Optimization of energy performance through urban parametric design Case study of residential buildings in Guelma City

Abstract

Confronted with the challenges imposed by both climate and energy consumption, a high-performance design is essential to assure efficient and sustainable urban areas. Given that energy consumption constitutes a major share of the building sector’s footprint, the optimization approach of the built environment requires significant consideration of environmental settings, microclimates, and energy resources. Building behavior in response to outdoor factors markedly influences energy use and outdoor thermal comfort, which serves as a key parameter in analyzing urban energy performance. The primary objective of this study is to optimize the energy performance of residential buildings within the context of their physical characteristics and urban morphology. Moreover, this paper seeks to identify factors within the urban environment that contribute to energy loss while investigating the complex interaction between urban spatial configuration parameters and performance indicators. The study’s methodological framework is based on a comprehensive literature review of published studies explicitly addressing urban energy performance. The research focuses on identifying common features among the reviewed case studies and their associated approaches. The empirical analysis was structured into outdoor thermal comfort assessment and energy consumption analysis. Both phases relied on in-situ measurements, data collection, model generation, and parametric simulation to ensure a comprehensive evaluation of urban energy performance. In this regard, three distinct case studies, each with different urban layouts but similar climatic conditions, were analyzed. The analysis focused on key physical aspects, including building geometry, density, street canyon characteristics, orientation, vegetation distribution, and building operational energy consumption. The selected physical morphologies, or urban forms, were identified according to the predominant spatial configurations in Guelma city’s built environment. Furthermore, Rhinoceros software was used to generate a parametric model of the current urban morphologies, enabling the extraction of regional climatic information and emphasizing the significance of microclimate data in urban research. A suite of parametric tools, including AutoCAD and Revit, were used to create a three-dimensional model, which was then imported into ENVI-met to simulate building responses to external environmental influences. This simulation, using ENVI-met’s atmospheric forcing, facilitated the visualization of thermal responses. In addition to the thermal assessment, building energy performance was evaluated through the collection of building use data, and simulations using Revit Insight and OpenStudio. These simulations aimed to predict energy consumption patterns based on building geometry, thus enhancing energy efficiency. The findings underscore the significant impact of urban morphology on outdoor thermal comfort and energy demand. Variations in building configuration, orientation, and street canyon geometry result in varied thermal energy responses, despite identical climatic conditions. The results highlight the significance of urban green cover in alleviating heat island phenomena. The integrated methodology of parametric tools, which simulate building energy performance using urban parameters, enabling the simultaneous assessment of energy and thermal performance for a more thorough examination. To achieve optimal urban energetic performance, the co-optimization of building energy efficiency and outdoor thermal comfort is evidenced. Ultimately, this study illustrates urban morphology’s potential to significantly reduce energy demand and advocates for a systematic approach to create energy-efficient and thermally comfortable urban spaces, positioning urban morphology analysis as a crucial, initial, and reliable step in assessing urban energy performance.