Investigating atrium in hot and humid climate and providing strategies for improving its quality in administrative use (case study: Bank of Shanghai, China)

Abstract

The energy crisis at present time has made the importance of paying attention to sustainable architecture and reduction of renewable energy consumption inevitable. Given that architecture plays an important role in urban construction, it has a heavy responsibility because more than 50% of the world's energy is devoted to this area. Therefore, paying attention to reducing energy consumption and promoting saving technologies to reduce environmental pollution should be placed on the agenda of designers. The present study aims to investigate performance of atrium as an example of sustainable architecture in hot and humid climate and to identify strategies to improve its performance in the mentioned climate. Atrium has thermal comfort space since the old time by two methods of greenhouse effect and chimney effect. Now these questions are raised: What impact does atrium have in terms of performance in reducing energy consumption in buildings and how is the performance of atrium in the hot and humid climate, and how it can be improved? The presented research investigates atrium and its role in reducing energy consumption by benefiting library studies and analytical method. Research findings indicate that performance of lateral atrium in humid and moderate climates is better than upper side atrium and its performance can be improved using delay spray and shadow system methods.

Keywords: Sustainable architecture, Atrium, hot and humid climate, administrative use.