everyone out is as short as possible. Hence, it is necessary to derive the embedded physics principles of occupant traffic, e.g., based on fluid dynamics laws, especially applicable to occupant traffic in normal (i.e., non-panic) conditions. The principles are helpful solving optimization problems such as finding out how many exits are needed, how wide the aisles should be set, or how to determine the area deployment according to the distribution of people in the building design. On the other hand, occupant traffic flows are dynamic in nature and phenomena related to the evacuation efficiency are examined by the simulation of System Dynamics, which is a way to illustrate and understand complex system behavior changing with time. In a simplified example, considering the typical occupants’ behavior modes, we simulate and compute the evacuation efficiency in terms of various building design strategies, to demonstrate the applicability and practical sense of the principles to real-world problems.

The Ekihouse: An energy self-sufficient house based on passive design strategies

The Ekihouse is an industrialized solar house prototype, designed and developed by the University of the Basque Country for the SOLAR DECATHLON EUROPE 2012 competition held in Madrid (Spain). The building design strategies are based on the full integration of active—passive solar technologies and passive design criteria in order to achieve an energy self-sufficient proposal, providing high quality of life to its occupants. Despite its intentionally small surface area (54.6m2), the house can be adapted to suit a wide range of lifestyles thanks to its flexible, multifunctional open plan design that can be visually and physically expanded outdoors by removing the northern and southern glazed façades (PVC joinery and 0.9kW/hm2°C glass). For ease of transportation and assembly, the Ekihouse consists of a modular CLT structure system (two 12.60m×3m modules) that supports the photovoltaic roof (10kWp) which functions as a canopy to protect the southern facade from direct solar radiation thereby reducing overheating problems in the building interior. In order to control the indoor temperature, PCM panels are mounted in the ceiling. When passive strategies are insufficient in extreme conditions, the house is also equipped with a ventilation and air-conditioning system that allows a 90% energy recovery. Furthermore, an outdoor evaporative cooling system helps lower the ambient temperature by up to 4°C. A rain and grey water treatment and purification system is also installed. The operation of all this active technology is controlled by an optical domotics system.

Your HVAC System can Manage its Own Energy Use: Advantages of Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) Zoning Systems

VRF zoning heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems have been in use globally for 30 years. The key component is an inverter-driven compressor that uses only the energy needed to meet the heating or cooling load in the building. Since HVAC typically makes up over 40% of a building's energy use1 U.S. Department of Energy. 2011 Buildings Energy Databook, March 2012. D&R International, Ltd. (2011). http://buildingsdatabook.eren.doe.gov/docs/DataBooks/2011_BEDB.pdf. [Google Scholar], VRF zoning technology presents a significant opportunity to reduce a building's overall energy consumption. When weather conditions are less than extreme, which is most of the time in most of the U.S., the building is under partial load. The inverter compressor can ramp down its speed and save 50% of baseline energy use over conventional, fixed-speed, or two-speed systems2 Mitsubishi Electric HVAC Advanced Products Division. EnergyPro Building Energy Analysis, HVAC Energy Usage Savings: Hotel Building. (2009). http://www.mitsubishipro.com/media/226516/energypro-hotel.pdf. (50% HVAC system energy savings is dependent on climate and compared system.). [Google Scholar]. And this is the best part: The energy management system is built into the equipment!This article will address the most common concerns among designers and building owners: “Who should invest in VRF zoning technology?” “What is the ROI?” “Why is VRF zoning technology more efficient than other types of systems?” “How do VRF zoning systems fit into the whole building design and energy management strategies? Occupancy Control? Mobile devices? Tablets? Smart Grid?” This article will explain the concept of simultaneous heating and cooling through energy recovery and will highlight common applications and examples where VRF zoning systems were integrated successfully. Also, the advantages of having the building controls system built into the VRF zoning components will be discussed, such as the ability to add simple control for other systems in the building. This provides significant upfront cost savings in addition to the energy savings versus a traditional system with a third-party integration strategy.

Bioclimatic chart analysis in three climate zones in Cyprus

The concept of bioclimatic design is based on the development of an architectural design adapted to environmental conditions. The utilization of the favourable climatic elements can offer to the users, indoor thermal comfort conditions and at the same time it minimizes the energy consumption which is needed for heating and cooling. This paper provides the bioclimatic analysis for three different climatic zones in Cyprus, coastal, inland and mountainous. The building bioclimatic charts of V. & A. Olgyay are used to examine whether passive strategies can provide indoor thermal comfort in the buildings in these zones. The results of bioclimatic charts are studied in conjunction with the climatic data for the three climatic areas. These are compared and investigated in order to find whether there is sufficient amount of solar radiation for passive heating needed to achieve thermal comfort during winter. The study concludes to a preliminary guide of passive design strategies for buildings, as an outcome of the bioclimatic charts analysis for coastal, inland and mountainous zones in Cyprus. The results can be used for locations with similar climatic conditions.

Microclimate Change Outdoor and Indoor Coupled Simulation for Passive Building Adaptation Design

How to deploy passive building design strategy adaptive to climate change scenarios at urban neighbourhood level is currently not well understood. A microclimate change outdoor and indoor coupled simulation assessment framework for passive building adaptation design in an urban neighborhood context is proposed. Based on computational modelling, it was developed to investigate summer overheating and to apply to a passive design strategy in an existing green building case study, taking into account the seasonal conditions in 2012 and 2050 as projected by a current climate change scenario. Through a series of numerical modelling and prognostic visualization, the results from applying the framework show how building indoor thermal performance interacts with specific outdoor microclimates. This study shows the importance of outdoor and indoor coupled assessment at microclimate level to deploy passive design features to changing climate.

A Literature Analysis on Acoustical Environment in Green Building Design Strategies

Acoustic quality is important in ensuring a healthy and workable working environment. One of green buildings main objective is to reduce the building impact on human health and performance. This was emphasized in most green building rating system under its requirement for Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ). IEQ highlights the four main points for achieving an improved indoor environment: indoor air quality, acoustics, visual comfort (lighting) and thermal comfort. Although acoustics was mentioned in the IEQ criteria, according to previous surveys and studies; acoustics quality in green buildings were not improving. It seems as though in order to improve on other green building criteria, acoustics performance is bound to become poorer. Through review of previous literature, survey and studies on acoustical performance in green buildings, the objective of this paper is to identify how green building design strategies contribute to the degradation of acoustical environment in green office buildings. Findings shows that design strategies implemented to cater for other green building requirements such as natural ventilation, daylight, reduction of finishes and office layout have unintentionally decrease the acoustical quality.

Energy-Efficient Design of Super High-Rise Building in Hot Summer and Cold Winter Zone

With advances in technology and development, it has become very important to raise the citys land resource utilization. Super high-rise building is not only save the land, but also destruct the living environment. According to the climatic characteristics and geographical position of Hot Summer and Cold Winter, present situation of energy-saving in super high-rise buildings, this paper analyses energy-efficient design strategy of super high-rise building from natural ventilation, and energy efficiency of building envelope and renewable green space.

Leveraging ubiquitous computing as a platform for collecting real-time occupant feedback in buildings

Building occupants represent a rich source of information for evaluating environmental design practices and building operations. This article presents a scalable diagnostic technology for collecting real-time indoor environmental quality (IEQ) feedback from building occupants: an interactive desktop polling station. The device demonstrates the potential of ubiquitous computing, a model of human–computer interaction in which information processing is integrated into everyday objects, to engage occupants in providing IEQ feedback in real work environments. Example data from a field study of a high-performance office building are presented demonstrating the applicability of multiple devices to acquire detailed feedback over daily and seasonal variations in climatic conditions. Sample results show how polling station data can help identify the frequency and magnitude of discomfort with the spatial and temporal granularity needed to assess, validate, and improve the performance of environmentally responsive building technologies, controls, and design strategies. Analysis of repeated-measures subjective assessments paired with concurrent physical measurements is performed to demonstrate how existing standards and assumptions for occupant comfort could be evaluated and refined using detailed occupant feedback from buildings in use. Results are discussed regarding implications for improving decision-making for the design, certification, and operation of environmentally responsive buildings.

Generalized residential building typology for urban climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies: The case of Hungary

Climate change has a dual implication on the built environment: on one hand human settlements and buildings are vulnerable to the effects of changing climate and on the other hand the building sector has a significant climate change mitigation potential. The relevant sustainable development and building policies as well as the building design, construction and maintenance strategies should jointly respond both to adaptation to and mitigation of climate change.What should city developers focus on in order to plan a sustainable and safe city in a changing climate? This paper provides answers to this question, presenting a bottom-up methodology based on a generalized building typology of the residential building stock in order to estimate the mitigation potential and vulnerability of the residential sector.During the research, a case study has been implemented in Hungary to assess the structural impacts and vulnerability on the roof, particularly with respect to the wind load and to estimate the potential decrease of CO2 emission through refurbishment. Through the case study the paper highlights the most problematic areas of the city both from vulnerability and mitigation point of view where the attention of the city developers should be turned.

Analysis of Design Strategy of Regional Green Architecture

For developing regional green building, it is very important to absorb the traditional architectural conception of energy conservation. Based on this, this article discusses a series of regional green building design strategies focusing on four aspects. First is responding to regional material, includes making use of local materials, modern renewal of traditional material, reuse of waste materials. Second is responding to regional natural climate, includes “closed insulation + solar energy use”, "ventilation + sunshade", "active ventilation + shade + activities insulation" and active utilization strategy. Third is responding to terrain elements, includes minimum of terrain environment damage and reduction of earthwork volume. Last is responding to regional culture, including expression of traditional materials, restructuring of traditional construction, modern interpretation of traditional regional.

Kano-Based Quality Model for Differencing Intelligent Green Building Design Strategies

Kano-Based Quality Model for Differencing Intelligent Green Building Design Strategies

Sustainable design guidelines for detached housing in the Lebanese inland region

Abstract Developed through a holistic approach, this study aims at setting new applicable sustainable design guidelines for single-family detached residences in the Lebanese inland region, and any other region with similar climate. This paper is an evaluation of the effects of using passive building design strategies on the energy consumption of a housing unit in the Lebanese inland region, and any other location of similar climate. The paper, also, examines the possibility of saving energy through using low embodied energy building construction materials, and investigates the viability of integrating renewable energy sources. The application of the passive design strategies proved to save up to 78% of the annual heating and cooling electric energy consumption. The total annual operational energy of the best case is 63% less than that of the base case. Using the construction materials’ cost variation, a range of 26–45% of the overall annual energy needs could be produced using renewable energy systems. Furthermore, using local low-embodied energy construction materials in the developed model is found to save approximately 80% of the embodied energy compared to the insulated base case model.

Renewable Energy in Building Design Strategies of Application

From the perspective of sustainable development,a combination of some construction examples domestic and abroad,This artical illustrates how to use solar,geothermal,wind,water and other natural energy in building design,in passive heatings and passive colling of both energy savings in order to provide for the creation of today's architectural reference.

A DFuzzy-DAHP Decision-Making Model for Evaluating Energy-Saving Design Strategies for Residential Buildings

The construction industry is a high-pollution and high-energy-consumption industry. Energy-saving designs for residential buildings not only reduce the energy consumed during construction, but also reduce long-term energy consumption in completed residential buildings. Because building design affects investment costs, designs are often influenced by investors’ decisions. A set of appropriate decision-support tools for residential buildings are required to examine how building design influences corporations externally and internally. From the perspective of energy savings and environmental protection, we combined three methods to develop a unique model for evaluating the energy-saving design of residential buildings. Among these methods, the Delphi group decision-making method provides a co-design feature, the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) includes multi-criteria decision-making techniques, and fuzzy logic theory can simplify complex internal and external factors into easy-to-understand numbers or ratios that facilitate decisions. The results of this study show that incorporating solar building materials, double-skin facades, and green roof designs can effectively provide high energy-saving building designs.

Research on Environment Adaptability of Traditional Town Houses in Changsha

Based on the investigation of traditional town houses in Changsha, the traditional building design strategies of town houses to environment are analyzed from the viewpoint of building technology. By analyzing the plan, the courtyard, the roof and measures for fire proof and moisture proof, and citing typical examples, the sustainable development principle of building and environment are elaborated. Furthermore, it provides several helpful reference and clue for ecological construction at present and in future.

Wind-driven natural ventilation in a low-rise building: A Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel study

Indoor Air Quality (IAQ), energy efficiency through passive building design strategies and sustainable construction practices have been highly prioritized in recent years. This paper presents a Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel study on wind-driven natural ventilation for a low-rise building at a model-testing scale of 1:20. The experiment consists of testing various size openings in a single wall, opposite side walls and adjacent side walls with and without portioning walls, with and without opening cover screens, with and without internal volume correction for 36 different wind angles of attacks (unless symmetrical). For the size of the building and openings considered, the experimental analyses indicated that internal volume correction using velocity scaling was important, although this criterion could be relaxed for cross-ventilation with openings in opposite walls. The internal pressure due to cross-ventilation was 1.5–2.5 times higher for Ainlet/Aoutlet > 1 compared with ratios Ainlet/Aoutlet < 1. In general, the lower the opening ratio (or inlet to outlet ratio), the higher the pressure drop inside the building. For an equivalent opening ratio, openings on opposite-walls generated a higher pressure drop compared to openings on adjacent-walls. Room-partitioning significantly affected the distribution of internal pressures, and hence the pressure drop that favored the ventilation in each room for the considered partitioning case. In addition, the total discharge coefficient Cd_total and the ventilation rate Q/(VrA) increased with an increase of the opening ratio. The inlet discharge coefficients obtained in this experiment ranged from 0.65 to 1.08, similar to the results of various early studies.

Energy Efficiency Design Strategy of Commercial Building in Northeast Cold Regions

From the point of view of architectural design, envelope location, selection, and identify programs of envelope structure in the modern commercial building, give priority to the establishment of image of shopping malls , creating the mood of commercial and other factors. The paper will establish the appropriate model to the impact of the shape coefficient of Commercial building energy consumption in cold regions, validity analysis used the building energy evaluation software named Autodesk Ecotect to provide adequate theoretical basis of energy conservation design strategies.

Exploration on Regional Ecological Architecture Design — Taking the Design of Houji Jiaojia Garden Exhibition as an Example

In recent decades, sustainable buildings have been increasingly concerned, architects, teachers and college students are involved into a number of theoretical and practical exploration. A variety of sustainable building design strategies and cases spring up. Taking Houji Jiaojia garden agricultural exhibition pavilion design as an example, on the basis of exhausting analysis of the local climate, geographical conditions, it focuses particularly on the use of local ecological straw materials in the building to achieve the sustainability of the project, which can provide some reference for the current and future sustainable architectural design.

Sustainable urban energy: Development of a mesoscale assessment model for solar reflective roof technologies

Buildings and other engineered structures that form cities are responsible for a significant portion of the global and local impacts of climate change. Consequently, the incorporation of building design strategies and materials such as the use of reflective roof materials, or ‘cool’ roofs, are being widely investigated. However, although their benefits for individual buildings have been studied, as yet there is little understanding of the potential benefits of urban scale implementation of such systems. Here we report the development of a new methodology for assessing the potential capacity and benefits of installing reflective roofs in an urbanized area. The new methodology combines remote sensing image data with a building energy computer simulation to quantify the current rooftop reflectivity and predict the potential benefits of albedo improvement. In addition to the direct electricity savings, cool roof systems reduce peak electrical demand in the month of August when the peak demand is at its highest in the case study area. Environmental benefits associated with lowering greenhouse-gas emissions are also substantial. The new methodology allows the calculation of payback periods to assist planners to evaluate the potential economic benefits of the widespread installation of cool roof systems.