An assessment model addressed to early phases of architectural design process prioritised by energy performance

It is widely accepted that decisions taken during the early phases of building design can have a large role in ensuring the performance of the end product. Thus, building performance simulation outcomes are important towards expanding the capabilities of the design team to make well-informed choices at the beginning of the design process. As an indirect way of using performance simulations within design process, a new methodology has been explored by help of sensitivity analysis. Sensitivity analysis is considered an effective instrument to evaluate the impact of design parameters on building performance and to identify which parameters are the most effective ones.The aim of this thesis is to examine the sensitivity of energy performance of school building schemes which are still at an early stage of the building design process. In order to reveal the sensitivity difference towards climatic conditions, the analysis has been performed for four degree day regions of Turkiye.The ESP-r building performance simulation program has been used to generate data for the study. A representative classroom block has been modeled and the input parameters are determined. The analysis has been carried out from point of view of annual heating energy consumption and annual cooling energy consumption.The consequence of the thesis includes attempt to develop a new, more thermally robust school outline design concept called Modulsco that is significantly more robust than the current general scheme. In order to test Modulsco, three pre-design alternatives applied to different climatic regions of Turkiye to allow validation of the outcomes proposed in this study. The methodology is established as a general framework of developing design guideline for Turkish building designers who intend to design with climate.