This chapter described the evolution of skycourts in high-rise buildings and the various perspectives and functions of skycourts. A skycourt can enhance the environmental design in buildings. Skycourts are perceived as spaces that act as transitional and networking areas. The influence of such areas as ventilated spaces on energy demand in a temperate climate is considered one of the knowledge gaps in respect of office buildings, which requires investigation.
Available data in the literature provide mechanisms to improve energy efficiency of the current ventilation strategies. There is the need to develop new options that can offer a significant impact in minimising energy consumption for heating and cooling in office buildings, and enhancing thermal conditions in ventilated spaces such as the skycourt (Figure 2-13).
Figure 2-13. Flow chart of topics related to the research and main knowledge gap Skycourts in high-rise buildings:
Overview reseach gap of skycourts from social, environmental and economic perspectives Skycourts in high-rise buildings in temperate
regions:
Reseach gap: environmental design and performance of skycourts
Skycourts' microclimate, environmental design and performance in high-rise office
buildings :
Researh gap: ventilation, heating, cooling of skycourt:
thermal comfort and energy savings
Skycourts' ventilation performance and design in
high-rise office buildings: Research gap: Ventilated skycourts' performance
and design approach
Knowledge gap in literature review:
a design approach and performance for skycourts in high-rise office buildings in temperate regions; by
investigating it as a transitional buffer zone emphasising its potentials for heating and cooling reduction of the building and ensuring thermal comfort improvement in these skycourts
Optimal configurations
of ventilated skycourt
Based on the discussion presented in this chapter, an outline for developing a ventilation strategy in skycourts could be concluded. This process involves examination of four main factors; these are the following:
Firstly, external and internal climate variables. External variables include climate parameters of the context in different seasons.In this study, the London climate profile is adopted. Internal variables define the expected thermal comfort range required in the skycourt space by determining the required levels of air temperature and air change rate. Secondly, the design configuration of the skycourt. This includes geometric parameters such as skycourts’ orientation, height, area, length and depth. In addition, this involves the influence of vertical locations and horizontal positions for openings of inlet and outlet air inside skycourts.
Thirdly, methods to predict heating and cooling loads of the building, in addition to the air temperature and airspeed inside the skycourt. The concurrent triangulation of methods is adopted for this study. Simulation is found to be the appropriate method to fulfil the study questions of energy and thermal predictions.
Finally, criteria to assess ventilation effectiveness. This includes the amount of savings of energy demands for heating and cooling for the building. In addition, consideration is given to levels of thermal comfort inside the skycourt to obtain the influence of the proposed approach.
Extracting prototypes of skycourts through analysing their spatial configurations in high- rise office buildings will be discussed in the next chapter.
CHAPTER THREE: PROTOTYPES OF SKYCOURTS IN
THE RESEARCH CONTEXT
3 PROTOTYPES OF SKYCOURTS IN THE RESEARCH CONTEXT
3.1 INTRODUCTION
The present study involves investigation of prototypes for skycourts in existing constructions in temperate climates. This process is useful to accomplish the first objective of the research, which is to define the existing patterns and spatial configurations of skycourts that function as transitional buffer spaces in high-rise buildings.
This phase of the research explores the skycourt in the office building typology, worldwide, with the focus on the climatic context of the study. The selection process is based on pre-defined criteria that correspond to the research objectives. This is followed by collecting data about the selected buildings and more focused data about skycourts. Data for the buildings were obtained from design documents. Other resources include interviews with designers and site visits. Then, comparisons between the selected cases are made in the form of drawings and cross tables. The analysis of cases is based on parameters concerning the skycourt. These parameters include spatial configuration, location, height, and function.
The case study analysis includes two stages: the first determines global buildings from different climate zones. Although the research focuses on high-rise buildings in the temperate climate, understanding issues relating to skycourts in other climate contexts will aid identification of the influence of climate on skycourt design. The second stage explores buildings located in regions of temperate climate. The next sections of this chapter present these two stages. The levels of details about the building and the skycourt vary between the two stages. The first stage focuses on general information, while the second provides more details about the skycourt prototype. The analysis is followed by a discussion to conclude main features for the design of the skycourt. Details about the
main cases of the second stage and analysis of these cases are presented in Appendix B, Extracting prototypes of skycourts.