Impact of building massing on energy efficient school buildings

Abstract

To produce energy-efficient buildings, optimization process for all design stages is necessary. Optimization starts with the massing of the building. This study investigates the impact of the five school massing typologies on energy efficiency: (i) spine/street; (ii) city/town; (iii) atrium; (iv) strawberry/cluster; and (v) courtyard. The chosen massing typologies respond to the question of what an optimum spatial organization of massing is to (i) maximize the use of renewable resources; (ii) utilize thermal inertia of buildings; and (iii) consider the relationship between inside and outside, both existing and future. For each massing type, Sefaira program was used, and simulations were run for annual energy use, annual energy cost and annual carbon dioxide (formula presented) emissions. The energy use indices (EUI) of the alternatives are around 86 kWh/m2/yr. In the spine massing, the EUI value is much higher than the other four buildings. The highest annual net (formula presented) emissions are obtained in atrium type of building, which has more floors compared to other massing type. The courtyard type has the most efficient annual electricity cost per area. These findings showed that the goal of the building massing should be not only limited to achieve the low EUI. Thus, this study suggests that an energy-efficient massing should address the questions beyond well-known ASHRAE standards, and define a new holistic model that considers the ratio of surface area to volume more for reducing energy loads than a typical high-performance schools.