Abstract

Over 70% of energy in China is consumed by industrial buildings and related support activities. In order to reduce production costs, owners of factories tend to pay little attention to protecting the environment or workers’ health, causing many serious consequences. Poorly designed buildings require more energy to operate and are less energy efficient to maintain. A lack of natural lighting results in more energy consumption for interior illumination, and improper fenestration design requires more energy to keep buildings cool. An uncomfortable working environment will affect the working efficiency and physical health of the labor force. In this thesis, two simple, passive strategies—daylighting and passive cooling for factory buildings—are studied and tested separately, aiming to reduce energy consumption and improve the working environment. The study location selected is in the Shanghai suburban area. The object of the study is a typical, old manufacturing plant that is still in use, which represents the majority of industrial buildings in China. Instead of rebuilding the entire industrial building construction, renovating existing industrial buildings, by applying a passive strategy, has huge potential to save energy and improve the working environment. Whether and how much these passive strategies can reduce energy consumption of existing industrial buildings and improve the working environment will be explored by comparing existing data analysis to a renovated building data analysis.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Industrial buildings--Energy conservation--China; Sustainable architecture--China; Work environment--China--Design

Publication Date

12-2018

Document Type

Thesis

Student Type

Graduate

Degree Name

Architecture (M.Arch.)

Department, Program, or Center

Architecture (GIS)

Advisor

Julius J. Chiavaroli

Advisor/Committee Member

Nana-Yaw Andoh

Advisor/Committee Member

Gabrielle Gaustad

Campus

RIT – Main Campus

Plan Codes

ARCH-MARCH

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