Building Design Strategies Research Articles

Low-tech passive solar design concepts and bio-based material solutions for reducing life cycle GHG emissions of buildings – Life cycle assessment of regenerative design strategies (2/2)

In order to achieve the necessary reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and decarbonization of building construction and operation, both high- and low-tech building design strategies are promoted. Amongst particularly promising strategies are the deployment of energy efficiency measures, for reducing operational energy use and related impacts, as well as the application of low-carbon, bio-based construction materials, for reducing embodied impacts.In part two of our study on the life cycle assessment (LCA) of regenerative design strategies, LCA is applied to investigate the environmental impacts and reduction potentials of strategies at building level by analyzing two low-tech, passive building concepts – the be2226 building and the N11 SolarHouse – in both their original designs as well as optimized alternatives applying bio-based material solutions.The analysis includes three steps. In a first step the life cycle GHG emissions of the original buildings are assessed, revealing strengths and weaknesses on both operational and embodied GHG emissions. Environmental hotspots are identified across environmental indicators, life cycle stages and building elements. In a second step the case studies are remodeled with bio-based building element alternatives showing substantial embodied GHG emissions reduction potential compared to the original case studies. Finally, the results of all building variants are compared with climate targets for buildings revealing that the N11 building meets established climate targets already in its original version, and that a straw-based material optimization can even enable meeting more ambitious climate targets.

Passive, Low-Energy Design and Green Star Strategy for Green Star-Rated Buildings in South Africa

Services surrounding green buildings are specialised and directed towards the process of design and comprise comprehensive and quantified management in its entirety. Implicitly, consultancies are unable to deliver this service at the standard and pace required in the preliminary stages of design, and not all clients or consultants will require the services to be essential. The main aim is to stabilise the several characteristics prompting one another to optimise design performance against the optimisation algorithms. Green Star is a universal evaluation tool, assessing not only green characteristics but also elements that influence wellbeing and occupant health, such as indoor environment quality. The tools for Green Star rating can be used to measure the green features of a building from the design phase right to the stage of site handover (known as “As-Built”). This paper refers, in the literature review, to the passive and low-energy design methods of a Green Star-rated building at early design stages. The “green” project management of a project is to coordinate multidisciplinary incorporation and to accompany the costing contribution tools presented in this paper. The passive and low-energy design tools discussed entails the amalgamation of electrical and mechanical services together with architecture, i.e., space layout and envelope design. This paper compares rationalised energy and indoor environment performance between two buildings against the activities and climatic conditions within a targeted Green Star-rated building. Proposals regarding 4- and 6-star ratings and techniques have been evaluated and presented for the two buildings.

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

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.

Appraisal of the Use of Green Building Design Strategies in Students' Hostels of Selected Universities in Nigeria

Appraisal of the Use of Green Building Design Strategies in Students' Hostels of Selected Universities in Nigeria

Restructure, repurpose, extend. Design strategies for future-oriented building and for strengthening the potential of the existing building fabric

Climate neutrality coupled with an overall positive ecological footprint is still a distant dream for new construction. The German building sector is directly and indirectly responsible for about 40% of all German CO2 emissions and has so far failed its CO2 reduction goals. For the German building sector, the key to climate neutrality lies not only within new construction but in its existing building fabric. The embodied carbon of new construction needs be reduced as well as the amount of new construction itself. Hence the reuse of buildings and the extension of their life cycles is a crucial factor in reducing CO2 emissions and resource consumption. In this paper we present three of our projects (from the office Sauerbruch Hutton), highlighting not only the potentials but also the problems that planners face with existing buildings. Additionally, our project based LCA analysis showcases that retrofitting can have a much smaller CO2 footprint than a new building.

Climate Responsive Design Strategies for Contemporary Low-rise Residential Buildings in Tropical Environment of Enugu, Nigeria

The skyline of the developing world is decorated with medium and low rise structures and Nigeria is not an exception. Located in the tropics mainly characterized by an elevated air temperature and high relative humidity; obtaining the desired level of indoor thermal comfort without mechanical aid is a design challenge for most of her building structures in recent times. However, airflow inside a building depends not only on external wind velocity but also on a number of Architectural design features and principles. The study, aimed at identifying design element and strategies that modify the indoor comfort conditions as well as energy savings of tropical buildings. Through case study research approach and the review of existing literature, a comparison of the colonial and contemporary existing building designs were made in the study area based on seven architectural design features that can influence thermal comfort condition. The study found that contemporary building designs in the study area have in recent times departed from the traditional applications of passive design strategies used in colonial architecture and have taken a non-compactible design models for tropical climates like disappearance of eaves projections, shrinkage of balconies, reduced headroom heights and window sizes. Furthermore, the result highlights the need to evolve a climate responsive design as means of reducing heat stress in the contemporary Nigerian low-rise buildings. It concludes and recommends that architects and designers should review their design approaches in favour of functional building requirements for climate-responsive and energy efficient buildings, which will be less dependent on mechanical systems in order to achieve maximum thermal comfort levels in our buildings.

Future Hospital Building Design Strategies Post COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic is regarded as a pivotal point in human history. The goal of architecture is to solve problems like the novel COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, new future methods to designing buildings and create environments emerged, with hospital design and infection control being prioritized as a key pillar of health care. Hospitals, like battlegrounds, require a future design that prioritizes speed and safety, not just during treatment but also during testing and follow-up care. The research aims to create an appealing, humane, and optimal therapeutic environment for dealing with the pandemic in order to raise the degree of safety that aids in the prevention of infection and illness spread. The research employs a deductive methodology, with the goal of discussing the evolution of the design of the future hospital environment through a set of design strategies based on social distancing policy, adaptability, flexibility, and engineering control of new preventive measures to deal with the current and potential future pandemics, while also considering humanistic aspects. The questionnaire was conducted to test the goals and strategies of this research through a group of specialists in order to reach the graphic results of the importance of these strategies in helping to design the hospital of the future, paving the way for future studies and research to develop building design and create environments of future hospitals.

A Review: Ventilated Double-skin Façades

In the aim of reducing the effect of climate change on the environment, multiple energy efficient solutions have been developed in all energy-consuming sectors around the world, especially smart building design strategies in the building sector. One of these technologies are Ventilated Double-Skin Façades (VDFs), which use the thermal interaction between the external environment and the internal space of a building in order to reduce its heating or cooling loads and thus reduce the greenhouse gas emissions. They also offer multiple other benefits, depending on several parameters, including improving the building’s thermal and acoustic insulation, and providing natural ventilation and exposure to daylight. The goal of this paper is to provide a review of the available research on VDFs in literature, namely their thermal behavior, the parameters that influence it, and the main criteria used to categorize VDFs.

THE POST-OCCUPANCY DILEMMA IN GREEN-RATED BUILDINGS: A PERFORMANCE GAP ANALYSIS

ABSTRACT The traditional construction industry has a significant and far-reaching impact on the environment, economy, and society. Green-certified buildings, with LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method), DGNB (Deutsches Gütesiegel Nachhaltiges Bauen), or other certifications during the design stage, have great potential for increasing the effective use of resources and energy, reducing pollution, etc., and so their number has increased greatly in recent years. The post-occupancy evaluation (POE) of green buildings involves assessing whether they meet expected performance during the in-use phase and comprises four steps: (i) carrying out the research purpose/goal; (ii) determining the research objectives; (iii) conducting data collection, analysis, and visualization; and (iv) obtaining the results and drawing conclusions. However, there is a lack of reviews of POE research and analysis of reasons for actual performance gaps. In response and through a comprehensive literature review/analysis, this article summarizes the actual performance gaps of various greencertified projects, analyzes the reasons for failures, and proposes potential solutions. It is found that 74%, 12%, and 14% of the projects perform better, similar, and worse, respectively, than their non-green counterparts. Future POE green building projects can be optimized from the perspective of the building, user, and POE system. To optimize green building actual performance, it is important to ensure the sufficient education of installation and maintenance personnel and occupants’ green behavior, while interior design and decoration, the impact of user demographics, and POE performance indicators are key factors to be considered in green building design strategies and lifecycle evaluation systems.

Development of Bioclimatic Passive Designs for Office Building in Burkina Faso

This article focuses on adopting effective and affordable bioclimatic building design strategies in Ouagadougou, in the Sudano-Sahelian zone of Burkina Faso. A model representing a standard office building and relevant parameters were input in EnergyPlus, and scenarios were analyzed to evaluate the effect of natural ventilation, window shading, dehumidification with night ventilation, and evaporative cooling with night ventilation on thermal comfort and energy consumption. First, the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) Standard 55 adaptive comfort model was used to compare discomfort hours and interior temperatures between a conventional office design and improved models using passive approaches. The simulations further tested the reduction in energy cooling demand and energy consumption. The results demonstrated that natural ventilation was the most effective passive cooling technique, helping to reduce the annual discomfort hours by 40% and the annual energy consumption by 30%. Combining passive strategies is the best scenario, with a year of office occupancy resulting in just 617 h of discomfort, a 42% reduction in the annual energy cooling demand, and a 43% reduction in the annual energy consumption. The simulations demonstrated the effectiveness of affordable passive design solutions applicable even in existing office buildings and their significance for the sustainable development of fast-urbanizing Sub-Saharan countries.

Optimizing passive design strategies for energy efficient buildings using hybrid artificial neural network (ANN) and multi-objective evolutionary algorithm through a case study approach

Building energy reduction opportunities and thermal comfort of occupants are two major aspects that could be enhanced through passive design solutions. In tropical weather conditions such as in India, there have been very minimal efforts in developing simulation-based approaches to understand the impacts of common passive design solutions on energy needs and thermal comfort. Therefore, this study focuses on developing an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and Building Energy Simulation and Optimization (BESO) based framework to improve building energy performance and thermal comfort using passive design solutions in Indian climate condition with mixed-mode operation strategy. The initial part of the study performs building energy simulation through a coupled approach of DesignBuilder and jEPlus to develop a valid ANN surrogate model. Eventually, ANN outputs are integrated with multi-objective evolutionary algorithm (Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm-II) to find the optimal solutions of predefined passive decision variables of the building for minimizing building energy consumption and maximizing thermal comfort. The optimized results in the study show decrease of 46% of building energy consumption and 7.58% of discomfort hours when the set of passive design solutions are opted. The findings of optimal passive design solutions could be helpful for designers and practitioners in developing energy-efficient buildings.

Developing occupant archetypes within urban low-income housing: A case study in Mumbai, India

Rapid urbanization pressure and poverty have created a push for affordable housing within the global south. The design of affordable housing can have consequences on the thermal (dis)comfort and behaviour of the occupants, hence requiring an occupant-centric approach to ensure sustainability. This paper investigates occupant behaviour within the urban poor households of Mumbai, India and its impact on their thermal comfort and energy use. This study is a first-of-its-kind attempt to explore the socio-demographic characteristics and energy-related behaviour of low-income occupants within Indian context. Three occupant archetypes, Indifferent Consumers; Considerate Savers; and Conscious Conventionals, were identified from the behavioural and psychographic characteristics gathered through a transverse field survey. A two-step clustering approach was adopted for occupant segmentation that highlighted considerable diversity in occupants’ adaptation measures, energy knowledge, energy habits, and their pro-environmental behaviour within similar socio-economic group. Building energy simulation of the representative archetype behaviour estimated up to 37% variations for air-conditioned and up to 8% variation for fan-assisted naturally ventilated housing units during peak summer months. The results from this study establish the significance of occupant factors in shaping energy demand and thermal comfort within low-income housing and pave way for developing occupant-centric building design strategies to serve this marginalized population. The developed low-income occupant archetypes would be useful for architects and energy modelers to generate realistic energy use profiles and improve building performance simulation results.

Creating glazed facades performance map based on energy and thermal comfort perspective for office building design strategies in Asian hot-humid climate zone

Glazed facades are broadly applied in modern architecture especially office buildings. However, glass enables massive heat transmitted into buildings that leads to thermal discomfort and energy profligacy particularly in hot-humid climate zone. Considering the strategies of energy use and thermal comfort at initial design process is beneficial for building performance, while there is shortage of approachable method to easily involve in building energy modeling or thermal comfort assessment. To enhance the connection of architecture design and building environment, this study proposed a guide map to provide visualized information from the aspects of energy use and thermal comfort through simulating the performance of different composition of glazed facade parameters. Specifically, cases with various facade configurations located in Southeast Asia cities are set to demonstrate the cooling load and long-term thermal comfort evaluation, including Environmental Quality Index (EQI), Spatial Thermal Comfort Availability (sTCA), and Temporal Thermal Comfort Usability (tTCU). Furthermore, a comprehensive thermal parameter called facade solar aperture is suggested to describe the performance of solar gains from facade; eventually, correlation among facade parameters, energy use, thermal comfort, and geographic location is disclosed. The results also indicated that to eliminate the discomfort for maintaining the condition of PMV = 0.5, the setting temperature of air-conditioning needs to be decreased by 2 °C ∼ 3 °C which corresponding to the increasing cooling load of 142.5 MJ/m2 to 215.0 MJ/m2. Comprehensively, through the proposed method, architects can obtain optimal schemes of different parameters, then balance the energy conservation and thermal comfort through better glazed facade design strategies.

Research on Dynamic Design Method and Strategy of Green Building Driven by the Interconnection of Everything

Research on Dynamic Design Method and Strategy of Green Building Driven by the Interconnection of Everything

Drivers and barriers towards circular economy in the building sector: Stakeholder interviews and analysis of five European countries policies and practices

Circular economy has become central in the European policy arena, and the Member States have promoted a number of initiatives and programs to shift from their traditional linear economy towards a circular economy. This is particularly relevant for the construction sector, which is the highest producer of waste and one of the main causes of resources consumption. The paper objective is to analyse the present level of application of circularity strategies, identifying the related barriers and drivers, through interviews with building stakeholders across five European countries, Belgium (Flanders), Netherlands, United Kingdom, Denmark, and Italy. The analysis focuses on the building level and assesses the level of application in current policies and practices of circular strategies in three key field: resource and waste management, design for reversible building, and business for the networking of operators in the construction value chain. The results highlight the different and fragmented circular strategies currently applied in the analysed countries analysed, highlighting the need for more effective and coordinated actions and policies promoted by European Commission. In particular, the current legislative framework promotes the waste management strategies, focusing more on recycling practices than on reuse or resource management. The design strategies for reversible building are generally in private initiatives, driven by market competitions, rather than by public incentives. The application of circular business models and the creation of circular networks among the operators of the value chain is still lacking. Furthermore, the use of life-cycle tools to assess the environmental effectiveness (sustainability) of circular strategies is rarely applied. The recommendations that emerged from the comparison of the current applications of circular economy strategies across the countries analysed and demanded by key players in the construction sector interviewed, include the need for greater international coordination in terms of policy, practices and enabling tools (digital data, platforms, traceability). Improvements in both the legislative framework and practices are needed. Future development of research regards, in particular, the fields of digital supporting tools and environmental assessment (LCA), circular relationships and business models and the definition/training of new expertise related to enabling aspects.

Passive Design Strategies for Energy Efficient Buildings in the Arabian Desert

This study aims to assess passive design features through the extensive modifications of building envelopes to affect the energy efficiency of residential buildings in hot arid climates. In support of the aim of this research, the annual electric energy bill of a typical residential building in Sharurah was collected and analyzed. Then, the DesignBuilder simulation program was used to investigate how different modifications of building envelopes could affect the energy consumption of the residential buildings under common scenarios. Varied thermal insulation, different types of glass, shading devices, and green roof were investigated with this perspective. The simulation results show that thermal insulation can significantly reduce annual energy consumption by as high as 23.6%, followed by green roofs. In contrast, shading devices and glazing system types were fewer superiors. The results also indicate that the effective combination of certain strategies can reduce total energy consumption by 35.4% relative to the base case (BC) of this research.

Daylighting Performance Design for Art Studios of Old Factory Renovation Buildings in Subtropical Regions

In the subtropical zone of China, a large number of old factory buildings rich in industrial historical and cultural value have been transformed into art studios. In the existing research on building renovation, there are still problems such as insufficient lighting, low uniformity, and ignoring the effect of glare in the lighting environment of buildings after transformation. To fill this research gap, this paper provides a daylighting design strategy for these factory buildings in subtropical zones to ensure that the transformed art studios can offer an excellent indoor daylighting environment. Through the control variable method, the window-to-wall ratio, the form of external windows, and the visible light transmittance of glass are set with quantitative and variable values, and a design strategy that meets the requirements of international general daylighting standards is obtained step by step through the simulation. The daylight factor, uniformity, daylight autonomy, and dynamic glare probability are used in this research process to measure whether the daylighting strategy meets the daylighting requirements of the CIBSE Lighting Guide for art studios. The results show that the average indoor lighting coefficient can be increased from 1.29 to 6.18, and the minimum value of the lighting coefficient can be increased from 0.4 to 4.4 by enlarging the windowed wall ratio from 1:30 to 1:3, using the combination method of the horizontal window, skylight and skylight recommended by the analysis results, and selecting veneer glass with 88% transmittance. This allows for better uniform lighting inside the building and reduces glare. This conclusion can support the lighting performance design of industrial buildings in the future.

Delineating The Impact on Design Parameters Due to Covid-19

The lockdown imposed due to Covid-19 has caused economic and social challenges around the world. It has adversely impacted the real estate and construction sector. The ongoing pandemic has created a need to reassess the building design strategies to mitigate the threat of the virus. The novelty of the research lies in ranking the design parameters with regards to the pandemic, to provide better design solutions for all stakeholders. This research aims to identify, assess and rank the impact due to Covid-19 on different design parameters in architecture. An analysis of the identified parameters has been carried out by surveying architects and occupants. Recommendations have been made to provide better design solutions for the pandemic age.

Investigating the climate-adaptive design strategies of residential earth-sheltered buildings in Iran

PurposeThe earth-sheltered building is an adaptive strategy reducing energy consumption as well as increasing thermal comfort of the residents. Although this idea historically implemented in the city of Yazd, Iran, its effects on thermal comfort have not been studied thoroughly. This paper aims to discuss and analyze energy performance, in terms of parameters such as orientation, underground depth, nocturnal ventilation and its subsequent effects on thermal comfort in earth-sheltered buildings in Yazd.Design/methodology/approachUsing EnergyPlus software, the obtained numeric data are precisely modeled, simulated and analyzed.FindingsResults show that there is a direct relationship between depth of construction and energy consumption savings. The more construction depth of earth-sheltered buildings, the more percentage of energy consumption savings, that is of a higher rate in comparison to the aboveground ones. However, in south orientation, energy saving significantly reduces from depth of 2 m downwards and the annual indoor temperature fluctuation decreases by 50%. This subsequently yields to experiencing indoor thermal comfort for a significant number of days throughout the year. Considering the effects of orientation factor, the south orientation regardless of the depth provides the most desired outcome regarding energy savings.Originality/valueSimulating the model generalized to the sunken courtyard can approve that the results of this research can be applied to the other models.

Predicting energy demand of residential buildings: A linear regression-based approach for a small sample size

Abstract The key design strategies that reduce the energy demand of buildings are not present in most thermal codes in many countries. Therefore, modeling techniques offer an alternative to combine the architects' modus operandi with the energy efficiency in the early stages of architectural design and with higher speed and precision. However, a review of the scientific literature using modeling techniques shows that most researchers use a relatively large sample of thermal simulations. This paper proposes a simplified method based on the linear regression modeling technique and considers a relatively smaller sample of thermal simulations. A total of 6 key building design strategies were identified, related to the urban context, building envelope, and shape factor. A simulation protocol containing 60 possible combinations was designed by random selection. In the present study, the Pleiades software was used to estimate the annual energy demand for heating and cooling for a typical dwelling in a humid climate zone. A parametric study and sensitivity analysis to identify the most efficient parameters was performed in SPSS 21. The resulting model predicts the annual energy demand with an accuracy of 93.7%, a root mean square error (RMSE) of 5.88, and a scatter index (SI) of 8.59%. The models performed could efficiently and quickly assist architects while designing the buildings in the architectural practice.