Building

Form as an
option for
enhancing
the indoor
thermal
conditions
Luis Eduardo Martnez Lpez
Maximiliano Flores
Vicente Castillo
Martin Valencia Gonzlez

Introduction
The necessity to find new methods that stimulate a more sustainable design in line with less
consumption of energy

The form and structure building structure and dimensional characteristics explain why it
has been built like that.

Objective and method

1. Relation between surfaces and volume.

2. Relation between roof and Walls.
3. Relation between the wall areas and the relation between the South oriented surfaces to
west oriented surfaces.
4. Thermal response of the Building Envelope as a function of its Geometrical Shape.
Relationship between the building envelope shape and the surrounding environment.

Depending on the design strategy adapted for

controlling the environment, the form is defined as
an optimal for a given climate assumed to be
different from one case to another.

Different shapes with the same

enclosed area.

Variety of climate: winds,

humidity, rainfall, high rate
of change n the
temperature

Structures with a
specific
configuration.

Heat retain capacity depending on the

shape of the building.
Hours that a building its cooled down according to its
shape.

203 hours/year

356 hours/year

Shape factor
The optimal building will be the one who have the
minimal surface of losses keeping the same volume
storage of heat.
Cold weather between 0.5-0.8
Warm weather, over 1.2

SF=Surface/Volume

The larger SF ratio, the better

Thermal response particularly
During summer period.

The building orientation

determines the amount of
radiation
it
receives.
In most equatorial and tropical
locations, but especially near the Equator.
The horizontal surface receives the
greatest intensity.
At the higher latitude, the wall facing the
Equator receives the next highest intensity
in winter (when the Sun is low) but it
receives very little in summer.
In the equatorial location, north and
south walls receive the least intensity and
that only for short periods of the year.
East and west facing walls receive the
second highest intensities in the
equatorial location and consistently large
intensities even at the higher latitude.

Thermal response of the

Building Envelope as a function
of its Geometrical Shape.
The sun constitutes the most important
parameter affecting the indoor climate,
the selection of a building form with
suitable shape would affect remarkably
the indoors thermal conditions.
The roof is the building most important
component where it constitutes the major
source for the thermal stress both under
the cold and overheated period. The form
that has the least size of the roof area of
the same total space area is the most
recommended for all the conditions.
The form with a rectangular shape
elongated on the east-west axis functions
more effectively than the square one.

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