Optimizing Urban Texture and Building Typology for the Goal of Achieving Near-Zero Mid-Rise Residential Building

Abstract

Turkey is experiencing a massive urban renewal process to increase earthquake resistance ofbuilding mass. As a participant of Paris Agreement, Turkey also uses this process as a tool toimprove energy saving performance of building mass with mandatory insulation requirements.Envelope retrofits achieves energy savings; however, this massive urban renewal process offersa greater potential since it allows a chance to optimize urban scale variables such as urban textureand building type, as well. This paper focuses on investigating the influence of building typologyand urban texture on building energy performance. For this purpose, four different texture andsix different building type alternatives are defined in Istanbul. Energy performance simulationanalysis of 24 total alternatives are done with Existing envelope, TS-825 envelope, and proposedNear-Zero envelopes. Results of 72 simulations show that both building type and urban texturehave important influence on building energy consumption and production performances for threeenvelope alternatives. Selection of optimized building type and urban texture alternatives withN-zero envelope maximizes building energy performance and achieve near-zero buildingrequirements. Another important result of the study was urban scale decisions reduces energyconsumption very significantly even before applying building design strategies. This is a veryimportant input for decision-makers because energy performance of a regular building can beimproved with retrofits in any time during lifetime. However, these retrofits may not be enoughto achieve full potential (net-zero in future time) of the building when urban texture and buildingtype is not optimized accurately.