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Bioclimatic Design Approach Integration into Architectural Design: a Library

Case Study

Conference Paper · July 2016

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PLEA 2016 Los Angeles - 36 International Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture.
Cities, Buildings, People: Towards Regenerative Environments

Bioclimatic Design Approach Integration into Architectural

Design: a Library Case Study
WEI ZHU1, ZHUO WANG2
1
Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi’an, China
2
China Northwest Architecture Design and Research Institute CO.LTD, Xi’an, China

ABSTRACT: It is very common for architects to consider spatial design as a top priority in the early design stage, but
leave the building performance issues to engineers afterward. Recently, many architects have realized that
considering the internal environmental performance in the first stage of design would reduce energy consumption and
create a more comfortable living environment. However, it is often confusing for designers to involve the integrated
environmental design while creating a building form and space in the early design stage in practice. The bioclimatic
design approach could be simply described that architecture design methods could take advantage of the climate
through the right application of design elements and building technology to energy saving as well as to ensure
comfortable conditions into buildings (Olgyay,1973). This study describes the process of applying bioclimatic design
approach within the design of a library in Xian, China. More specific, it is a project of transformed an old industry
building into a library. The original structure is kept and the design process focuses on achieving high environmental
performance in the library based on an understanding of seasonal and diurnal climatic variations. In detail, the
spatial design can be intervened by the solar geometry to maximize daylighting application. Thermal performance
could be improved by integrating a natural ventilation strategy and an appropriate material choice within the design
of building form and space. The conclusions are draw from the performance prediction by a series of dynamic
computational simulations. This paper demonstrate that bioclimatic design approach may be a choice to create an
appropriate building form and space and a comfortable and energy efficient environment in the early design stage.
Keywords: bioclimatic design approach, internal environmental performance, library design

INTRODUCTION
The bioclimatic design approach could be simply
described as architecture design methods that take
advantage of the climate through the right application of
design elements and building technology for energy
savings, as well as to ensure comfortable conditions in
buildings (Olgyay, 1973). It is very common for
architects to consider spatial design as a top priority in
the early design stage, but leave the building
performance issues to engineers afterward. Recently,
many architects have realized that considering the
internal environmental performance in the first stage of
design would reduce energy consumption and create a
more comfortable living environment. However, it is
often confusing for designers to involve the integrated
environmental design while creating a building form and
space in the early design stage in practice.
It is discussed the main reasons why so many architects
do not integrate the bioclimatic approach into their
designs. One of the main reasons is their lack of
confidence. Some of them believe that integrating
bioclimatic design requires significant knowledge of
“green” technology. Others finish the design through the
ordinary process first, and then pass the whole scheme
to the engineers. Therefore, a general bioclimatic design
process might offer the architects easy access to a
bioclimatic design area. (Maciel et al. 2007)
RESEARCH OBJECTIVE AND PURPOSE
The main questions of this research are:
What is the early stage design process for the
bioclimatic design approach?
How is each stage managed?
Could this method be applied to all architecture types?
This study discusses whether a general design process
for bioclimatic design approach exists and of what it
comprises. Then a library design process of applying
bioclimatic design approach is described, in order to find
the essence and the problems of the proposed process.
Hawkes, McDonald, and Steemers (2002) presented the
Vitruvian Tripartite Model of Environment (Fig. 1) in
their important book The Selective Environment. This
model is first mentioned in Vitruvius’s De architectura.
It discussed the main function of architecture is to be the
mediation between climate and comfort.
 PLEA2016 Los Angeles - Cities, Buildings, People: Towards Regenerative Environments, 11-13 July, 2016
Figure1: Vitruvian Tripartite Model of Environment Source:
Hawkes et al. (2002)
However, with the development of architecture,
environmental performance is not the only purpose the
architects seek to fulfill, as spatial performance is
becoming more and more significant. Modern architects
tend to create spaces first, but then leave the
environmental issues to engineers. In the mainstream
design method in China, climate condition will only be
considered because of codes. More specific, the majority
of architects will not consider about what the climate
may influence the design at the early stage. They
consider it sometimes only because some code has
compulsive requirements. It often happens at the last
stage when the main design has been delivered, and the
job tends to be left to engineering.
According to the bioclimatic design approach, spatial
requirements and environmental requirements are not
opposite or mutually exclusive. Space and form of a
building can be tools to increase environmental
performance. In addition, the choice of materials and
construction type not only serves the aesthetics of the
buildings, but also the internal environment. (Fig. 2)
Figure 2: model of bioclimatic architecture design Source:
Author
BIOCLIMATIC DESIGN PROCESS
A global process
Generally, a bioclimatic building design begins with a
description of the climate at its location (Hawkes et al.
2002,13). This is a large difference between the
bioclimatic approach and general design. Most architects
will first analyze the site and brief, though climate is
also considered when analyzing the site. In addition,
they tend to only consider the general situations of the
climate and pay attention to the influence mentioned in
‘code.’ In bioclimatic design, a climate analysis needs to
be described both qualitatively and quantitatively.
Additionally, a detailed requirement analysis is needed
during this stage as well. This requirement analysis
includes both spatial and environmental analysis. First,
the users need to be identified, by means such as their
gender, age, and occupation. Second, it is useful to make
a detailed schedule of all activities, accounting for the
number of users participating in each, the composition
of the group, and the times at which each activity may
occur. (Hawkes et al. 2002)
The source analysis is basically climate and site
analysis. Some issues in both climate and site analyses
could actually be sources to satisfy the requirements. For
this reason, analysis is reinforced as the first step for
meeting the global process requirements (Fig. 3). For
example, the architects could easily notice that the
internal heat gain of a group of people could be a
passive heating source. Local materials could be
considered when choosing materials.
The next step is matching the first two analyses, which
is the key from analysis to design. Advantages and
disadvantages of the site and climate for achieving the
requirements could be found. In detail, the spatial design
can be intervened by the solar geometry to maximize the
daylighting applications. Thermal performance could be
improved upon by integrating a natural ventilation
strategy and appropriate material choice within the
design of building form and space. The schedule of the
activities could be matched with the schedule of sunlight
illuminating into the buildings, and the architects could
allow or avoid it according to the requirements analysis.
The key point is that the architects could find evidence
from the analysis in advance when making each
decision.
After the analysis, architects could make decisions about
the building form, the orientation, the fenestration, and
the materials choice of façade. Then, some simulations
could be made to test the decision. In fact, these design
strategies would not be wrong because a series of
analyses have been done in advance. But the simulations
could help in design modifications, such as the size of
windows. It is noticed that these two steps could be
repeated several times until the goals are reached.
Case study
To begin, a brief of the project will be introduced. The
existing building is an old factory in Xi'an, China. This
building is located in a factory campus, which belonged
 PLEA2016 Los Angeles - Cities, Buildings, People: Towards Regenerative Environments, 11-13 July, 2016
to a steel-manufacturing group. After the steel-
manufacturing group moved, 11 old factory buildings
remained in this area. In 2004, an art university bought
and transformed some structures into teaching buildings
Figure 3: Global design process of bioclimatic approach
into a small but multi-functional library for both the art
students and the public. The existing building is around
26mX38m, with a 9.9m height at the highest point.
The brief required book-storing areas, reading areas, a
small cafe, and a gallery. It should be noticed that a
gallery is not usually included in a library's brief. But in
this project, a gallery is needed for presenting works of
art, including paintings and handicrafts. Therefore, as it
will be a multi-function library, the requirements of
different areas can vary.
Requirements analysis
As Table 1 shows, it could be seen that in different
areas, both environmental and spatial requirements are
different. In this stage, the requirement analysis is
carried on from both qualitative and quantitative aspects.
People's activities in different areas determine the
requirements. More specific, selecting books is the main
activity that will occur in storing areas. To finish this
activity, the basic space size should be enough for
people to stand in front of the bookshelves. The light
should also be appropriate for reading books on the
bookshelves. In addition, it can be noticed that storing
areas are used not just for people, but also for the books.
Therefore, the environmental requirements are for the
books as well, which are even given a higher priority. It
is important to avoid the books being exposed to direct
sunlight. Compared to storing areas, in reading areas,
and student apartments. Therefore, this building is being
designed
Source: Author
people tend to stay much longer and need space to sit. It
also includes private reading areas and group reading
areas. These two areas need to be separate. In terms of
the gallery, people need space to enjoy the artworks.
For the gallery, the artworks do not welcome direct
sunlight, but need enough light to be properly presented.
Comparing these three areas, the environmental
requirements have different levels. The reading areas
where occupants would stay much longer tend to need
better physical environment, including enough daylight,
appropriate thermal environment and quiet spaces. By
contrast, selecting books short duration, therefore, the
level of environmental requirements is lower than
reading areas. The gallery has specific requirements that
are not just for people but also for the artworks
presenting. The internal environmental is to emerge the
artworks appropriately. In this way, the daylighting
design should be prior.
Table 1: Requirement analysis
______________________________________________
Activity Temporal Spatial Environmental level
Selecting books 30 mins standing
Reading books over 2 hours sitting
Enjoying artworks flexible standing
_____________________________________________
Climate analysis
 PLEA2016 Los Angeles - Cities, Buildings, People: Towards Regenerative Environments, 11-13 July, 2016

From the Monthly Diurnal average chart in Xian, it

should be noticed that summers and winters are very
clear. (Fig. 4) During the daytime in mid-seasons, the
temperature also may be above the comfort zone; the
occupant time will mostly be during the daytime.
Therefore, in these periods, natural ventilation is
important. In summers, the maximum temperature is
above the comfort zone, but in winters, even the
maximum temperature is below the comfort zone. In this
case, both cooling and heating are important factors. So,

Figure 6: The daylight factor of the existing building Source:
one of the goals of this project is to reduce the length of Author
heating and cooling periods, according to this analysis.
MONTHLY DIURNAL AVERAGES - Xian, CHN

癈 W/ m?

40 1.0k

30 0.8k
Strategies and design modification
wint wint Followed the analysis above, several strategies have
summer
er er
20 0.6k

10 0.4k
been decided:
0 0.2k

-10 0.0k
First, the entire building is designed to be two stories
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

tall, because the height is 10 metres. In this way, an

Figure 4: Monthly Diurnal average chart Source: Ecotect 癈
DAILY CONDITIONS - 1st January (1)
W/ m?

atrium is added for the daylighting and ventilation on

weather tool 40 1.0k

the ground floor. The place of atrium follows the

30 0.8k

20 0.6k
position of the existing skylight. The openings in the

LEGEND
Comfort: Thermal Neutrality

Temperature Direct Solar

10

0
0.4k

0.2k
atrium can be controlled seasonally. In summers, the
temperature outside is extremely high, and the openings
Rel.Humidity Diffuse Solar

Site analysis & existing building analysis

Wind Speed Cloud Cover
-10
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24
0.0k

The Fig. 5 shows the orientation of the existing building. can be fully opened, helping to lower the temperature
No windows are located on the south and north facades, inside. In the winters, the outside temperature is low,
and some small windows exist on the high level of the and it is not possible to open windows for ventilation.
west façade. On the east façade, both small size However, the library could be crowded and natural
windows at high level and large size windows at low ventilation is needed during both summer and winter.
level are present. Therefore, the atrium could be used for pre-heating the
fresh air. (Fig. 7)











Figure 7: Stack effect Source: Author

Figure 5: The existing building Source: Author
Second, the layout could be determined according to the
requirements. The reading areas are placed on the first
The purpose of a daylight factor simulation on the floor and in the centre of the plan. In this way, this area
working plane (Fig. 6) is to analyze the daylighting can enjoy uniform daylight, a benefit that is brought by
performance of the existing building. This helps to the skylight. The gallery is placed on the northern and
determine the layout and the fenestration. According to western wall where only some high windows exist. The
the result, it could be seen that the daylight factor on book-storing area is placed in the centre of the plan on
north part and the west part is below 2%, but over 10% the ground floor, and the atrium can provide enough
on the east part, which means the large size windows daylight and natural ventilation as well. (Fig. 8)
might cause a glare. In addition, in the centre of the
plan, the daylight factor is satisfactory, given the
benefits from the skylight and high windows.
 PLEA2016 Los Angeles - Cities, Buildings, People: Towards Regenerative Environments, 11-13 July, 2016
Figure 8: Layout of new building Source: Author
In addition, according to the analysis, the fenestration
can also be decided. In the existing building, no
windows are on the southern façade. But it could be a
good option to design a large sized window on the
southern façade with a carefully designed shading
device. This would allow the winter sun but stop the
summer sun; in addition, the size and position of the
window is designed according to the sun-path diagram.
This can help calculate the perfect position of the
window (Fig. 9). In the summer, the hot sunlight is
stopped but in winter, the warm sunlight is allowed; it
would not influence the reading areas on the first floor,
because the edge of this area is determined by the
position of the sun at 12pm on winter solstice.
Lastly, the floor materials where the sunlight could
reach during the winter could consist of dark colours and
high thermal mass materials.
Figure 9: Strategy on south facade Source: Author
After the strategies decided, next step should be test the
effectiveness of all the strategies. Both of computer
simulation and physical models simulation could be
useful in this stage. Generally speaking, this step is a
long process because all the strategies need to be tested
individually. And the design decision would be kept or
modified according to the simulation result. This step is
not presented in details in this paper because the project
is in process and there will be a further paper to discuss
this stage individually. Take daylight simulation of
reading areas on the first floor as an example, the
daylight factor simulation shows the reading areas have
enough daylight (Fig. 10). In addition, the sunlight
would not affect the reading areas on winter solstice
when the sun angle is the lowest in the whole year.
Therefore, it could be deduced that the direct sunlight
would not reach the reading areas in the whole year (Fig.
11).
N
Figure 10: daylight factor simulation of reading areas Source:
Author
Figure 11: sunlight on winter solstice through south facade
Source: Author
DISSCUSSION
This case study follows the design process proposed in
this paper. In the process of design, the first two stages,
requirements and sources analyses, play a major role in
gaining the basic concept and strategies. Some people
might believe all design processes are started from
analysis; but not all processes make such a deep
analysis, including temporally and spatially,
qualitatively and quantitatively. The deeper the analysis
goes, the more design inspirations come in the design
 PLEA2016 Los Angeles - Cities, Buildings, People: Towards Regenerative Environments, 11-13 July, 2016

step. It also needs to be noticed that this decision is not 3.Olgyay, V. (1973). Design with climate: bioclimatic
the only option. The strategies can utilize creative and approach to architectural regionalism: Princeton University
extraordinary ideas. Different architects may propose Press.
various strategies that could achieve similar
environmental requirements, but gain diverse spatial
performance.

In addition, this process is for the early design stage,

after the concept and strategies are proposed many
detailed works follow. Taking this case study as an
example, the size of the atrium needs to be determined.
Although the space layout has been decided, the spatial
organization needs to be further designed.

CONCLUSION
In conclusion, this paper proposes a basic bioclimatic
design process for architects who want to integrate a
bioclimatic approach into their design. It is true that
architectural design is a complex process, and many
issues need to be considered, such as history and culture.
But it will not be against that environmental and spatial
requirements are basic needs for a building, especially
the buildings' types are for people used frequently, like
educational buildings, offices and residential
architecture.

In terms of further research, first, this design process

graph could be a basic series of steps in the early design
stage, in which additional processes or detailed
processes can be expanded. For example, in the
presented case, the existing building analysis is one
important part in the site analysis stage, but the new
construction does not require this analysis. Second, this
is a general process for all building types but there
should be differences between different building types.
Therefore, some specific processes focusing on some
building type could be further research. In addition, it
should be noticed by architects that every single step has
many opportunities to make the final design product
attractive, comfortable, and energy-efficient.


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This project is supported by the National Science &
Technology Pillar Program during the 12th Five-year
Plan Period. (Grand No.2014BAL06B04)

REFERENCES
1.Hawkes, D., McDonald, J., & Steemers, K. (2002). The
selective environment: Taylor & Francis.
2.Maeiel, A. A., Ford, B., & Lamberts, R. (2007). Main
influences on the design philosophy and knowledge basis to
bioclimatic integration into architectural design-: The example
of best practices. Building and environment, 42(10), 3762-
3773.

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