Balancing Visual Comfort and Energy Efficiency

Integrating environmental performance and aesthetics in an office building in South East Asia

Overview

Abstract

With increasing interest in wellness and human-centric design in workplaces, the design of building enclosures is predicated on optimizing competing performance criteria, including visual comfort, thermal behavior, maintenance, and cost-effectiveness simultaneously. Managing this varied set of indicators, while integrating them into a cohesive design, is challenging on many fronts, particularly regarding the quantification of a design’s value proposition. Here, we present a case study for a large office building in South East Asia; a climate characterized by hot air-temperatures, high humidity, and intense solar radiation. The design of the building envelope takes inspiration from the vernacular architecture of local temples and shading elements while being charged with a performance-driven approach to minimize the impact of solar radiation and maximize visual comfort. Iterative design propositions were evaluated through the lenses of energy efficiency, daylight optimization, and visual quality to determine the optimal design approach, based on an exterior shading system of aluminum extrusions with a ribbon-window back-up wall. Our analysis indicates that the exterior shading system is able to reduce glare discomfort by 78%, increase time when interior blinds are raised, reduce overall energy consumption by 7%, require 5 fewer air handling units, and reduce the chiller capacity by 200 tons, resulting in a 300 ton reduction in CO2 emissions when compared to the same building without exterior shades. As a result, the simple payback of the exterior shading system is estimated at 12 years when productivity gains are factored in along with environmental benefits. Thereby, within the early design stages, the exterior shading strategy offered an opportunity to integrate a re-interpretation of local architecture with the environmental and financial performance for the design of a building enclosure that can address both energy efficiency and user experience.


Authors

Photo of Berardo Matalucci PhD

Berardo Matalucci PhD

Director, Environmental Design

SHoP Architects

bam@shoparc.com

Photo of Edward Palka AIA LEED AP BD+C

Edward Palka AIA LEED AP BD+C

Designer

SHoP Architects

edp@shoparc.com

Photo of Jennifer Siqueira LEED AP

Jennifer Siqueira LEED AP

Associate

SHoP Architects

jts@shoparc.com

Photo of Jenny Lin

Jenny Lin

Associate

SHoP Architects

jyl@shoparc.com

Photo of Coles Jennings PE, BEMP, LEED AP BD+C

Coles Jennings PE, BEMP, LEED AP BD+C

Sr. Energy and Sustainability Engineer

Mason and Hanger

Coles.Jennings@MasonandHanger.com

Photo of Alex Chapin

Alex Chapin

Energy Engineer II

Mason and Hanger

Alex.Chapin@masonandhanger.com

Photo of Sameer Kumar AIA

Sameer Kumar AIA

Director, Enclosure Design

SHoP Architects

skk@shoparc.com

Photo of Nadine Bergen AIA LEED AP

Nadine Bergen AIA LEED AP

Project Director

SHoP Architects

nb@shoparc.com

Photo of Christopher Sharples AIA

Christopher Sharples AIA

Principal

SHoP Architects

crs@shoparc.com


Keywords

Introduction

This paper presents a case-study focused on the development and presentation of a cohesive performance framework and value proposition for a high-performance building enclosure early in the design process. Importantly

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Design Intent

The overall building design takes cues from local architecture, particularly centered on scale, proportions, and materiality. From this research, important themes have been incorporated into the design, such as human

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Methodology

To evaluate the performance of the external shading system, the following cases have been used for comparative analysis. Case 1: Design Case, as submitted for the Schematic Design phase. This

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Results and Discussion

Energy Efficiency

A whole-building energy model has been generated to estimate the energy and operational cost savings associated with the façade and other energy conservation measurements. The energy model considers the

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Conclusion and Future Work

The results of the various performative analyses shown in this paper illustrate that the Design Case outperforms the Baseline Case - the Schematic Design backup wall with no exterior shading

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the client, the design team at large, and all consultants involved in the project.

Rights and Permissions

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