Performance Evaluation of Three Different Façade Models for Sustainable Office Buildings

Sustainable development issues are currently the driving forces of many building projects. The building façade is critical for the architectural expression and has a large affect upon large parts of the building's environmental performance. This study investigates the advantages of using multidimensional computer aided modeling and simulation to produce a sustainable façade design. A first step towards green building design is to establish a list of parameters which can then be used as design criteria, e.g. environmental performance, thermal visual and acoustic comfort, etc. Computer simulation and an analysis of recent projects in Hong Kong can help to determine the performance according to these design parameters whilst environmental impacts due to energy consumption are considered to be an important design parameter, it is also important for comfort criteria to be considered.