Green strategy for an international airport in Malaysia : daylight optimisation through skylights

Abstract

The thesis focuses on an integrated design process of a large building aiming for green certification. The study particularly tracks the variability of daylight and energy simulation results as green performance goals. Indexes are used in an integrated design process and undergo refinement as the scheme moves from inception to design development, construction and then commissioning. Although simulation tools can produce large sets of data-rich results in order to guide design decisions, the process of simulations must only focus on specific key parameters. It is crucial in achieving daylight performance; a specific sky condition must be selected from the onset as there is insufficient time to test all models under all sky conditions. The study also evaluates that designing for daylighting using simulations is a different process for tropical conditions due to the need for parametric optimisation to balance the positive and negative impact of daylight and heat gain reduction - and the need to focus on specific parameters such as skylight opening size. As the early design stage represents a crucial stage of making design decisions, initial predicted results must be based on various assumptions about design, spaces and interior layout of the terminal. More accurate inputs to the simulation will be known as the design progresses. In the integrated design process, the evaluation of the reliability of simulation tools which can be done by comparing simulation outcomes with field and operational data gathered from a similar size airport terminal is crucial. It is found that the important part of the simulation process during the early design stage is the reliability of the prediction tools to envisage performance under tropical condition. Once the tool is verified, it is then used to predict design options to inform design decisions and the process is documented which prioritise strategic inputs through simulation in integrated design study. The thesis demonstrates how daylight targets and optimisation methods are integrated into the design process and to the extent of achieving energy saving in the tropics. Keywords: Integrated design process, simulation, parametric optimisation, reliability test, airport building, skylight, tropics