Passive and Biophilic Design: Assessment of the Semi-Open Educational Atrium Buildings in the Tropics

Abstract

The contemporary semi-open educational atrium buildings in Southeast Asia are among the most provocative sustainable buildings in tropical architecture. Since the qualities of natural environments inside atriums promote well-being and academic performance, passive and biophilic design strategies are applied to optimize the thermal and visual performances of the buildings. This research aims to assess four selected case studies in Bangkok in order to discover how the atrium elements affect the qualities of the inside natural environmental conditions, and recommend guidelines for semi-open atrium design. The most important natural environment indices are air temperature, radiation, humidity, airspeed, daylight, green area, view in and view out. The research methodology is as follows: Firstly, assess the natural environmental conditions of the case study atriums on-site during summer. Secondly, analyze the thermal and visual performances of the semi-open atriums. Then, find the linkages between the atrium element designs and the qualities of natural environmental conditions. Lastly, recommend passive and biophilic design guidelines for semi-open atriums. The on-site assessment results indicate that all case study atriums perform well above average, although each case study uncovered both pros and cons. The research results showed that: 1) The amount of heat gain and daylight factor depend mostly on the percentage of roof opening (skylight) and the sizes and proportions of the atriums. 2) Relative humidity inside the buildings is reduced by natural ventilation during the daytime. 3) The most effective air velocity is from cross ventilation. 4) Quality of views depends on the openness of the atrium on the ground floor. 5) Biophilic quality depends mainly on the amount of indoor green area. At the end of the research, design recommendations for semi-open educational atrium buildings in the tropics are provided.