A study of brick facade design as preventive measure for passive cooling

Abstract

As the primary energy source of the earth, the sun, will also be the main aspect that need to be considered in architectural design. The sun will play a major part to create a good architecture, that would be part to create sustainable architecture. Buildings consume a lot of energy for cooling to achieve desirable thermal comfort conditions. In tropical climate, solar gain is resulting in high energy consumption, therefore the need and awareness to reduce building's energy is essential. One of the simple methods that can be used to prevent the high consumption of energy in buildings is by using natural and passive cooling systems. It uses non-mechanical techniques to maintain a comfortable indoor temperature. Shading is one of the passive design methods, which block the sun light before it hit the building surfaces. Shading reduces the solar radiation and it cools the building surface effectively, hence reducing the building energy performance significantly. This paper will discuss a study of bricks design facade that can be used to shade its own surfaces. The design configuration of the brick will provide self-shading system, that could help reduce the energy consumption in the buildings.