Effect of Orientation and Building Geometry on Thermal Comfort and Energy Efficiency of Planned Residential Buildings of Tropical City Dhaka

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6463-672-7_9How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Orientation; Building geometry; Thermal comfort; Energy efficiency; Residential building

Abstract

In tropics, a significant amount of energy is used for ensuring thermal comfort in buildings. The geometry of a building is a major factor in the early design stage, affecting not only the thermal comfort of occupants but also energy consumption and construction costs. The majority of studies on thermal comfort and energy efficiency in residential buildings focus primarily on the design of the building envelope and fenestration. Studies related to building geometry are focused on either thermal comfort or energy efficiency. This research aims to examine the effect of orientation and building geometry on indoor thermal comfort and energy efficiency of planned residential buildings of tropical city Dhaka. The performance of seven different building geometries (Existing shape, Rectangular shape, L, U, T, H, and O shapes) for four orientations was evaluated. Thermal comfort and energy efficiency of the studied options were calculated using Mean Radiant Temperature (T_mrt) and Energy Use Intensity (EUI) respectively. Thermal comfort and energy simulations were carried out using Rhinoceros, Grasshopper and ClimateStudio. The results indicate that L-shape building form provides higher thermal comfort and lower energy consumption in all four orientations. Highest thermal comfort and lowest energy consumption was observed in north facing L-shape and east facing T-shape buildings respectively. It is also found that T_mrt and EUI can be reduced up to 11% and 8% respectively by combining appropriate building geometry and orientation. The findings of this study can assist architects in making design choices during the initial phase of residential building projects.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Fariha Seraj
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/04/04
TI  - Effect of Orientation and Building Geometry on Thermal Comfort and Energy Efficiency of Planned Residential Buildings of Tropical City Dhaka
BT  - Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Recent Innovation in Civil Engineering and Architecture for Sustainable Development (IICASD-2024)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 92
EP  - 103
SN  - 2352-5401
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-672-7_9
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-672-7_9
ID  - Seraj2025
ER  -