High rise office building makeovers—Exploiting architectural and engineering factors in designing sustainable buildings in different climate zones

The high rate of urban densification has facilitated the vertical expansion of cities, with 75% of high-rise buildings designated as office buildings. To promote building energy conservation, management and sustainability, it is essential to establish during the design phase the major impactful elements on the building energy performance. Hence, this study investigates the performance-based effect of architectural and engineering elements of high-rise office buildings in different climate environments. Thereafter, the most sustainable building model was developed using the assessment results obtained from exploiting the advantages of the climate features. The results demonstrate that the building performance varies with its characteristics such as plan ratio, core position and atrium effect under different climates. While a rectangular building plan (1:1.44 plan ratio, split-core position and central atrium) presented the best performance in the warm-summer-cold-winter (WSCW) climate zone, a square building plan (with a split core and no atrium) displayed the best performance in the hot-summer-mild-winter (HSMW) climate zone. Furthermore, by exploiting the advantages of the building and climate characteristics, a mix of passive strategies was established to be suitable for attaining sustainability and comfort standards in the WSCW zone. Contrarily, active strategies are required for buildings in the HSMW zone.