Optimization of building form and its fenestration in response to microclimate conditions of an urban area

¹ Division of Building Technology, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden
² Division of Building Physics, Department of Building and Environmental Technology, Lund University, SE- 223 63, Lund, Sweden
³ Institute for Future Environments, Queensland University of Technology, Garden Point Campus, 2 George Street, Brisbane, QLD, 4000, Australia DP Sciences, Editorial Department, 91944 Les Ulis Cedex A, France
² EDP Sciences, Production Department, 91944 Les Ulis Cedex A, France

^* Corresponding author: kavan.javanroodi@chalmers.se
(vahid.nik@chalmers.se)
(kavan.javanroodi@byggtek.lth.se, vahid.nik@byggtek.lth.se, nik.vahid.m@gmail.com )
(vahid.nik@qut.edu.au)

Abstract

Designing building form in urban areas is a complicated process that demands considering a high number of influencing parameters. On the other hand, there has been an increasing trend to design highly fenestrated building envelopes for office buildings to induce higher levels of natural lighting into the workspace. This paper presents a novel optimization framework to design high-performance building form and fenestration configuration considering the impacts of urban microclimate in typical and extreme weather conditions during a thirty-year period of climate data (2010-2039). In this regard, based on the introduced technique and algorithm, the annual energy demand and thermal comfort of over 8008 eligible form combinations with eight different fenestration configurations and seven different building orientation angels were analysed in a detailed urban area to find optimal design solutions in response to microclimate conditions. Results showed that adopting the framework, annual heating, and cooling demand can be reduced by 21% and 38% while maintaining thermal comfort by taking design-based decisions at the early stages of design.