International Journal of Advances in Mechanical and Civil Engineering, ISSN: 2394-2827 Volume-4, Issue-1, Feb.

-2017
http://iraj.in
ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN OF FUTURE SUSTAINABLE PRIMARY
SCHOOL IN IRAN USING MULTI-PURPOSE ATRIUM
1
MELIKA SHOKOUHMAND, 2SHAHIN HEIDARI, 3AMIRMOHAMMAD SATTARI
1
MSc student, Research and Science Azad Islamic University of Tehran, Iran
2
Professor, faculty of architecture, University of Tehran, Iran
3
MSc student, school of mechanical engineering University of Tehran, Iran
Email: melikashokouhmand@gmail.com, shheidari@ut.ac.ir, amirmsattari@ut.ac.ir

Abstract- In this paper the role of Atrium in future primary school design in Tehran (IRAN) with regards to the environmental
contribution has been demonstrated. A typical primary school in west of Tehran is selected for this investigation of thermal
comfort and ventilation. Furthermore, in order to reduce the energy consumption, several proposals are carried out and the
feasibilities are tested separately. The comparative result indicates that more access to the atrium space benefits the
ventilation of the classrooms, intensifying the heat loss. Hence, controlling the size of opening area in atrium and seeking for
the balance between ventilation and thermal comfort are essential in designing a sustainable school.

Keywords: Atrium, Sustainable Primary School Design, Environmental Comfort.

I. INTRODUCTION atrium can provide a more comfortable environment

In recent years, Atrium contributes to passive heating
and is useful in an overall ventilation and cooling
strategy, and always makes daylight more available to
the spaces that surround it. Properly designed atria
have the potential to significantly reduce building
energy consumption. In contrast, a poorly designed
atrium can result in uncomfortable daytime
temperatures and additional air conditioning loads. By
allowing daylight into the building. Good atrium
design will specifically bring natural lighting into the
interior spaces of the building and therefore minimize
depending on artificial lighting loads and reduce the
demand for space conditioning.
The atrium is now found in many building types
including offices, hotels, hospitals, and shopping
malls all over the world. An atrium provides an
environmentally controlled space, naturally lit, and
keeps out rain, snow and wind, thus offering several
urban design functional and social amenities.
There are many reasons for including atriums in
buildings. The atrium itself can provide useful space.
The atrium is used in buildings by architects,
designers, and planners for complex and unusual sites
in order to use the land efficiently [1]. Contemporary
glazed atriums provide exciting views. Even
landscaped atriums without glazed facade provide a
sense of connection to the outside world [2]. Market
studies show that atrium buildings are more attractive
and have higher occupancy rate. Atria provide spaces
for public gathering, events, shows, and exhibitions
which resulted in improving the rate of occupancy and
the earnings [1]. Atrium buildings have a great
potential for energy efficiency. The atrium brings in
daylight which decreases the electrical lighting cost.
By making maximum use of passive energy, the
with less dependency on mechanical systems [2]. Both
construction and maintenance is significantly
reduced.
Overcrowded cities, the lack of space, pollution, and
high density were the driving force that resulted in the
birth of the enclosed atrium which was a good solution
to provide daylight and fresh air, while having a visual
connection to the external environment [2].
Since the industrial revolution, atrium buildings have
spread with much speed and success [1]. Atria first
became popular in Europe (The Galleria, Milan, Italy,
1867) and took different forms depending on the type
of the buildings and the societal needs. Public
buildings, hotels, shops, and offices soon began to use
atria to serve as lobbies, circulation centers, or even
big spaces to accommodate large numbers of people
requiring services.
The in the early twentieth century, United States took
the atrium technology which was based on the earlier
European experience. The designers used all heavy
masonry construction on the exterior, with iron, steel,
and glass being used only in the atrium space itself.
This design strategy was a response to the new
technology and to the fire problems encountered in
Europe [2].
Despite numerous studies demonstrating the atriums
benefits, including their energy significant potential
in reducing the building artificial lighting demand
and as a result lowering the thermal loads, their
thermal performance is extremely difficult to predict
[3]. Atria present some very unique design concerns
for architects because there are many key factors that
can be associated with.
All aspects of the atrium in buildings such as atrium
proportion, orientation, shape and size, height,
shading control of the atrium, atrium’s glazing type
and ratio, and the thermal mass of the atrium’s walls,

Architectural Design of Future Sustainable Primary School in Iran Using Multi-Purpose Atrium

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International Journal of Advances in Mechanical and Civil Engineering, ISSN: 2394-2827 Volume-4, Issue-1, Feb.-2017
http://iraj.in
need careful design consideration. Poor or the atrium (Fig. 2) to demonstrate how the center hub
inappropriate design may create challenges for affects the surrounding classroom comfort and the
controlling temperature, glare, and energy research was carried out in 3 phases listed as follows:
consumption. The role atrium space plays in future 1. Does the atrium space benefit the ventilation
sustainable school design in terms of environmental performance in the 6 selected classrooms or not?
comfort. In this case, it tries to demonstrate how the 2. Does the atrium space benefit the thermal
atrium space affects the daylight, thermal performance of these classrooms or not?
performance, ventilation performance of the adjacent 3. What’s the main issue for the comfort of students
classrooms. in classrooms? Is there any solution to improve the
Dealing with atrium buildings particularly in building performance?
elementary school, is complicated due to the lack of Based on the mentioned notes, the Atrium which was
adequate and a comprehensive design tools capable of designed for the primary school can be seen in Figs.
determining the impact of such spaces on the building 3-6 from different sections.
energy performance in the early stages of the design
process.
In this paper, a careful atrium design guideline for
elementary schools produce buildings that use
substantially less energy without compromising
occupant comfort. Besides, a simplified model of the
Atrium is modeled using CFD modeling and thermal
performance of the Atrium in different seasons is
investigated.

II. METHODOLOGY

A. Atrium environmental Strategy Study in Figure 1. Internal space of Atrium

sustainable school design
Atrium spaces, are widely advocated to be applied in
the design due to the original advantages from the
natural forms (CIBSE, 2007) [4]. It benefits the
adjacent class room by providing sufficient ventilation
to improve the air quality and drive surplus heat.
Atrium space also brings more daylight to the inner,
transferring the light to the surrounding, acting as a
buffer zone to prevent direct sunshine (CIBSE, 2006) Figure 2. Section of school
[5].
B. Primary school
Located at west of Tehran 22nd area the primary
school has been considered to have an atrium., this
will be the first primary school in west of Tehran. It is
surrounded by a commercial center and high rising
building complexes. With a good available area
located at the eastern side of the entrance for parking
of the vehicles. Our aim is to design the building as
‘Radically reduced energy and improve the internal
comfort’. Figure 3. 3Dimentional view of school using Atrium
This building is considered to be two-story concrete
building and north –south oriented with all the
classrooms facing south and north. It serves for
approximate 360 students pupil and divided into two
parts – the western part and eastern part. Each part is
one hub centered, surrounded by classrooms. These
central atriums are designed to provide
accommodation for activities containing green area,
group study, etc. (Fig. 1). Thus, these spaces should be
fully considered to meet the different needs.
A study was undertaken in the 6 classrooms around Figure 4. 3Dimentional back view of school

Architectural Design of Future Sustainable Primary School in Iran Using Multi-Purpose Atrium

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International Journal of Advances in Mechanical and Civil Engineering, ISSN: 2394-2827 Volume-4, Issue-1, Feb.-2017
http://iraj.in
III. RESULTS

Contours of velocity for summer and winter seasons

which were obtained from numerical modeling can be
seen in Fig. 8. As illustrated in this figure, in summer
season (Fig. 8a), direction of the flow is from inner
region of the school to the surrounding. This can be
justified by this fact that because in summer the
temperature of the Atrium space is higher than the
inner region, the pressure of the Atrium is lower, so air
flows from inner region to the Atrium. This
phenomenon is known as stack effect. This makes a
Figure 5. Ground Floor plan of school
natural ventilation in the classrooms which leads to
the lower amounts of desired ventilation. In contrast,
in winter season (Fig. 8b), the air which was heated by
radiation flows from the Atrium to the classrooms,
similar to previous, this causes lower demanded
ventilation. So, it can be concluded that presence of an
Atrium resulted in lower ventilation in all seasons
from the perspective of the heating and cooling and
also ventilation. Also, natural ventilation happened by
Atrium makes a more comfortable space.

Figure 6. First floor plan of school

C. CFD modeling
In order to evaluating thermal performance of
designed Atrium in summer and winter seasons, a
simplified model of the Atrium has been modeled
which can be seen in Fig. 7a. As seen in this figure, the
Atrium assumed to be a cube and has two window, one
at the top and another at the bottom. The length,
width, and height of the model are 10×8×15 m
respectively. The goal is to investigate direction of the
flow in summer and winter seasons. The 3D model
was meshed with about 11,000 nudes and modeled
using Ansys Fluent 16 software. The meshed model Figure 8. Contours of velocity and streamlines for (a) summer
can be seen in Fig. 7b. (b) winter

CONCLUSION

This study showed that good design of primary school

using atrium improves the quality of school building
including energy efficiency and cost saving. On the
other hand, Atrium benefits for controllable thermal
conformance and ventilation, meanwhile increased
harmonious space with learner-centered educational
purposes. A CFD modeling of the designed Atrium
showed that the need to ventilation in both summer
and winter seasons reduces in presence of the Atrium.

REFERENCES

[1] R. Saxon, “Atrium Buildings: Development and Design,”

Architectural Press, 2nd edition, London, 1983.
[2] A. Barthakur A, “Behavior of Atria: A Comparative Study
Between Measured Data and A Computational Fluid Dynamics
Figure 7. (a) Simplified model of the Atrium (b) meshed model

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International Journal of Advances in Mechanical and Civil Engineering, ISSN: 2394-2827 Volume-4, Issue-1, Feb.-2017
http://iraj.in
Model,” Thesis (Master of Building Science), University of [6] BSRIA, (2008). Primary school carbon foot printing: adjust
Southern California, 1996. carbon factors: p. 5-10.
[3] M.J. Bednar, “The new Atrium.” New York, McGraw-Hill Inc, [7] DfES, (2003). Building Bulletin 87: Guidelines for
1986. Environmental Design in Schools. 2nd ed. Version 1: p. 20-24.
[4] CABE, (2007). Leaflet of CABE’s new schools design quality [8] BSF, [Online], Available: http://www.teachernet.gov.uk
program, London [27April 2012].
[5] CIBSE, (2006). Environmental design: CIBSE guide A. 7th
ed., London: CIBSE: p. 2- 8.

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