Design Of Office Buildings Research Articles

Energy and thermal analysis of DSF in the retrofit design of office buildings in hot climates

ABSTRACT In recent decades, the energy retrofit design of buildings has been one of the most effective methods to achieve high-performance buildings. The government office buildings in Iran account for 15% of the non-residential building sector; hence, energy retrofitting of existing office buildings could effectively reduce total energy consumption and Carbon dioxide emissions. This study aims to evaluate the effect of various facade systems with cool materials on the thermal behavior and energy performance of a typical existing office building in a hot climate. The proposed hybrid retrofit method combines design and energy retrofit strategies while evaluating the effects of different workspace layouts and facade systems on external surface temperatures and total energy consumption. Applying such a method, the most optimal design and energy retrofit strategies were selected using a combination of optimization and scenario-based approaches. The results showed that using double-skin facades could reduce annual energy consumption and Carbon dioxide emissions by 63%. Moreover, the results indicated the most efficient types of cool coatings materials for reducing cooling loads.

Influence of Office Building Design on Occupant Satisfaction

The objective of this study is to examine the influence of building design on office occupants by analysing empirical data on their satisfaction levels and prevalent complaints. A methodology involving literature review, expert interviews, and a field survey with 308 office employees was adopted to acquire the empirical data. The findings reveal that office occupants think Amount of Space as the most important parameter, followed by Layout, and Furniture. On the other hand, occupants are least satisfied by Amount of Space, followed by Interior Design and Layout. Insufficient social areas, insufficient work space, and layout of the work environment, distraction caused by human circulation due to office layout, and ergonomics of the furniture are the most common complaints. The results show that average importance level in each building design parameter is higher than or equal to the average satisfaction level. The largest gap between the perceived importance and satisfaction appears in Amount of Space and Layout. The results are expected to provide insight to designers, facility managers, and renovators of office buildings on how office occupants perceive office building design and frequent complaints encountered in the offices.

Contractual Behavior of Key Participant in Managing Green Office Building Projects

In order to improve the performance of green office building projects, proper contractual behaviour of key participants is perceived as one of the best initiatives, given that it serves as the primary function in guiding the smooth management of green office building projects. This paper aims to identify the criteria in managing green office building projects. It was found that this reports on the results of the content analysis which collected data on design and features of green office building implemented by the designers. A list of GBI -Certified Green Office Buildings under New Construction Category in Malaysia was assessed. Five (5) numbers of office buildings in Klang Valley and Putrajaya area were selected to present features of green office buildings applied by the designer to fulfil the green building criteria hence achieving GBI certification. The features of each green building obtained from various relevant websites were compiled based on the six (6) criteria listed under GBI. Though the system and materials might be slightly different from one green buildings to another, there are similarities in terms design principal; by incorporating advanced green technologies, sustainable energy solutions, innovative energy management systems and rainwater harvesting systems into the design. Thorough consideration has been given by the project team to produce a building that is environmentally, socially and economically friendly. This is achieved by enhancing good passive designs and integrating active (mechanical and electrical) design and system to deliver and to offer significant long-term comfort and savings for the building owners and occupants.

Algorithmic Generation of Building Typology for Office Building Design

Numerous office building design optimizations are in international research to reduce energy consumption, optimize costs and provide optimal comfort. However, there is a lack of knowledge on the effects of geometry and space organization. This study deals with space organization problems and searches for all possible optimal building space structure configurations in terms of energy and comfort parameters using a mathematical algorithmic method. The methodology is based on the formulation of feasible architectural rules and their translation into an algorithm that can generate 2D floor plans satisfying all boundary conditions. In the framework of an exemplary modeling procedure, a 4-story office building geometry generation was carried out, resulting in 17-floor plan versions and 7 different building geometries. The resulting building shapes were classified by energy-related geometry parameters (envelope surface/useful area) for the future step of the research, where the cases will be compared with the help of building simulations. With the help of the method, it was possible to significantly narrow the search space, but future improvements are needed for faster work for wider applicability.

Optimization and prediction in the early design stage of office buildings using genetic and XGBoost algorithms

Incorporating intelligent optimization algorithms in the early stages of office building design facilitates a better response to the local climate. The indoor and outdoor thermal performances of office buildings, such as solar radiation, indoor lighting, and outdoor thermal comfort, must be jointly evaluated during the conceptual design phase. Based on the technical framework of “performance-based generative architectural design”, this study constructs a data-driven workflow for comprehensive performance assessment and rapid prediction of office buildings. The method was then applied to an office building in the hot summer and cold winter regions of China. Based on a total of 6000 data samples generated by the iterative process of genetic optimization, this study achieved a precision of 0.77, recall of 0.59, and F-1 score of 0.75 for categorical prediction by the XGBoost algorithm. The method facilitates the optimization potential of integrated solar and thermal performances in the early design phase of office buildings while significantly improving the efficiency of interaction and feedback between design decisions and their performance evaluation.

Penerapan Green Office pada Kementrian Kesehatan Republik Indonesia

This qualitative research intended to acknowledge the application of “green office concept” at Housekeeping Department of Ministry of Health of Indonesia. The researcher captured the data from the research field factually. Data gathered from the responsible staffs purposively, data collection methods used were moderate participant observation, indepth interview, and document analysis. The data validated by technique triangulation and resource triangulation.The qualitative research resultshowed that (1) the staffs have moderate commitment for “green office”behavior. As showed by the paper saving, electricity saving, water saving, waste management, greening, cleanliness, and room’s air conditioning; (2) Eco – friendly office technology applied by using information technology system as electronic mail, electronic filling system and web based communication group.(3) The office physical building design suitable for naturally lighting design with lights’ placement grouping system, and also considers building green coefficient.(4) Vehicle cleaning and watering trees with condensed water were prohibited.(5) Office materials selected to minimize the use of papers and tissues. (6) Air conservation system applied by using centralized Air Conditioning System with average degree 24 – 25 celcius. (7) Airhumidity about 55% with no smoking rule. (8) Electric saving lights used by grouping system and also there was motion sensor lights at the bathroom; (9) flush the plant with Air Conditioning condensed water.

A limit state design approach for hybrid reinforced concrete column‐supported flat slabs

AbstractHybrid reinforced technology (combination of steel reinforcing bars and fibers) can be considered as a competitive alternative to the already existing solutions for the construction of column‐supported flat slabs. Constructed hybrid‐reinforced buildings prove that hybrid solutions have sufficient bearing capacity to maintain structural integrity despite being exposed to high stress levels, thereby providing a beneficial solution in terms of toughness, ductility, and sustainability performance. However, the lack of design‐oriented recommendations based on the accepted limit state format for dealing with both serviceability and ultimate limit states slows down the wider implementation of this technology. Considering the above‐mentioned, this article presents a simplified design‐oriented method that covers the evaluation of the structural response of hybrid reinforced concrete column‐supported flat slabs in terms of flexural strength, cracking, and instantaneous deformations. Two hybrid reinforced alternatives for a given flat slab are studied by means of the proposed approach. Furthermore, a nonlinear finite element analysis is carried out in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the developed simplified method. Based on the achieved results, its suitable accuracy and precision can be pointed out. This outcome may motivate current practitioners to consider hybrid reinforced concrete solutions as a possible alternative during the design of residential and office buildings.

The concept of dynamicity of martial arts office building design with environmentally friendly

The demand for office building for the sports branch of martial arts in Indonesia has increasingly risen in line with the rapid development of the international arena. For the administrative region, including the province of East Java, a martial arts head office is essential the administrative duties and management of the sports organisation. A martial arts office is an office to accommodate administrative and management tasks. It also requires facilities for users who mostly have an athletic background and are physically fit and well-being. Therefore, this paper aims to explore and propose architectural designs of martial arts’ administrative office from finding the idea, determining the design’s parameters and concept to formal design transformation. Presenting big ideas by translating the character and value of sport is applied during the design process and considering the green design approach to provide building’s energy-efficient. The result proposes a building design that expresses the dynamicity of sport’s value and characters. The building is also designed by reducing negative impacts on the environment and maximise energy saving.

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.

Barriers to implementing adaptable housing: architects’ perceptions in Finland and Denmark

Adaptability is one key aspect in making housing more sustainable. One major approach to adaptability is internal transformability of buildings, i.e. the possibility to make modifications to the spaces and their equipment within the existing building envelope. This aspect is often taken into consideration in the design and implementation of office buildings. However, in housing the situation is different, and internal transformability is very seldom implemented in apartment buildings. There is a lack of studies for the reasons for this. In this article we take a look at the barriers to internal transformability of apartment buildings in two Nordic countries, Finland and Denmark. We compare the situations in both countries, and highlight their similarities and differences. The research is based on interviews of Finnish and Danish architects who have been involved in designing such buildings within the last 20 years. The interviews show that the disinterest of housing developers has been the main barrier to implementing internal transformability. Another important barrier is the developers’ cost-optimization. Secondary barriers were related to lack of solutions in building services that would support internal transformability. Additionally, secondary barriers were related to common construction techniques, regulations, and building conventions. Major barriers were similar in both countries. However, some differences in the secondary and other barriers between the two countries also exist.

Study on dual-objective optimization method of life cycle energy consumption and economy of office building based on HypE genetic algorithm

Multi-objective optimization of building life cycle energy consumption and cost is very essential for guiding design quantitatively. However, previous studies paid more attention to the potential effect of building energy saving and cost reduction based on design parameters from the perspective of designers, but ignored the potential brought by the willingness of users during operation stage. Therefore, this paper proposes a dual-objective optimization method based on the HypE algorithm, which takes into account users' energy saving intentions in order to maximize the potential of building life cycle energy saving and cost reduction. The application premise of this method is to establish energy and cost calculation model of building life cycle. The method was applied to the design of a small office building in Xi'an city of China, and the scheme were optimized by adjusting 7 design parameters and 2 parameters (cooling and heating temperature) related to the energy saving willingness of the users. The results show that the proposed method can reduce the energy consumption by 15.1%-18.8% and the cost by 2.2%-10.1% during life cycle. The results will continue to be reduced by up to 6.5% and 12.02% if the potential of uers' willingness to save energy continues to be realized. It is proved that the proposed method contributes to the comprehensive evaluation of energy saving and economic effects of architectural design during its life cycle and provides effective theoretical guidance and practical tools for architectural design and optimization.

Research on the Core Architectural Design of High-rise Office Building

Research on the Core Architectural Design of High-rise Office Building

Understanding the psycho-environmental potential functions of a green building to promote employee health, wellbeing and productivity: A theoretical perspective

Past research exploring employee health, wellbeing and productivity in green office buildings has yielded mixed results and lacks a theoretical framework to explain these different findings. There is a need to better understand the specific aspects of green buildings that relate to various health, wellbeing, and productivity outcomes. In this paper, the authors demonstrate how the psycho-environmental potential model can be used as a theoretical framework to help explain the mixed impacts of green buildings on individuals. This model assumes that to promote wellbeing, settings should sustain six functions, which fulfill needs for their users: 1) security and shelter, 2) social contact regulation, 3) symbolic identification, 4) task instrumentality, 5) pleasure, and 6) growth. The authors introduce a seventh function, sustainability. Through the examination of past research, green building rating systems, and general building features, the potential for green office buildings to fulfill these seven functions is analyzed. While our review found that green office buildings have - in theory - the potential to fulfill each function, the fulfillment of these functions can vary significantly between individual buildings due to differences in features. The current framework is presented as a tool to examine existing buildings, and aid in the design of new green office buildings. Additionally, this framework can be utilized in future research to systematically examine the relationship between green building features and its occupants, thus, aiding in addressing the mixed findings in regard to the positive impacts of green buildings on health, wellbeing, and productivity.

Potential measures towards the reduction of cooling loads of office buildings in Ghana

PurposeGiven the climatic context and economic challenge of Ghana in its developmental strides, energy use of office buildings continues to be a task on the economy. Therefore, the study was about finding measures that could reduce cooling loads in 10 office buildings. The paper presents the outcome of a long-term study of the thermal conditions in a selected number of office buildings in Accra and Kumasi, Ghana.Design/methodology/approachThrough long-term monitoring of environmental data, the buildings were consequently modelled in a simulation application. Thereafter, a validation of the simulation models (using regression coefficients, r2 of 0.53–0.90) was undertaken towards finding measures to reduce cooling loads.FindingsThe results showed various potentials of efficient lighting, thermal mass, night ventilation, insulation to attic floors, efficient glazing, blind deployments, etc. in reducing cooling loads in the range of 2–17.5%. By combining the potential measures to study their synergistic effects on the loads, 35, 39 and 38% improvements were achieved for the low-rise, multi-storey and fully glazed office buildings.Originality/valueThese potential measures ought to be incorporated in the design, specification, construction and operation of Ghanaian office buildings to reduce the burden on the economy and the environment. Now more than ever, there is the need for climatic regions to come up with empirical data that could help relieve the world's economies from the post-pandemic stress.

Appraisal of Awareness and Implementation Levels of Energy Efficiency Design Strategies for Office Buildings in Abuja, Nigeria

Energy efficient buildings are buildings that consume less energy while also maintaining or improving the comfort conditions for their occupants, compared to the normal building type. Such buildings result not only in less negative impact on the environment, but are economically sustainable and resilient. This study investigated the extent to which building professional firms in Abuja, Nigeria are aware and implement the different energy efficiency design strategies available for deployment in office buildings, in order to ascertain the current level of knowledge and implementation of the strategies within the building industry in the study area. A structured questionnaire was used to gather data from 80 professionals drawn from architectural and engineering firms involved in the design of office buildings in the study area. The data were analysed by descriptive statistics and the results indicate that both the awareness and implementation levels of energy efficiency design strategies by the firms are high. Whereas most (78%) of the respondents are aware of the various energy efficiency design strategies employed in office building designs, few (22%) of them have little or no knowledge of the strategies investigated. On the implementation level, majority (69%) of the participants recorded a high rate, while few (31%) recorded a low rate. The study also found that the strategies the firms are mostly aware of are site planning, natural ventilation and building orientation. Whereas, the three most adopted strategies among the strategies investigated are: building plan and space organisation; site planning and building orientation. Among the recommendations of the study is that relevant stakeholders of the building industry in the country, should provide platforms from time to time for promoting the benefits of energy efficiency design strategies in the country, in order to maintain the high level of understanding and deployment of the strategies by the building professionals that currently exist in the study area. This is envisaged to ultimately lead to curtailing the adverse effects of global warming on the environment in the long run.

Фітодекорування інтер’єрів Будинку Уряду України: аналіз та пропозиції

The article presents the features of bioaesthetic characteristics of decorative elements of phytodesign of the closed environment. The analysis of groups of plants by functional and aesthetic purpose in the room is carried out and on their basis project offers on improvement of features of an interior of the House of the Government of Ukraine were developed. When decorating the premises with the help of ornamental plants, the specifics of the interior design of the building and the carefully selected range of plants were taken into account, taking into account the optimal options for their placement. Aesthetic design of free space in the premises is created in order to achieve maximum comfort and coziness and the phytodesign of the closed environment copes with it best. It actively influences the nature of comfort and perception of the interior and is an important component in the design of the environment, and with its help you can increase the artistic expressiveness of the interior, improve its functional organization and, importantly, improve sanitation. The interior design of modern public office buildings is characterized by the predominance of ideas of rationalism and functionality over the aesthetic appearance of the premises. The Government House of Ukraine is the administrative building of our capital, so phytodecoration of its interiors requires careful selection of the range of plants of future phytocompositions. Today, the use of plants in the formation of interiors of various premises is due to the need of man to be closer to nature due to large-scale urbanization of cities and local man-made pollution. To successfully solve these problems requires a comprehensive approach to the wide range of uses and applications of beneficial properties of plants: volatile therapy, color therapy, aesthetic therapy, aromatherapy, ionization and many other functions. Keywords: closed space, public buildings, phytocomposition, phytodesign, phytoergonomics, project proposals.

THE EFFECT OF OPENING DISTRIBUTION AREA MODIFICATION ON HORIZONTAL LIGHT PIPE DAYLIGHT PERFORMANCE

A deep-plan office building design limits daylight access on the workspace distant from the side window. Horizontal Light Pipe (HLP) is one of the light transport systems that can deliver daylight to these areas. The research aim was to explain and evaluate the effect of HLP’s opening distribution area on daylight performance at deep plan-private office space. The research method was experimental with simulation as a tool. Daylight level and distribution of the base case, HLP with an opening distribution area of 6.6 m2 were compared with the case, HLP with an opening distribution area of 3.41 m2. The results showed that both cases distributed daylight uniformly. A 50% reduction of HLP’s opening distribution area, from 6.6 m2 to 3.41 m2 improved the average Daylight Factor as big as 6.42%. HLP with a smaller opening distribution area can be applied as the main source of daylight on deep-plan office spaces

WPŁYW ZAGROŻENIA EPIDEMICZNEGO NA PROJEKTOWANIE BIUR I BUDYNKÓW BIUROWYCH

The topic of the paper is determining the impact of an epidemic threat situation on the design of office space and office buildings. The types of actions taken to improve safety are: procedural actions, modifications of technical solutions: architectural and installation and remote work. Solutions in the field of office space architecture include: reducing the density of occupants, introducing partitions, eliminating multi-person offices, using materials that are easy to disinfect and clean, opening windows and installing personal protective equipment dispensers. The installation solutions include air quality improvement, filtration and disinfection systems as well as telecommunication installation systems supervising the use of the building. It can be expected that in the future, technical solutions will be introduced into the designs of buildings and office spaces, which will be a place for meetings, spontaneous interactions, mutual inspiration of employees and strengthening their identification with the employer whereas the ratio of office work places will be lower. The structure of the building is likely to change to a richer commertial part, a co-working part and flexible offices, and a traditional part of office space for lease, but as such office buildings will still be needed.

Developing a parametric morphable annual daylight prediction model with improved generalization capability for the early stages of office building design

Building form and fenestration design decisions made in the early stages of design have considerable impact on the annual daylight performance of office buildings. Annual daylight performance needs to be evaluated at the conceptual design stage to support the building form and fenestration design decision-making process. However, the simulation modeling and ray-trace calculation required for annual daylight prediction are extremely time consuming, with an adverse impact on its feasibility in the early design stages. Machine learning-based models have received much attention to reduce the daylight simulation time; however, the generalization capability of these models is limited. This study develops an artificial neural network-based modeling approach to predict annual daylight performance in the early stages of the design process. A workflow to develop an annual daylight prediction model with higher generalization capability is proposed, through feature selection, feature engineering, and hyperparameter optimization, with an accompanying tool to integrate the machine learning model into the early design environment. The developed prediction model was validated against Radiance simulation results with a high accuracy setting and attained R2 scores of 0.988 and 0.996, MAE scores of 1.58 and 1.37, MAPE scores of 2.10% and 2.36% for UDI and DA300, respectively, while being 250 times faster. The proposed modeling approach can be extended by adding more types of parametric room modules.

Decision-making pathways to daylight efficiency for office buildings with balconies in the tropics

Daylight in the indoor environment is directly influenced by the building surroundings, envelope and its shading devices, such as balconies. Despite their potential in contributing to increase shaded periods and, at the same time, act as a daylight distribution system, balconies are not designed to their full potential when used in office buildings and the literature lack studies that investigate the effect of balconies on their luminous performance. This study aims to explore this niche: the integration of balconies to the design of office buildings in the tropics, in order to improve their daylight performance. The research method was based on a parametric design approach in combination with daylight simulations, while combining a systematic analysis with a data mining algorithm. The study revealed successful combinations of building design parameters as well as important cut-off points for design decision-making to achieve daylight efficiency in typical mixed-mode office buildings in the city of São Paulo , Brazil. Results provided multiple design routes to achieve successful performance targets showing that, if properly dimensioned, balconies could be an efficient shading device and daylight diffuser. As a key contribution, successful combinations of design parameters that allow deeper balconies to yield better Useful Daylight Illuminance levels were identified. Further details about when balconies stop influencing daylight performance results as well as when an increase in balcony depth becomes beneficial to performance were reported in attempt to develop design guidelines for the early design stages for office buildings in São Paulo. • Analysis of the role of balconies to improve daylight in office buildings. • Decision-making pathways to improve daylight whilst reducing cooling demand. • Cut-off points for design decision-making to achieve daylight efficiency.