The Potential of Building Design and Active Systems in Energy Conservation by Highrise Corporate Buildings: A Case of Ahmedabad

Abstract

Building sector accounts for a 40% stake of energy consumption in the developing nations, out of which 80-85% of the energy is consumed by HVAC systems (EIA,2000) in hot and dry climatic zones. Limited land resource has led to the concept of high-rise buildings; commercial high-rise buildings found to be utilizing the high resource(energy) per unit area with maximum number of occupants and use of mechanical devices. Hence, it is of fundamental importance to study the interrelationship of our building designs and active systems with our climate for minimum energy consumption and maximum productivity. The research studies the energy consumption by commercial high-rise buildings in hot and dry climate and is therefore based in the city of Ahmedabad for primary case studies The study is based on the concept of ‘What makes a building green?’ or also famously known as ‘Triangular Approach’ by Norman Foster + Partners in 2002.. In the absence of tier 2 of the ‘Triangular Approach’, 2 cases have been derived by considering active systems and building design as a part of each case. Each case represents a method for energy conservation. Two high-rise corporate buildings have been selected as primary case studies; they are studied in terms of their design, material, active systems and energy consumption annually. Since both case studies include green active systems, design considerations are assessed in comparison to standards for each to find the vital factors/variables influencing the energy performance. While case study 1 is a privately owned office headquarter building, case study 2 is a critically designed high-rise office complex with multiple offices. An analysis for both cases depicts how building design along with green active systems can decrease the consumption from approximately 10% to 28% in comparison to a conventional building. However, for further savings passive systems are inevitable. Other outcomes also involve understanding of design of buildings; study of active systems, materials for low consumption; trend in energy consumption throughout the year and EPI in hot and dry climate; influence of context, orientation, form, plan depths, building envelop, space use and wall window ratio for lowering or increasing the energy consumption. The study can be further extended to understand the economic feasibility of construction and performance of these cases for a pragmatic view of the overall green building theory.