Design Of High Performance Buildings Research Articles

Comparison of multi-criteria decision-making methods for selection of optimum passive design strategy

In the pursuit of achieving high-performance building design, the selection of the most suitable passive design strategies often involves the use of multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods to address multiple conflicting criteria simultaneously. However, identifying the appropriate MCDM method for a specific building design context poses a challenge, as methods commonly effective in other contexts may not yield equivalent results. This study evaluates five MCDM methods (AHP, COPRAS, TOPSIS, VIKOR, and WSM) to understand their sensitivity in recommending the best solution. The considered criteria are energy demand, thermal comfort and daylight availability. The sensitivity analysis involves the impact of the variability of assigned weights on the rank shifting given by the considered MCDM method and the sensitivity of each criterion to weights variability. The findings reveal that implementing a fair-weight allocation leads to similar top 5 solutions among all MCDM methods. However, when a negative shift is applied to each criterion weight, AHP demonstrates greater robustness to weight variability compared to the other methods evaluated, while VIKOR is the most sensitive to weight variation.

BIM-Based Building Performance Simulation Analysis: A Multi-Parameter-Driven Approach to Building Energy Efficiency and Carbon Reduction

Global warming and other environmental problems are increasing the demand for high-performance buildings. The development of high-performance computers and building information models has a significant impact on buildings’ energy simulation. High-performance building design needs to comprehensively consider geography, climate, material, cost and other factors which is a highly complex multidisciplinary research problem. Therefore, it is urgent to use advanced modeling and simulation technology to realize it, involving Building Information Modelling (BIM), parametric design and cloud platform. Comprehensive simulation of building performance refers to a multidisciplinary collaborative design, and the correlation between research objects and parameters should be achieved by complex programming design. This study integrates BIM, computer, cloud computing and other technologies to simulate BIM-based building energy consumption performance. Based on project information, geometry information and physical properties exhibited by materials stored in BIM model, the energy analysis model is created. Revit–Dynamo API functions are employed to generate a novel BIM model in Revit after automatically changing and transferring user-defined parameters. BIM energy consumption model is converted into Green Building eXtended Markup Language (GBXML) file and uploaded to Green Building Studio (GBS) cloud server. The optimal project solution is yielded by retrieving the energy consumption simulation results of BIM models with a range of parameters. The case study shows that building volume, glass material, window-wall ratio and window height have significant influence on energy consumption targets of buildings. In hot-summer and cold-winter areas, the total energy consumption of glass materials with high insulation and reflection coefficient is small. The window size slightly impacts the annual lighting energy consumption, but it has significant influence on the annual air conditioning energy consumption, with a maximum increase of about 22%. Finally, the application advantages and limitations of the framework in high-performance building design and its application prospects in energy-saving building design are discussed.

From Decision Theory to Informed Decision-Making in the Design of Sustainable High-Performance Buildings

The design of sustainable high-performance buildings entails dealing with numerous decisions associated with the inclusion and assessment of design objectives and criteria made by multiple decision-makers (or design stakeholders). A more in-depth study of the decision-making fundamentals will, therefore, be effective and practical in this regard. Based on this underlying hypothesis, as a first attempt towards investigating the decision-making structures in the (early) design of sustainable high-performance buildings, and in addition to the empirical application of normative decision-making models, this paper presents the results of two rounds of assessment surveys through conducting semi-structured interviews with practitioners and professionals in Denmark on (a) when and with whom a decision is made, and (b) to what extent a decision can be made autocratically or participatorily. The research study is intended to enable practitioners and researchers to recognize the importance of decision-making characteristics in addressing highly complex sustainability criteria in the (early) design of high-performance buildings. The outcome ensures a systematic approach to involve the right decision-makers at the right time and with suitable decision-making styles. With its strong ability to formalize problems faced by sustainability requirements, the outcome can potentially become a research avenue in future building design contexts.

Multi-Objective Optimization for High-Performance Building Facade Design: A Systematic Literature Review

Building facade design plays an essential role in enhancing energy efficiency and reducing environmental impact in high-performance building design. Balancing the conflicts among various building facade design variables to satisfy different optimization objectives constitutes a highly complex optimization problem. The rapidly increasing number of studies demonstrates a significant interest in implementing multi-objective optimization methods to tackle building facade optimization problems. This study conducts a systematic review of optimization methods for building facade optimization (BFO). The optimization objectives and design variables are categorized based on their characteristics. The efficiency and effectiveness of optimization algorithms in addressing BFO problems are compared. Building optimization techniques and tools are showcased, along with their functions and limitations. Key findings highlight the robust feasibility and effectiveness of optimization algorithms, methods, and techniques in resolving a diverse range of BFO challenges. The limitations, challenges, and future potential of these methods are summarized and proposed.

Impact of Power Interruption on Buildings and Neighborhoods and Potential Technical and Design Adaptation Methods

This paper presents a state-of-the-art review of the impact of energy interruptions on people, buildings, and neighborhoods and discusses some technological and design strategies to mitigate some of these impacts. An exhaustive literature review was carried out employing keyword searches in the ScienceDirect and Scopus databases. The literature focuses mainly on 37 keywords, which occurred in more than two sources. Based on this literature survey, the paper highlights that, depending on their duration, power outages can have a severe impact on people, buildings, and neighborhoods. The lives of vulnerable individuals dependent on electrical medical devices can be threatened even in short-term power interruption scenarios. Longer-term power outages affect multiple aspects of daily life, such as communication, thermal comfort, life quality, transportation, health, and security, in addition to potential damage to buildings and their contents. The paper identifies and discusses various methods that can be implemented to reduce vulnerability and improve adaptation to climate-related power interruptions. These methods range from simple, low-tech solutions that enable users to temporarily cope with hours of interruption to more sophisticated methods requiring advanced planning. These adaptation and coping methods are classified according to various criteria, including their ease of implementation, accessibility, potential cost, ease of use by occupants, and their potential to address various needs. The paper finally discusses the impact of building and neighborhood design on improving adaptation to energy interruptions. High-performance building design can extend the time that a building can passively operate without reliance on mechanical systems for heating and for cooling. Building shape and geometry, as well as the spatial design of the neighborhood, can maximize solar access and therefore facilitate the implementation of PV and solar technologies. In addition, the design of mixed-use neighborhoods with access to various facilities and basic amenities assists in prolonging the self-reliance of the community as a whole. This work aligns with the vision of the Sustainable Development Goals: by identifying methods and technologies to reduce the impact of power interruptions and improve the energy resilience of urban areas around the globe, this work can contribute to the direct and indirect fulfillment of several Sustainable Development Goals (e.g., SDGs 7, 11, 13, and others). Although the work is performed in a North American context and specifically refers to the Canadian climate, the methodology can be implemented in other climatic and regional conditions.

International green construction code (IgCC)/ASHRAE 189.1: History and use of acoustical control section

This seminar will provide historical context on the current Acoustical Control section 801.3.3 in the International Code Council's International Green Construction Code (IgCC) is based on the ASHRAE Standard 189.1 Standard for the Design of High-Performance Green Buildings. This includes a detailed review of the current language and application, and guidance on the best way to design and commission to this standard.

An Integrated User Interface of Assessment and Optimization for Architectural Façade Shading Designs in Taiwan

In response to sustainable development goals, the architectural industry aims to decrease the high proportion of emissions and energy use in the construction sector. Therefore, the design method of building performance optimization (BPO) has been advocated in recent studies as a method for accomplishing high-performance building design. However, BPO remains difficult to implement in practice due to the lack of a definite process and supporting tools for architects/designers in the early design process. The purpose of this paper is to propose a BPO framework and integrated design decision support (DDS) interface to provide a visual and science-based analysis and assist designers working with high-performance building façade designs. The framework and DDS tool are then tested by designers through a practice design of the headquarters façade. All the designers started and implemented the facade optimization design in a short training session, although they reported that the developed support tools still needed to be improved in terms of also integrating optimization tools. The characteristics of the user interface help considerably with comparing and making decisions in optimal solutions. The results emphasize the importance of developing design support tools for practical adoption from practical designers’ perspectives.

Case Study in Modular Lightweight Steel Frame Construction: Thermal Bridges and Energy Performance Assessment

This paper proposes an improvement of the conventional Lightweight Steel Frame (LSF) wall structure suitable for the design of high-performance modular buildings. A mobile module, named MUZA, is used as a case study building to analyse the performance of such LSF structures in terms of their thermal bridging effect on the U-value of the opaque envelope elements, linear heat losses at junctions, and moisture condensation risk, as well as thermal bridging effect on the overall energy performance of the building. The study included an additional climate- and orientation-dependent analysis that examined the performance of MUZA under various conditions. The main conclusion is that the steel studs increase the U-value from 28.4% to 41.6% compared to cases without the studs, which consequently increases transmission losses through opaque elements. Thanks to the continuous covering of the metal studs with thermal insulation, the thermal bridges at the element junctions are minimized, and in almost all cases, the Ψ-values are well below 0.1 W/(m·K) and are free from moisture condensation. The overall impact of thermal bridges on heating energy demand is significant, while the impact on cooling energy is less pronounced. The designed module with the proposed LSF wall structure can meet the Croatian requirements for Nearly Zero-Energy Buildings (NZEB), but the shading devices and photovoltaics orientation must be optimized depending on the climatic conditions and the orientation of the large transparent openings. MUZA can be a promising solution for post-disaster housing, providing better indoor environmental quality, healthy living conditions, and low energy bills for the affected people. In addition, it can also be used for permanent housing when a fast and robust modular construction is required which is also energy efficient and sustainable.

Overview of occupant behaviour in modelling high-performance residential buildings

As the goal-setting in the European Green Deal is to reach carbon neutrality by 2050, great efforts have been put to improve the energy efficiency in residential buildings. As residential buildings are towards high energy efficiency, building envelopes are becoming better thermally insulated and systems are becoming more energy-efficient. Therefore, the role of occupants in the actual building performance is becoming more important. However, contradictions exist between the uncertainties caused by occupant behaviour (OB) and the over-simplified consideration of OB in building design. Therefore, this paper aims to present a state-of-the-art of how OB is represented in residential buildings. Through a literature study, this paper first reviews different occupant behaviours and how they are considered in the design and operation of high-performance residential buildings. Modelling methods are categorized by occupant activities. In addition, behavioural theories in the application of analysing building performance are reviewed. How the behavioural theories are integrated with state-of-the-art building technologies is outlined. Finally, challenges and suggestions for representing the interaction between occupants and buildings in the design and operation of residential buildings are discussed.

EVALUATION OF ENERGY PERFORMANCE AND THERMAL COMFORT OF BIOCLIMATIC BUILDINGS

Reducingenergyconsumptionisa major challenge of our time. The building science communitytherefore pays constant attention to the development of numerical simulations. The simulation codes makeit possible to detailmanyphenomenarelated to the equipment and the interiorenvironment of the building whilegiving consistent results. The grouping of thesetoolsaround simulation platformsapprehends the system as a whole and facilitates the design of high-performance buildings. The building sectorthen uses thesetools to meetincreasinglyambitious performance objectives. This performance is the result of careful design and implementation and ultimatelyallows a reduction in consumption and acceptable thermal comfort. This studyisdevoted to the evaluation of the energyefficiency and the thermal comfort of the experimentalcells of bioclimatic buildings. Its objective is to evaluate the energyconsumption and the achievement of the thermal comfort of the dwellingthanks to the judicious use of construction materials. The particularity of thisstudyisthatittakesintoaccountavailablematerialssuch as earthstabilizedwithcementcompared to modern habitats made of hollowagglomerated blocks in hot zones. The cellular simulations are carried out with the Pleiades+Comfie software. Duringthis thermal simulation, comparisons are made betweentraditionalmaterialsavailable in Chad, such as cement-stabilizedearth brick (BTS), and modern materials, such as cement blocks. The results of these simulations showed for identicalcells and with the same usage scenarios, the BTS cell has a lower air conditioning power for an averagetemperaturedifferencegreaterthan 2°C, the electricalenergyconsumptionis 1 4 timeslower and the best rate of thermal comfortcompared to the cement block cell. The cellbuiltwith BTC represents a direct response to climaticconstraints. The analysis of the resultsalso shows thatitis possible to obtain a good level of thermal comfort and reducedelectricalenergyconsumptionwith the BTS.

Experimental investigation of reinforced concrete masonry shear walls with C-shaped masonry units boundary elements

There is a global drive to promote and optimize the design of high performance buildings at low cost and minimum environmental impact. Although reinforced masonry construction is known for its better fire protection, structural durability, and construction cost reduction, its use is hindered by a lack of understanding of its resistance to earthquake loads. This research aims to quantify the effect of influential parameters on the seismic performance of Reinforced Masonry Shear Walls (RMSW) with masonry boundary elements (MBEs). A new system/configuration for RMSW with C-shaped masonry units has been proposed. A new experimental test setup was designed and built to capture the response of the lower panel of RMSW in a 12-storey building subjected to quasi-static loading protocol. Test results showed that the proposed system could provide the lateral strength and ductility required to resist earthquake events and that the average measured compressive strain was almost four times the limit specified in CSA S304-14. The results also showed that single out-of-plane support at the loading beam level was inadequate, leading to out-of-plane failure. When additional out-of-supports were provided, the failure mode changed to web crushing and buckling of vertical web reinforcement.

Energy Saving Quantitative Analysis of Passive, Active, and Renewable Technologies in Different Climate Zones

The purpose of this study was to provide a guideline for the selection of technologies suitable for ASHRAE international climate zones when designing high-performance buildings. In this study, high-performance technologies were grouped as passive, active, and renewable energy systems. Energy saving technologies comprising 15 cases were categorized into passive, active, and renewable energy systems. EnergyPlus v9.5.0 was used to analyze the contribution of each technology in reducing the primary energy consumption. The energy consumption of each system was analyzed in different climates (Incheon, New Delhi, Minneapolis, Berlin), and the detailed contributions to saving energy were evaluated. Even when the same technology is applied, the energy saving rate differs according to the climatic characteristics. Shading systems are passive systems that are more effective in hot regions. In addition, the variable air volume (VAV) system, combined VAV–energy recovery ventilation (ERV), and combined VAV–underfloor air distribution (UFAD) are active systems that can convert hot and humid outdoor temperatures to create comfortable indoor environments. In cold and cool regions, passive systems that prevent heat loss, such as high-R insulation walls and windows, are effective. Active systems that utilize outdoor air or ventilation include the combined VAV-economizer, the active chilled beam with dedicated outdoor air system (DOAS), and the combined VAV-ERV. For renewable energy systems, the ground source heat pump (GSHP) is more effective. Selecting energy saving technologies that are suitable for the surrounding environment, and selecting design strategies that are appropriate for a given climate, are very important for the design of high-performance buildings globally.

Knowledge Acquisition and Representation for High-Performance Building Design: A Review for Defining Requirements for Developing a Design Expert System

New functions and requirements of high performance building (HPB) being added and several regulations and certification conditions being reinforced steadily make it harder for designers to decide HPB designs alone. Although many designers wish to rely on HPB consultants for advice, not all projects can afford consultants. We expect that, in the near future, computer aids such as design expert systems can help designers by providing the role of HPB consultants. The effectiveness and success or failure of the solution offered by the expert system must be affected by the quality, systemic structure, resilience, and applicability of expert knowledge. This study aims to set the problem definition and category required for existing HPB designs, and to find the knowledge acquisition and representation methods that are the most suitable to the design expert system based on the literature review. The HPB design literature from the past 10 years revealed that the greatest features of knowledge acquisition and representation are the increasing proportion of computer-based data analytics using machine learning algorithms, whereas rules, frames, and cognitive maps that are derived from heuristics are conventional representation formalisms of traditional expert systems. Moreover, data analytics are applied to not only literally raw data from observations and measurement, but also discrete processed data as the results of simulations or composite rules in order to derive latent rule, hidden pattern, and trends. Furthermore, there is a clear trend that designers prefer the method that decision support tools propose a solution directly as optimizer does. This is due to the lack of resources and time for designers to execute performance evaluation and analysis of alternatives by themselves, even if they have sufficient experience on the HPB. However, because the risk and responsibility for the final design should be taken by designers solely, they are afraid of convenient black box decision making provided by machines. If the process of using the primary knowledge in which frame to reach the solution and how the solution is derived are transparently open to the designers, the solution made by the design expert system will be able to obtain more trust from designers. This transparent decision support process would comply with the requirement specified in a recent design study that designers prefer flexible design environments that give more creative control and freedom over design options, when compared to an automated optimization approach.

Green Design Studio: A modular-based approach for high-performance building design

A modular-based Green Design Studio (GDS) platform has been developed in this study for fast and accurate performance analysis for early stage green building design. The GDS platform aims to simplify the design and analysis process by embedding performance parameters into design elements in modules and employing near-real-time model for whole building performance simulation as well as by providing an easy-to-use and intuitive user interface to assist users without extensive knowledge on building physics. The platform consists of building modules as fundamental building blocks, performance predicting models, and a user interface for visualization and interactive design. In the platform, a whole building is composed of modules organized in a hierarchical structure, including spaces, enclosures, service systems, sustainable resource systems and sites. Both physics-based and data-driven models can be used to simulate the building performance and optimize building systems. A simplified physics-based model, the Resistance–Capacitance (RC) model, has been proposed as a generic simulation model for the flows of heat, air, moisture and pollutants, which is significantly faster than conventional simulation tools such as EnergyPlus, and hence more practical for use in real-time design interaction and optimization. A pilot case study is conducted to illustrate the modular-based design approach using a section of an office building. Compared to conventional building performance analysis tools, the GDS platform can provide fast and reliable feedback on performance prediction for early design. The modular approach makes it easier to modify the building design and evaluate the potentials and contributions of various green design features and technologies.

A longitudinal analysis of energy consumption data from a high-performance building in the tropics

With the use of computer-aided tools, design of high-performance buildings is becoming the de facto industry practice. While reliability and ingenuity of computer simulation models is debated on one hand, continuous measurement and verification of building performance over a long-term is embraced as an alternative solution. The goal of this study is to assess the energy performance of a state-of-the-art high-performance building design in the tropics. Longitudinal and high-fidelity energy consumption data from the high-performance office building (3for2) is presented and analysed for this purpose. The approach to energy-performance assessment presented in this study has two parts. The first part is performance verification which entails using two-years of detailed energy-use data to validate building’s estimated annual energy-use, determined using short-term (i.e. first 100 days of building energy-use) data. Thus, recalibrating the building’s baseline energy performance. The second part is performance benchmarking which entails comparing target building’s energy performance against their peers. Thus, verifying the original classification of 3for2 building design as high-performance, by comparing normalized annual building energy-use against national benchmark statistics.The results and analysis based on long-term measurements help assess several key building performance measures of the 3for2 office design. Firstly, it verified the baseline energy-use is 81.1 kWh/sqm/yr as compared to 77 kWh/sqm/yr estimated based on short-term data. Secondly, several positive energy-saving interventions collectively lowered energy-use to 67.7 kWh/sqm/yr, and thus improve energy-performance by approximately 16% over the baseline. The relevant interventions implemented in 3for2 design are CO2-based demand control ventilation, occupant-centric controls and low-lift vapour-compression chiller. Finally, it demonstrated approximately 40% improved energy performance over other similar buildings in the tropics. Thus, the lessons learnt from longitudinal study help conclude that 3for2 is one of the most energy-efficient office building in the tropics. In addition, this study also exemplifies the role of middleware in making building designs not only high-performing, but also verifiable continuously in long-term throughout building’s life cycle. Overall, this concludes that truly realising high-performance buildings in future lies in not only integrating low-energy architecture and building systems, but also closing the feedback loop by integrating appropriate energy-saving interventions through high-fidelity data infrastructure.

A robustness-based decision making approach for multi-target high performance buildings under uncertain scenarios

Considering the diverse uncertainties in building operations and external factors (i.e., occupancy and weather scenarios that can impact a building’s energy and comfort), performance robustness has become as important as the building performance itself. Selecting a robust and high performance building design is challenging, particularly when multiple performance criteria should be fulfilled. It requires performance evaluation, robustness assessment, and multi-criteria decision making in three sequential steps. The current study introduces a new robustness-based decision making approach that integrates the robustness assessment and decision making steps and is more transparent than previously used approaches. The proposed approach normalizes each objective function based on its defined target and combines them into one comprehensive indicator. Moreover, it penalizes solutions that do not meet the targeted margins. The new approach is tested on a case study of a single-family house, where eight competitive designs and 16 occupant and climate scenarios are investigated. Exhaustive searches and sophisticated engineering analysis are applied to validate the logic behind the approach’s results. In addition, a test framework is used to validate the reliability of the approach under different combinations of scenarios. The results show that the proposed approach can select a high performance and robust building design simultaneously with less analysis effort (no need for weighting the objectives nor for conducting a robustness analysis for each objective separately) and with much trustworthy rate (selecting solution in comparison to the defined targets and with less dependency on the scenario conditions) compared to one frequently used approach (i.e., the Hurwicz criterion).

Assessing energy and emissions savings for space conditioning, materials and transportation for a high-density mixed-use building

This paper introduces a combined framework for the analysis of building-related and transport-related emissions, to allow the comparison of a new high-density mixed-use development concept with traditional urban development patterns. The framework accounts for the energy and emissions arising from the operation of the building, the materials needed to build it, and the transportation of the residents. This provides a novel means to compare the impact of urban form on both building-related and transport-related emissions simultaneously. The building analysis performs detailed building energy simulations and embodied energy calculations. The transportation analysis estimates emissions reductions from eliminating personal vehicle trips through the mixed-use nature of the building, provision of an electric vehicle car sharing fleet, and a public transit hub with a rapid transit line. The framework is used to assess the new concept, referred to as a ‘Mothership’, which provides a potential holistic solution to urban sprawl through high-density mixed-use development that meets the needs of 10,000 people. It includes a high-performance building envelope, advanced energy systems, a public transportation hub and electric car sharing fleet. The analysis compares this method of development to the ‘urban sprawl’ that has characterized new development in North America. The comparison is performed for two case studies in British Columbia, Canada. Results show that the Mothership could reduce operational and embodied emissions by 73% and transportation emissions by 58% compared to low-density suburban development. A key takeaway is that transportation and embodied emissions become much more significant as operational emissions are reduced through high performance building design and clean electricity.

TransDATA2: A Data Visualization Toolkit to Assist the High-Performance Building Design

TransDATA2: A Data Visualization Toolkit to Assist the High-Performance Building Design

Robust and resilient buildings: A framework for defining the protection against climate uncertainty

The design of high-performance buildings has been questioned for their actual performance in operation, where the impact of external perturbations such as occupant behavior and climate has proved to be prominent. These sources of variability, called aleatory uncertainties, are inherent variations of nondeterministic systems and are irreducible. Therefore, one of the main approaches to deal with these uncertainties is to consider them as noise during the design phase. The goal of the design is hence achieving a solution whose performance is least sensitive to the noise. This specific design process is called robust design. In this study, a prospect of climate conditions that a building might face during its lifespan is identified. However, although robust design can support the design of building variants whose performance is insensitive to typical climate conditions and also predictable extreme climate conditions, these building variants cannot be considered protected in case of unforeseeable extreme events. During such events, another property called resilience is required, which focuses on withstanding and recovering during and after the occurrence of the event. This study reviews the concepts of robustness and resilience and organizes them into a framework that clarifies their relationships in the protection of buildings against climate uncertainties.

Usability and Usefulness of Non-Conventional Building Performance Simulation Tools in Architectural Design Processes

Simulation tools have been suggested to have the potential to support the design of high-performance buildings. However, sophisticated simulation environments are frequently utilized in the later stages of building planning. This might be due, in part, to the lack of sufficient and reliable input data during the early stages of design. Moreover, advanced tools appear to be geared toward consultants and specialists (expert users) rather than primary building designers. In recent years, tools in the CAD and BIM areas have introduced new features for parametric design and interfaces to different calculation and simulation engines. If properly deployed, such tools could offer effective early-design performance evaluation support, for instance via pre-rationalization of building forms and morphologies. Surprisingly, few studies have assessed the usefulness and usability of these new opportunities. In this context, the present contribution documents the background, method, and results of a tool potential assessment study regarding two specific environments, namely Ladybug and Honeybee. These are plugins for the parametrization environment grasshopper. The outcome of this effort provides not only a specific snapshot of the standing of these tools in the context of realistic performance assessment scenarios, but provides also a detailed framework for future critical evaluation of the usability and usefulness of computational solutions for early stage design optimization.