ZEMCH 2015 - International Conference Proceedings | Page 742
1. Introduction
The building industry has increasingly been recognized as a key player in our globalizing world;
it has become dominant in the current world economy, climate and global trends. For example;
40% of raw materials (by weight) are used in building construction globally yearly (Yeang 1999),
whilst around 30-40% of a nation’s energy input is used in buildings (UNEP SBCI 2009). Furthermore, construction work produced around 20-26% of landfill waste fifteen years ago (Yeang 1999)
and this in addition to carbon emissions have been increasing at an annual rate of 2% between
1971 and 2004 (Levine M. et al. 2007) cited in (Sev & Aslan 2014). This is particularly significant in
the developing countries in which the building industry plays a very important contributor to the
overall ecological footprint (Al-Masri & Abu-Hijleh 2012). One reason is probably related to the
increasing demand in buildings due to the continuous growth of urban population. However, one
of the growing trends in architecture to reduce the negative impacts of building construction and
cope with the increase demand for new buildings is the high-rise buildings, in which developers
increase the envelop height to satisfy the need for dense developments. Such structures can support residences, offices, and mixed-use functions (Hudgins 2009). This type of building could create a built environment that would be considered as sustainable, green, ecological, or bioclimatic
(Sev & Aslan 2014; Oldfield et al. 2009; Yeang 1999). Therefore, one of the important objectives for
developers and designers regarding high-rise buildings is how to conserve resources and control
costs in construction and ongoing building operations; including its scale and volume of consumption of energy and materials (Lotfabadi 2014; Pomeroy 2014; Thomas 2012; Ali & Armstrong
2008; Yeang 1999). Thus, the ecological design of high-rise buildings is crucial and much more
effective in those aspects than a green small building (Yeang 1999).
The old typology of houses represents a good response to the climate, culture and society. It
tackled the problems of daylight; solar rights; and energy saving issues by following an adaptive
design approach connected to the local environment. One of these approaches was the integration of the “courtyard” element (Edwards et al. 2005). Courtyard buildings are one of the oldest
forms of sustainable design approach. Aldawoud and Clark (2008) acknowledged that courtyard
building form is found to be energy efficient in all climates, specifically in the hot arid and hot humid climates (Aldawoud & Clark 2008; Aldawoud 2008). They suggested integrating the courtyard
into different buildings heights to be more energy efficient (Al-Masri & Abu-Hijleh 2012).
According to developers of high-rise buildings, the skycourt is considered a trusted element that
supports sustainability. There are various configurations of the skycourt according to the function of the building related to different climates. For example, skycourts can provide energy efficiency by acting as passive cooling elements that encourage stack effect and cross ventilation,
thus reducing cooling loads. In addition, it can offer a multiplicity of functions; it is conceived as
an area of public realm that acts as a transitional and recreational node (Pomeroy 2009).
So far, there are limited studies undertaken to frame new approaches for passive design strategies
in high-rise buildings based on the principles of the traditional/vernacular architecture in arid climates; although this can ensure the optimum performance of daylight, heating and cooling. In
addition, there are minor studies considering the effects of integrating and evaluating the various
forms of skycourts in high-rise buildings. Furthermore, there is a lack of specific guidelines for
the design of skycourts to achieve the comfort atmosphere in specific climates; as the available
information is general. (Ghazali et al. 2014; Modi 2014; Scheeren 2014; Lubin 2012; Goettsch 2012;
Pomeroy 2011; Pomeroy 2008). This paper investigates the potentials of the skycourt as a passive
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ZEMCH 2015 | International Conference | Bari - Lecce, Italy