Quadrangle Courtyard Green Simulation Approach to Renovation of Residential Buildings in China

Development of technology and the rapid increase in population has led to tremendous growth in the population of China. Beijing the capital city has become significantly overcrowded due to a high number of residents.The traditional courtyard houses have been drastically transformed and lost their cultural values over time. The quadrangle courtyard reflects the work and art of conventional Chinese residences. An average Beijing quadrangle courtyard building reflects both utility and aesthetics in its design and development. Quadrangle courtyard is designed to have a family-centered pattern with neighbors of the trunk and the community area for social networking and finally denotes cultural profundity. The poor architectural designs and ineffective construction practices have caused many problems in the city regarding sustainability and environmental protection, which has, in turn, increased the concerns of people towards building the traditional houses to ensure better living standards and greater sustainability. This study aims to conduct an evaluation of applications of green construction practices of the traditional courtyard houses on the renovation and reconstruction of contemporary residential buildings in Beijing.

The study utilizes quantitative approaches for collection and subsequent evaluation of data regarding the subject matter of the research. With respect to the literature review, thesis has performed a review of different literature including journal articles, books, newspapers, and other publications, while for collection of primary data has used with computer-assisted architectural simulation models, which is then analyzed through data triangulation technique. Further, a base model and reference models are generated for computer simulation usingPhoniecs and Green Simulation Studio software's, for the analysis and to analyse the influence of internal courtyard and courtyard for wind flow. The model that exhibits the best width to length ratio and natural room environment is chosen for evaluation.The study was conducted in the residential areas of Dashilar Hutong, Jingyang, Deyang,Dongcheng District, Yue Hutong, Changchun Street Hutong Area, and Yongning District. The study is limited to the given areas only, and no evaluation is performed on other areas of the city and buildings that are not recently renovated or reconstructed. The study also provides recommendations to the architect firms and regulatory authorities regarding applications of green construction practices of the traditional courtyard houses on the renovation and reconstruction of contemporary residential buildings in Beijing. In the assessment, the spatial design of courtyards is balanced; the aspect ratio is planned to crate natural buffer space is created.

Further, to examine the performance of the courtyard design the study applied the Computational Fluid Dynamics (C.F.D.) programming, Parabolic Hyperbolic, or Elliptic Numerical Integration Code Series (PHOENICS), for wind condition simulation. Later with the help of the Green build studio of Autodesk, the study had undergone Green Simulation. The Quadrangle courtyard building performance is analyzed by Green BuildingStudio to generate outputs like heating and cooling loads, and monthly electricity and fuel consumption, and their life cycle cost. Results show for a courtyard with a decent combination of courtyard layout and aspect ratiois chosen. Finally, the study suggests the best suited planning strategy for the new proposals and design implications for a new courtyard from the angle of green building construction.