Conference Agenda

The term "Profile" is often used in different disciplines to identify fundamental properties of an object, while analyzing future steps to use them. In this research, the concept of Energetic Profile for Existing Office Buildings and its features are presented. The Energetic Profile consists of seven architectural parameters ranging from macro to micro, taking into consideration its surrounding environment, the building’s morphological characteristics up to the typical floor plan design. The Energetic Profile enables the identification of energy saving opportunities and enables distinction between energetic-architectural typologies of office buildings which are not commonly discussed in environmental conscious standards. For each of the parameters a methodology was developed to investigate its total energy impact (divided into cooling, heating and lighting) in a theoretical office building located in a hot and humid climate. Performed case studies demonstrate the effectiveness of the tool to identify potential action directions for energy savings, compare design alternatives, and examine the influence of various construction phases of the building. The case studies proved up to 50% in savings potential compared to current condition, when implementing the conclusions of the profile. Future contribution is expected as an auxiliary tool for designing also new office buildings.

Commercial and office buildings often have problems on the aspects of indoor thermal environment and energy performances. The actual performance of these types of buildings, most of the time, are different from the desired performance. A data collection was conducted in an office space of a university building in Singapore as part of the ongoing study, measuring the environmental performance of office buildings across Southeast Asian countries. The objective measurement on the thermal condition shows that most measurement points across office space is at the colder side of the comfort zone. This finding is supported by the survey results where only about 65% of occupants voted for “slightly cool”, “neutral” and “slightly warm” and about 22% of occupants showed “cold” related symptoms on their legs, hands and body at the end of working hours. The calculated neutral temperature range was generally from 24 degC to 26 degC, while the measured room temperature was mostly below 24 degC.

The first aim of this paper is to analyse the potential for application of hydrogen production and storage systems integrated with renewable energy sources, aimed to provide safe, efficient and stable energy solutions for building and transportation on isolated territories. The value of this concept will be checked on the examples of pilot and demonstration facilities developed for distant European islands. Several archipelagos belonging to different European countries were selected as case studies. The purpose of such choice is to investigate various climatic, geographic and legislative conditions determining the new opportunities that may bring benefits to cleaner and more sustainable environment. The second goal of this study is to check if/how European Union Framework Programmes contributed to the development of increased energy efficiency, independence and renewability in the isolated European territories.

CO2 emissions of buildings are progressively shifting from operation to other lifecycle stages. Despite the increasing importance of embodied carbon, it remains unregulated, without defined standards or industry benchmarks. This paper presents research findings from the analysis of five exemplary built precedents, comparing both operational and embodied CO2 emissions with benchmarks. Designed with a holistic approach, the whole-life carbon emissions from these buildings are shown to have been reduced by some 50%. Design guidelines resulting from study of these built precedents have been synthetized into a design application for central London, with estimated a 75% reduction in carbon emissions when compared to standard buildings.

This short paper provides a critical literature review of several domains in the field of daylighting design with respect to their lack of accountability to the chronobiological factors related to daylighting design. The review identifies deficiencies in the current metrics from the quantitative - instrumental, health-effective, to the qualitative – aesthetical to quantify the impacts of daylighting design on occupant’s health and well-being. To test the critical analysis, a pilot study was designed to provide a holistic view of how the integration of these domains can address the application and architectural decision making for window design parameters. It is an attempt to elaborate on the glass industry’s research and aims to look at the effects of different window design parameters on the transmission of the electromagnetic spectrum within a space’s interior. More specifically, it investigates the effects of distance from a window on the transmission of daylight through clear glazing and how the daylighting quantities and qualities transmitted affect occupant health and well-being, with a focus on circadian entrainment. This proof of concept study is seen as a first step to investigate long-debated hypotheses on the mechanisms of daylighting impacts on occupant’s health and well-being.

This study investigates the relationship between solar radiation received on vertical building façades and two sky exposure performance indicators, i.e. Sky View Factor (SVF) and Sky Exposure Factor (SEF). The study was conducted by using Ladybug for Grasshopper to perform solar radiation simulation on over 300 cases of archetypal urban forms with different morphological settings. Regression analysis was then applied to examine the relationship between X and Y. The findings suggest that though both SVF and SEF have a high goodness-of-fit with solar radiation on vertical building façades (R2 = 0.69 and 0.70 respectively), site coverage should be used as a categorising factor for improved assessment.