Building Design Strategies Research Articles

An Investigation of Design Considerations to Achieve Thermal Comfort in Warm Humid Climatic Zone of West Bengal

Abstract: This research paper presents the investigation of design consideration to achieve thermal comfort and the warm humid climatic zone of West Bengal is considered as the primary study area for the investigation. The varying thermal comfort behavior of humans in different climate conditions and seasons clearly demonstrates that the building design strategy must conform with the region of the building. In this paper, first studying the climatic characteristics of the warm humid region design factors are selected like building materials, cross ventilation, building orientation, roofing orientation, and materials, etc. After that, all those design factors are studied and the effect of all those factors on building in various conditions is observed. Keywords: Warm Humid Climate, Thermal Comfort, Building Materials, U-value, Cross Ventilation, Building Orientation

Design strategy of green intelligent building using deep belief network

Design strategy of green intelligent building using deep belief network

Pursuing a net-zero carbon future for all: Challenges for commercial real estate

Pursuing a net-zero carbon future for all: Challenges for commercial real estate

Design Strategies for Multi-Unit Residential Buildings During the Post-pandemic Era in China.

Objective: The sudden outbreak of COVID-19 has greatly endangered public health and life safety, leading to new changes in people's housing needs. The purpose of this study is to establish design strategies that are suitable for China's Multi-Unit Residential Buildings (MURBs) in the post-pandemic era, and to identify the users' preferences for these strategies.Methods: This study compiles a set of design requirements by means of a literature review and expert interviews. Three hundred ninety-five online and on-site questionnaires, based on the refined Kano model, were distributed to respondents to reveal their preferences for these strategies. The relationship between the different demographic variables, the preferences of design strategies, as well as the housing unit preferences of home-buyers were also verified by means of an actual project.Results: This study summarizes the four dimensions and 26 design strategies of MURBs in China during the post-pandemic era. These strategies are further extracted into 6 highly attractive, 5 high-value-added and 4 critical quality attributes. In terms of demographic variables, males need more social space, and the elderly need less office space and separate bathrooms in the master bedroom. Due to the impact of the epidemic, people with higher education levels are more required to work at home, and the overall demand for a home working environment is also higher.Conclusion: The home-buyers' preference survey reveals that the housing unit designed based on the refined Kano model is more attractive to home-buyers. The proposed approach can help to provide important and customized decisions to design firms, housing developers, and the government for MURBs planning and strategy formulation in the post-pandemic era in China. More in-depth user surveys in other regions and investigations into the cost assessment of these strategies might be further conducted in the future.

Barriers and Enablers to Circular Building Design in the US: An Empirical Study

As discussions around the circular economy (CE) start to move beyond Eurocentric approaches, US stakeholders are left with the mission of carving their way into CE. The US building sector has substantial impacts in resource use, waste generation, and carbon emissions, and a long way to go on the path toward CE. Circular building design involves strategies such as design for disassembly (DfD) to allow future repair, remanufacture, and reuse of building components, building adaptive reuse, and using salvaged materials in new construction. Although strategies like DfD have been discussed for the last 2 decades, they have failed to gain traction in building design. However, there is a limited body of literature devoted to understanding the barriers and enablers for key circular building design strategies like DfD. A few recent empirical studies in European countries have identified barriers for circular building design, which in this study were categorized according to their nature (regulatory, economic, technical, educational, cultural, technological, and environmental barriers). However, given the different regulatory, economic, and cultural contexts in which the US is situated when compared with European countries, the barriers identified in prior studies and their respective enablers may not apply to the US. For example, contrary to European countries, the US is yet to create a national CE-specific legislation or action plan. Thus, bottom-up efforts from industry stakeholders are key to achieve progress toward CE in the US. Yet there are no studies that investigated barriers and enablers to circular building design in the US context. This study aims to fill this knowledge gap. The authors interviewed architects across the US to understand the perceived and experienced barriers to circular building design in the US building sector and propose enablers to overcome these barriers. The barriers differed in nature from those found in European countries: although the share of technical and economic barriers were similar, more educational and cultural barriers were found in the US, as opposed to a larger shares of regulatory and technological barriers in European countries. The authors discuss the most mentioned barriers in the US (e.g., cost and schedule constraints, lack of clarity on what CE entails, and existing regulations and codes hinder reuse and repair), and the barriers that were new to the literature (e.g., belief that DfD compromises building durability and resiliency, conflicting goals between pre-engineered structures and future reuse, and the widespread use of nondurable building components). Finally, the authors propose enablers to address each barrier and discuss the role of different stakeholders in implementing enablers. Policymakers, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), industry associations, and researchers were the stakeholders with the highest leverage to enable CE in the US building sector.

A rapid evaluation method for design strategies of high-rise office buildings achieving nearly zero energy in Guangzhou

The construction of nearly zero energy buildings (NZEB) has achieved dramatical impact on global warming and energy crises. It is still a challenge for designers to derive design strategies on how to achieve NZEB in the early design stage, because a complex modelling process with many input parameters of the current NZEB design and evaluation tool is still unavoidable. This article, therefore, aims to introduce a tool suitable for the rapid and reliable evaluation of NZEB design strategies for high rise office building in the city of Guangzhou in China. Firstly, a high-rise office building with typical geometry features is established by sensitivity analysis and survey, thereby the reference building consumption is obtained. Secondly, comprehensive simulations on cases with various envelope features, air conditioning performances and lighting control methods is carried out. Based on the sensitivity analysis on simulation results, key influencing parameters are selected out, effective strategies which fulfills “Technical standard for nearly zero energy buildings (NZEBTS)” are put forward. Finally, a parametric building energy evaluation model is built by regression analysis on simulation results. Combined with energy efficiency index from “NZEBTS”, an evaluation tool is developed to help designer determine NZEB strategies. The results revealed that the most effective strategies to achieve NZEB in Guangzhou are to apply high performance external windows, improve air conditioning systems and utilize intelligent zone-controlled lighting systems, meanwhile, the utilization ratio of renewable energy (ηs) should be more than 40% of building total annual energy consumption.

Typical weekly occupancy profiles in non-residential buildings based on mobile positioning data

Occupancy schedule is one of the essential inputs for building performance simulation. Current designers and researchers refer to the occupancy schedules from energy standards such as ASHRAE 90.1, which was initially published in 1989 and may not apply to the occupancy profiles of the current circumstances. With the advances of mobile communication networks and positioning services, the mobile positioning data has been made available for researchers to obtain and extract real occupancy profiles for buildings of various types. This research utilizes mobile positioning data from social media platforms to extract typical weekly occupancy profiles of non-residential buildings by cluster analysis. The paper investigated the temporal distributions and heterogeneous features for typical profiles with the perspective of two descriptive parameters: peak ratio and daily total occupancy ratio, which represent the deviation of occupancy across the different days of a week. The proposed typical profiles are then compared with the reference profiles from ASRHAE Standards and the impact on energy simulation results is evaluated. Results suggests significant difference on energy load profiles and load distributions with the real occupancy profiles, and this method can prominently contribute to optimal building design strategies.

BUILDING PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF AN EDUCATIONAL BUILDING ON SUBTROPICAL HIGHLAND CLIMATE

Quito is located adjacent to the Equator. Average climatic conditions suggest passive solar building design strategies. Moreover, weather data confirmed that thermal comfort is presented only 16.2 % of the time. The analysis consisted of two stages. The first measured the influence of the parametric modification of ten building parameters. Second, a global sensitivity method was applied to the analysis of the previously predicted best performance configuration. Finally, the probability density array for choosing the best performance considered the percentage of contribution per parameter, versus the energy individual performance variation. Considering only construction elements the wall variation had the biggest contribution for decreasing energy loads with a mean reduction of 6.64 %. Moreover, windows and roof types had a parallel percentage of influence, which was about 3.09 %. Finally, floor types and installation of shading devices contributed to fewer energy savings, which on average was 2.20 %. This research has demonstrated that the use of BPA for energy optimization improves the level of accuracy at the moment of selecting the most influential circumstances and parameters on the building’s performance.

Analysis on thermal performance for increasing energy effiency: A case study for Tripoli-Libya, using Ecotect®

Recently, the signifiant increase in energy consumption to provide thermal comfort in Libyan buildings, has increased the dependence on mechanical systems and non-renewable resources. Threfore, there have been effrts, particularly by the governmental authorities, to search for solutions to improve buildings in terms of their thermal performances, in order to reduce high energy consumptions. Th aim of this research is to analyze and determine certain passive design strategies for residential buildings in Tripoli-Libya, by using the analysis program Autodesk Ecotect®, to reduce energy consumptions and provide thermal comfort. By the use of this program, issues such as; best possible orientation, loads of heating and cooling, thermal mass, along with the direct effcts of building materials and the importance of window sizes on thermal comfort were analyzed, based on the designed typical Libyan residential building model.The results of the study were analyzed and guidelines were developed to enhance the energy performance of residential buildings in Libya. Th fidings of this study show that the proper orientation of the building and effctive use of insulation materials can provide a 60% increase in thermal performance. Moreover, the results of evaluation on thermal comfort level by using the PMV method showed that, together with the necessary adjustments, the building would provide thermal comfort for its users.

Passive system optimization in office buildings using a reference testbed building

AbstractThe purpose of this research is the application of a passive design strategy for office buildings, the wall-window-ratio optimization under moderate climate. A simplified thermal and lighting simulation model of an office research building served as reference testbed for thermal comfort, daylight factor and illuminance as well as heating, cooling and lighting energy demand assessment. These six performance types of similarly oriented room groups are evaluated via a self-developed weighting process to determine the orientation dependent optimal wall-window-ratio of all room groups. This multi objective optimization applies in a broad range of office buildings under moderate climate.

Research on Climate Adaptation Design Strategy Driven by Spatial Performance from the Perspective of Land-Based Rationalism: Taking the Academic Complex Project in Central School of Communist Youth League of China as an Example

With the rapid urban development, the construction of public buildings in China has been greatly promoted, and the problem of large energy consumption of public buildings has also become increasingly prominent, with a stronger demand for close combination of public buildings and passive design. Based on the characteristics of theater space, this paper mainly studies the passive design method of large space, excellently integrates climate adaptability design technology with passive building design strategy, and explores the optimal passive design scheme for theater buildings, by taking the academic complex project in Central School of Communist Youth League of China as an example, with passive priority and active optimization for the principle from the aspects of climate adaptation and indoor environment comfort.

Impact of Aspect Ratio of Floor Plan on the Energy Performance of Office Rooms in New Delhi, India

The use of efficient building design strategies at the inception of the building project helps to improve the overall building energy performance. This paper focuses on the effect of aspect ratio of the floor plan on the energy performance of a building to reduce the energy demand of the office buildings. The other factors deciding energy performance of a building, like orientation, floor area, floor height, floor number and window to wall ratio, have been kept constant. The simulation is performed in Design Builder software, and the energy consumptions at different assumed cases have been analysed using correlation and regression analysis technique, thoroughly to find the optimum solution. The findings of this research will be useful in providing solutions for the reduction of energy demand of the office buildings in the study area.

Using Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) Products to Assess Illuminances at Ground Level under Cloudless Conditions

Natural daylight is recognized as an important variable in the energy performance of buildings. A method that estimates the global illuminance received on a horizontal surface at ground level and its direct component at normal incidence under cloudless conditions is presented. The method uses the k-distribution method and the correlated-k approximation to compute a set of clearness indices integrated over 13 spectral bands covering the range 380–780 nm. A spectral resampling technique, including a spectral disaggregation and a spectral linear interpolation, is applied to these indices for providing a detailed set of solar irradiances at 1 nm in spectral resolution over the whole range. Then, these are weighted by the standardized CIE action spectrum for human eye for assessing the illuminance. Inputs to the method include the total column contents of ozone and water vapor as well as aerosol optical properties produced by the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service. Estimates of illuminance were compared to high-quality 1 min measurements of illuminance that were collected from two experimental sites located in two different climatic zones. A slight overestimation is observed for the global illuminance: the bias is between +1 klx and +3 klx, i.e., between +1% and +4% in relative value. The root mean square error varies between 5 klx (8%) and 6 klx (9%). The squared correlation coefficient ranges between 0.95 and 0.97. At the site providing the direct illuminance at normal incidence, the performance of the method is lower compared to global illuminance with a lower squared correlation coefficient of 0.53. The bias, relative bias, RMSE, and rRMSE are +7 klx, +9%, 12 klx, and 15%, respectively. The uncertainty of the method is of the order of the uncertainty of the measurements. The method offers accurate estimates of illuminance in cloudless conditions at high spatial and temporal resolutions useful for construction industries and operators as well as thermal simulation tools for optimal building design strategies.

Different Façade Types and Building Integration in Energy Efficient Building Design Strategies

Building façades play a major role in improving the effects of outdoor environment conditions on indoor comfort conditions. Façades, which are designed as energy efficiency, are created according to different performance parameters and can offer solutions appropriate for the climatic condition. This paper aims to describe and highlight the role of design and application determinants in building façade types according to energy efficiency in different climatic classes. For this purpose, 12 building façade types in different climate types were investigated and analyzed by a purposive or judgmental sampling technique. Façade analyses have been carried out by considering double skin, adaptive, photovoltaic panel, vertical green, media and structural membrane façades created as a result of developing technological opportunities. Balance of heat loss and gain, preventing overheating, providing daylight and natural ventilation, active and mechanical solutions for climate-sensitive, noise control, recycling and evaluating the initial investment cost are presented. With examinations, it has been determined that different façade systems are innovative construction systems in creating energy efficiency. It has been concluded that the effect of improving indoor comfort conditions of the building by controlling the outdoor environment conditions with the construction of different facade systems is very important in the architectural process. With the development of technology and smart systems, the impact of the façades on the climate analysis and energy efficient design strategies will be much more important in the future

Novel Energy System Design Workflow for Zero-Carbon Energy District Development

The growing urban population globally leads to higher greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and stress on the electricity networks for meeting the increasing demand. In the early urban design stages, the optimization of the urban morphology and building physics characteristics can reduce energy demand. Local generation using renewable energy resources is also a viable option to reduce emissions and improve grid reliability. Notwithstanding, energy simulation and environmental impact assessment of urban building design strategies are usually not done until the execution planning stage. To address this research gap, a novel framework for designing energy systems for zero-carbon districts is developed. An urban building energy model is integrated with an urban energy system model in this framework. Dynamic prediction of heating and cooling demand and automatic sizing of different energy system configurations based on the calculated demands are the framework's primary capabilities. The workability of the framework has been tested on a case study for an urban area in Montreal to design and compare two different renewable energy systems comprising photovoltaic panels (PV), air-source, and ground source heat pumps. The case study results show that the urban building energy model could successfully predict the heating and cooling demands in multiple spatiotemporal resolutions, while the urban energy system model provides system solutions for achieving a zero-carbon or positive energy district.

Design-based natural ventilation cooling potential evaluation for buildings in China

Natural ventilation is generally accepted as an innovative green building design strategy and an effective sustainable option. The purpose of the study is to identify where and when the use of natural ventilation cooling can be considered in the predesign programming stage and conceptual building design stage in China. Quantitative evaluations are valued during these stages because the building form determines, in no small measure, the performance of natural ventilation. An ISO-standardized energy performance calculator incorporating a dedicated controllable ventilation model is then proposed as a “pre-evaluation” tool before the design performance modelling stage. Six scenarios in 100 cities under five standards are analysed, including hybrid ventilation with a night-purge ventilation strategy and pure natural ventilation with a window opening strategy. The potential is estimated based on weather, relative humidity, target air change rate, fresh air supply mode, building configuration, and set point schedule which considering night and weekend indirect cooling. For an annual hybrid ventilation conditioned building, Kunming is proposed as a top priority for building site selection among 100 cities. During particular seasons, different climate zones show stark cooling effectiveness, and 60–100% of the cooling demands can be satisfied. For a purely natural-ventilated building, Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Yunnan-Kweichow Plateau and the east of Inner Mongolian Plateau are recommended. Three of 35 observed cities can be satisfied totally by natural ventilation cooling. The necessary generic provisions in terms of control logic are derived and can be used to guide specific design choices. The findings also provide guidelines for adapting Chinese building codes to raise awareness of natural ventilation options.

Applicability of passive design strategies in China promoted under global warming in past half century

There is now a consensus on climate change, but its influence on architectural design strategies remains unclear. The applicability of passive design strategies is influenced by the comprehensive effect of outdoor meteorological conditions and indoor thermal comfort criteria. The paper focuses on the analysis of recorded climate change during the period between 1970 and 2017 for 1019 meteorological stations in China. The object was to analyze the observed change between two periods (1970–1993 and 1994–2017) in relation to the change in the applicability of four selected passive building design strategies, namely passive solar heating, natural ventilation, thermal mass with or without night ventilation and direct evaporative cooling. The methodology consists of raw data processing, TMY derivation, bioclimatic analysis and spatial results representation using ArcGIS. The applicability of natural ventilation was most affected by climate change, with effective time ratio of 54.46% locations increased for a maximum of 40%. Proportions of passive solar heating, direct evaporative cooling, and thermal mass with or without night ventilation were 59.76%, 63.10%, and 35.13%, respectively. Our results indicate that the applicability of some passive design strategies have promoted in China, with favorable impacts on the energy efficiency of buildings.

An investigation on the impact of shading devices on energy consumption of commercial buildings in the contexts of subtropical climate

PurposeApplication of appropriate shading device strategies in buildings can reduce direct solar heat gain through windows as well as optimize cooling and artificial lighting load. This study investigates the impact of common shading devices such as overhangs, fins, horizontal blinds, vertical blinds and drapes on energy consumption of an office building and suggests energy efficient shading device strategies in the contexts of unique Bangladeshi subtropical monsoon climate.Design/methodology/approachThis research was performed through the energy simulation perspective of a prototype office building using a validated building energy simulation tool eQUEST. Around 100 simulation patterns were created considering various types of shading devices and building orientations. The simulation results were analysed comprehensively to find out energy-efficient shading device strategies.FindingsOptimum overhang and fin height is equal to half of the window height in the context of the subtropical climate of Bangladesh. South and West are the most vulnerable orientations, and application of shading devices on these two orientations shows the highest reduction of cooling load and the lowest increment of lighting load. An existing building was able to save approximately 7.05% annual energy consumption by applying the shading device strategies that were suggested by this study.Originality/valueThe shading device strategies of this study can be incorporated into the Bangladesh National Building Code (BNBC) as new energy-efficient building design strategies because the BNBC does not have any codes or regulations regarding energy-efficient shading device. It can also be used as energy-efficient shading device strategies to other Southeast Asian countries with similar climatic contexts of Bangladesh.

Integrating Solar Photovoltaics in Residential Buildings: Towards Zero Energy Buildings in Hail City, KSA

In recent years, most cities have faced great demand for electricity supply due to rapid population growth and industrialization. Supplying sufficient electrical energy, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions, is one of the major concerns of policymakers and scientists all over the world. In Saudi Arabia, local authorities are increasingly aware of the necessity of reducing the environmental impact of nonrenewable energy by exploring alternative sustainable energy sources and improving buildings’ energy efficiency. Recently, building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) technology has been regarded as a promising technology for generating instantaneous sustainable energy for buildings. To achieve a substantial contribution regarding zero energy buildings, solar energy should be widely used in residential buildings within the urban context. This paper examines how to achieve an appropriate model for integrating photovoltaics on the rooftop of residential buildings in Hail city to provide alternative energy sources. The estimated rooftop areas in Hail city, utilizable for PV application were calculated. Using PV*SOL simulation software, the performance ratio and the system efficiency, as well as the annual energy output in several tilt angles, were determined and presented. The amount of energy expected when using all effective roof area in the city was also calculated. The amount of CO2 emissions that could be reduced as a result of using a PV system was estimated. The results show a significant area of rooftop suitable for PV system in residential buildings in Hail city, which exceeds 9 million square meters. On the other hand, the performance ratio and the system efficiency are affected by the tilt angle of the PV module, where the efficiency increases with higher tilt angle, this is due to the PV module temperature, where, with the decrease in the PV module temperature its efficiency increases. The results indicate that the 30° tilt PV produced the highest amount of energy, whereas the 75° tilt PV records the smallest one although it achieves the best possible efficiency. There is a significant amount of energy produced from the use of all residential rooftops in Hail, and there is also a significant reduction in the amount of CO2 emissions. It is expected that this research would develop innovative building design strategies and specifications allowing for better climate and energy efficiency as well.

Carbon value engineering: A framework for integrating embodied carbon and cost reduction strategies in building design

Value Engineering (VE) is a process where building materials, systems or design strategies are substituted to reduce capital costs without negatively impacting functionality. This research examines how Value Engineering can be adapted to also integrate the reduction of embodied carbon. A Carbon Value Engineering (CO2VE) framework is proposed to determine both capital cost and embodied carbon. The framework uses Pareto Principles to identify the primary contributors to these metrics, proposes alternative design strategies and uses Marginal Abatement Cost Curves (MACC) to visualise direct and indirect impacts of the changes. The framework is tested on an 18-storey building in Sydney. Results show that embodied carbon makes up 27–58% of the building's total lifecycle carbon emissions, depending on the future energy mix. The most significant contributor to embodied carbon and capital cost is the structural system. Alternative structural systems are evaluated with a post-tensioned concrete structure demonstrating an 8% reduction in embodied carbon and a 10% capital cost saving. A whole timber structure reduces embodied carbon by 13%–26% and cost by 5%. Embodied carbon savings are found to be comparable to conventional strategies to reduce operating carbon emissions such as the use of a high-performance building façade over the building's life.