Courtyard housing in midrise buildings: An environmental assessment in hot-arid climate

This study is an evaluation of the environmental impacts of courtyard integration in midrise housing in the hot-arid climate of Dubai, The United Arab Emirates. Computer simulation is utilized to determine the overall energy consumption, energy savings potential and available daylight levels. The study is carried out in three steps. First, a comparison between conventional and courtyard buildings is conducted. Second, the effects of number of floors, type of glazing, wall thickness and insulation type & thickness on the performance of a courtyard type building are simulated. Lastly, an optimized courtyard model encompassing the best of each of the parameters studied in the second step is generated and tested. Converting a six-floor building from the conventional form to a courtyard form, keeping all building materials and parameters the same, resulted in a 6.9% reduction in the year-round total energy consumption. The optimized courtyard model, including variations on building materials, resulted in 11.16% reduction in the overall year-round energy consumption when compared to the reference conventional form building. Comparison between the daylight performance of the two forms showed that the courtyard form was better than the conventional form during both winter and summer test days with daylight factor values close to those recommended by the USGBC, which means that the courtyard form provides more usable daylight without excessive glare.