I think what are you referring to is the passive design for building. In fact, passive cooling strategy is a key element of sustainable building. Its optimum performance and potential benefit can be achieved with careful and meticulous design.

A good design is a necessity to achieve energy efficiency for housing. However, adopting passive design strategy alone is not a one-fit-all solution, as there are still many stages needed to be considered, especially during the construction and operation & maintenance of the housing. What is more important in the context of hosing sustainability is how the housing construction costs and life-cycle costs are to be reduced. In other words, it is important to figure out how to keep house price affordable while maintaining its liveability.   

A good design can be the critical difference between an affordable development that succeeds – one that satisfies its residents and neighbours, enhances the community where it is built, and continues as a stable part of the community for decades – and one that does not.

Given that each dwelling unit is a primary structure which would contribute to the quality of life, and the root causes leading to housing quality problem are identified as issues related to housing layout and design, surrounding environment, maintenance, location, amenities, and building material, house builders should be aware of the potential for a good design in responding to the evolving social behaviour, and strike to take advantage of technology in the housing production process through integrating housing design with industrial construction system. In other words, each dwelling unit should be designed, in such a way that it is economically and easily adjustable, while adheres to the context of contemporary technology, tropical adaptation, and cultural responses

As such, I strongly believe that spatial structure and its physical characteristics are  interrelated to housing energy efficiency. You are welcomed to find out more on this topic from one of my articles - Design Revolution For Affordable Housing In Tropical Country - which is available in my Research Gate publication. Thanks.

You can experiment with tools that analyse energy within different spatial configurations and see what comes out.  Take a look at the following open-source tools:

https://www.wbdg.org/resources/energyanalysis.php

http://energy.gov/eere/buildings/downloads/building-energy-management-open-source-software-development-bemoss

https://www.openstudio.net/

... ran into quite a list of options.  Sadly I couldn't find the one popular app that did it -- ecotech (was bought by Autodesk)

Happy hunting

I think what are you referring to is the passive design for building. In fact, passive cooling strategy is a key element of sustainable building. Its optimum performance and potential benefit can be achieved with careful and meticulous design.

A good design is a necessity to achieve energy efficiency for housing. However, adopting passive design strategy alone is not a one-fit-all solution, as there are still many stages needed to be considered, especially during the construction and operation & maintenance of the housing. What is more important in the context of hosing sustainability is how the housing construction costs and life-cycle costs are to be reduced. In other words, it is important to figure out how to keep house price affordable while maintaining its liveability.   

A good design can be the critical difference between an affordable development that succeeds – one that satisfies its residents and neighbours, enhances the community where it is built, and continues as a stable part of the community for decades – and one that does not.

Given that each dwelling unit is a primary structure which would contribute to the quality of life, and the root causes leading to housing quality problem are identified as issues related to housing layout and design, surrounding environment, maintenance, location, amenities, and building material, house builders should be aware of the potential for a good design in responding to the evolving social behaviour, and strike to take advantage of technology in the housing production process through integrating housing design with industrial construction system. In other words, each dwelling unit should be designed, in such a way that it is economically and easily adjustable, while adheres to the context of contemporary technology, tropical adaptation, and cultural responses

As such, I strongly believe that spatial structure and its physical characteristics are  interrelated to housing energy efficiency. You are welcomed to find out more on this topic from one of my articles - Design Revolution For Affordable Housing In Tropical Country - which is available in my Research Gate publication. Thanks.

May I simplify your question thus to be able to provide a precise answer, "What is the effect of space allocation efficiency on the energy consumption of a house?" A one-word answer is, "Tremendous!" We should design and build no more than the required spaces. Anymore than the necessary spaces increases our heating and cooling costs, in addition to expenditures on more materials and resources with embodied energy implications. I have published a bit on this topic in the early 2000s, and currently, SpaceDEC (Space Design Efficiency Computing) has been developed as a software to analyze and rate designed and built structures for spatial efficiency. Be on the look out for when SpaceDEC V2 is released. SpaceDEC V1 is an add-in working with Revit.

In replies most of the aspects are covered. You must be knowing that buildings are the mix of socio-economic status, affordability, cultural and social requirement and sense of safety and security. Recent energy and environmental crises has added another dimension of energy and environmental sustainability to it with high emphasis. These factors were there earlier too but not on forefront. One issue the owner and user awareness and sensitivity towards energy and environmental issues plays crucial role in sustainability of the building during its lifetime.

Yes spatial structure has its effect on energy consumption of the house. But one must know the operation and functionality of building. If building is naturally ventilated then then spread gives adequate cross ventilation, thermal inertia and spaces that can be used as buffer so that can be used at different time of the year to optimize the comfort.

But if you wish to alter the use of same house and try to condition it then lot of energy will be consumed.

So before giving spatial spread to the building one must know the functionality and operation of building. Accordingly different passive techniques can used to minimize energy use.

So I wish to say that without knowing the functionality and operation of building it will be very difficult to answer your question in true sense.

Regards,

Manoj

Dear Javad,

It is not a secret, that spatial form of building change the priority in energy consumption. If we talk about residential buildings, in small buildings, heat loses through envelope and ventilation can be very similar (gravity vent.) or ventilation are even smaller (mechanical with recuperator), while in tall buildings the loses through ventilation (no matter what type of) will be higher. 

Nowadays where knowledge of building materials and performance of building envelope is realy high, it is easier to design more energy efficient buildings whenever they are small or tall.

If we talk about nonresidential buildings it depends each time of the utility of buildings and their localisation and to tell the truth, the most energy efficient are these buildings which have all the internal utility area fully used.

Greetings,

Piotr

Hi Piotr

Thanks a lot for your answer. I am wondering if you can address me any studies, looking at the influence the spatial structure, e.g. height, size, proportion, density, number of floor, and number of rooms on efficiency and energy performance of the buildings. 

Regards

Dear Javad,

How about Zero Emission Buildings - Norwegian project at NTNU and Sintef in Trondheim. http://www.zeb.no/

I hope you will find some information there.

Greeting,

Piotr