An Adaptive Facade Configuration for Daylighting Toward Energy-Efficient: Case Study on High-Rise Office Building in HCMC

Natural daylight within buildings is one of the solutions to effectively reduce energy consumption in high-rise office buildings (HOB). The management of natural lighting depends largely on the characteristics of the building envelope (BE) in the building, especially the facade system. Adaptive facade (AF) is one of the solutions in the BE system of the building that helps to solve numerous problems in energy-efficiency and in particular, the balance of natural lighting. In this research, it is proposed that a kinematic AF system integrated onto the single-layer glass facade structure be implemented in HOBs in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), through the study of the typical case being the LIM Tower office building located in central HCMC. The kinetic AF system is integrated in order to improve the quality of natural lighting through 3 statistics: Annual Sunlight Exposure (ASE), spatial Daylight Autonomy (sDA), and Daylight Factor (DF). Results from simulations utilizing Rhinoceros-Grasshopper software (Computer-Aid Design) and Climate Studio plugin show that the AF phenotypes significantly reduce the luminance in the room—a reduction of appropriately 50% compared to the case without AF. In cases of the proposed AF phenotypes, the ASE index decreased below 10% compared to natural daylight conditions and achieved 3 points according to LEED V4.1. During the daily opening and closing cycle of the AF, the ASE and sDA indices don’t observe many sudden fluctuations and remained stable within the allowed lighting range.