The Impact of Tall Building Structure on Energy Performance: A Review and Research Agenda

The building industry is responsible for roughly a third of global energy demand as well as anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions (Lucon and Urge-Vorsatz, 2014). Considering this relatively large impact, it is necessary to ensure that buildings are designed, constructed, and operated in a sustainable manner. At the same time, more than 50% of the global population lives in cities (United Nations, 2014), making cities the key to sustainability (Rees and Wackernagel, 1996). With the inevitable densification of building stock, tall buildings are becoming increasingly important in the future.

To achieve optimal energy performance, the focus has mostly been on developing more efficient building systems, such as HVAC, lighting, and shading. However, the impact of a tall building's structure on overall energy performance has not received significant attention in the scientific literature.

In his groundbreaking work, Yeang (1999) was the first to investigate the interaction between the placement of the structural core and energy performance in tall buildings. He considered four types of core placement (central, edge, half sides, and sides), as well as four types of floor plan shapes and the orientation of the floor plan itself. He compared the energy performance of the possible combinations in different climate zones (cool, temperate, arid, and tropical) and determined the optimal building configuration for each. However, he did not perform a structural analysis and neglected the impact of core or wall placement and floor plan variations.