Analysis on Green BIM based Atrium Sizes in the Early Design Stage

This study for establishing specific standards of atrium design aims to discuss design of atrium to consider energy performance according to the types of atrium of office building. In order to evaluate a type and a scale of atrium at the early design stage, modeling details of mass design were set as standards of conceptual design. In the experiment, Project Vasari was used to analyze modeling and energy consumption, based on the LOD 100-step suggested by AIA, because there is no guideline to specify a level of modeling details at each design process. From this analysis, the correlation among a simple-typed atrium and scale and energy load was understood, and the followings are the considerations for designing an atrium. First, the single-sided atrium reduced energy the most, and it was followed by three-sided, two-sided, four-sided and continuous-typed ones. On the whole, they could decrease energy by up to about 15%. Also, the atrium with a wide facade facing in the south was more favorable to reduce energy. Second, planning an atria within 10~30% of the whole building area was more energy efficient. Third, rather than the depth, adjusting the length in designing an atrium could reduce cooling and heating loads by 1.5% per 1m. As explained above, energy performance evaluation considering types and planning elements of atrium helps to assess alternatives in a reasonable way. In particular, considering the use of building needs to be preceded to select a type of atrium, although it is also important to consider its planning elements.