Abstract:
With the onset of globalisation, corporate architecture in India has become the symbolic icon of the country to promote sales and products to attract global buyers across the market. The need to catch up with the western architecture has transformed the skylines of major Indian cities into tall, glossy skyscrapers. Current architectural practices has given rise to concerns regarding energy use and hence severely challenged the society to achieve a sustainable environment for the future. As the commercial output in India continues to expand owing to the growing economy, it results in higher energy consumption. Compared to many other building types, offices are by far one of the largest consumers of energy in the Indian commercial sector. Especially the generation of offices built in the 1970s and 1980s which occupy large areas in the metropolitans and are more prone to energy consumption. This is due to the lack of advancements in construction techniques, leading to extensive use of HVAC and lighting. The consumption of energy in existing offices in India is a matter of concern and need an urgent consideration. This thesis focuses on retrofitting solutions for existing office buildings in India. Buildings that Retrof i t t ing bui lding envelopes: INDIA 3 could be considered for a retrofit are those performing badly in terms of energy consumption indoor comfort or environmental impact. The retrofitting methods discussed help in optimising daylighting in deep core offices while providing suitable solar shading from incident insolation, which helps cutting down cooling loads and lower the electricity costs in existing offices in India. The discussion on retrofitting systems is supported by analyzing two case studies in India. The offices considered as case studies are located in the two different cities of India, namely Mumbai and Hyderabad. Suitable retrofit solutions are advised based on the simulated performance of the two office buildings. Similarly depending on these results, other energy consuming offices in India could be successfully retrofitted. This thesis offers solutions which are suitable for the Indian climate and also cost-effective. Therefore if these strategies are been modelled into existing offices, the significant amount of energy could be saved contributing towards a green future of office buildings in India. Retrofitting solutions could be the answer in helping reduce the amount of energy consumed by the existing office buildings. The potential of these systems has been discussed in this thesis.