Thermal building performance optimization using spatial archetypes

Energy conscious building design has always been a goal for consultants, architects and researchers. Due to the increase in energy consumption, optimal building environmental performance has gained a more significant role in the design process. An increasing number of countries in the world are developing or updating their building energy codes to accommodate the emerged need for more energy efficient buildings. This dissertation describes a methodology that facilitates thermal building performance optimization in building design with the use of spatial archetypes.; More specifically, it addresses the general problem of minimizing building energy consumption and operational costs of HVAC systems. Towards this end, it also addresses some of the major current issues with building simulation tools, namely, the lack of data visualization and the need for specialized knowledge to use them knowledge that may not be easily accessible to many architects. A methodology is presented that supports design decision-making and creates opportunities for optimization as part of the design process, for example, presenting building performance data to the user for an evolving design with minimum effort.; The main body of this dissertation focuses on creating a paradigm of built form archetypes combined with thermal performance in buildings. Optimum building behavior is sought in an effort to facilitate energy conscious design and specifically to determine optimum solutions for two or more building spaces that share some common characteristics. Borrowing methodologies from the engineering disciplines, family product design formulations are used.; This work offers a contribution to the architectural design process, where the timely use of detailed thermal analysis tools and their successful integration in the building design process remains a continuing challenge. The use of design commonality strategies in architecture opens up new opportunities and enables new methodologies for creating spatial archetypes for thermal analysis.; This commonality methodology creates a new way of prototyping built forms (archetypes) with respect to thermal behavior characteristics. Archetypes are created to allow the architect who uses them to have a detailed thermal analysis and make important decisions at each design stage. Archetypes are first defined and then optimized for thermal performance. They can be also stored in a database for future use. As such, rigorous optimization in the building design process is introduced in a natural and efficient manner.