The objective of this research is to investigate the influence of urban planning patterns on building energy consumption in different climate... Show moreThe objective of this research is to investigate the influence of urban planning patterns on building energy consumption in different climate zones. Urban planning patterns affect the thermal performance and energy efficiency of buildings. This research focuses on the planning aspects, explores the energy consumption of a group of buildings with different planning pattern by utilizing single building as a baseline, and identifies planning patterns that can help to reduce the total heating and cooling energy consumption of the buildings. The investigations are carried out in the three largest cities in China – Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, which represent different climate zones. The results of these three cities are compared to find out the influence of local climate on building energy consumption. Different planning patterns are investigated in this research through changing building parameters: aspect ratio, orientation and layout. It is found that these parameters have important influence on reducing building’s energy consumption. It is also found that in different climate conditions, the influence of planning patterns on building’s energy consumption is different, which suggests that the selection of planning pattern will be different for each location. This research makes a significant contribution to the reduction of building energy consumption from urban planning perspective. In addition, two case studies of carefully selected residential communities with fixed site and fixed density are evaluated, and some suggestions for improvement are proposed as a result of the study. Such suggestions can help to propose a prototype model guiding the future architectural and urban planning work. PH.D in Architecture, July 2013 Show less
