Page 109 - JCAU-6-3

Journal of Chinese

Architecture and Urbanism

ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Performance of traditional Chinese courtyard

buildings from a sustainability perspective and
implications for contemporary green building

design

Chuan He and Paul Osmond*
School of Built Environment, Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture, The University of New South
Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Abstract

Climate change, resource depletion, and biodiversity decline have prompted the
construction industry to seek more sustainable solutions. While high-tech and often
high-cost technologies and equipment support progress toward more sustainable
built form, the sustainability performance of historical and vernacular buildings
should also be reviewed. These buildings may offer advantages that are “hidden
in plain sight.” This research focuses on the use of building information modeling
technology to model and simulate a historical Chinese courtyard building. The
outcomes of the simulation were evaluated using the green building council of
Australia’s green star rating criteria to provide quantitative results. At the same time,
*Corresponding author:
Paul Osmond relevant literature was explored to obtain a qualitative perspective. The final results
(p.osmond@unsw.edu.au) indicate that courtyard buildings can serve as useful references for contemporary
Citation: He, C. & Osmond, P. building design and retrofitting. The choice of building materials offers designers
(2024). Performance of traditional effective ideas for designing sustainable buildings. Courtyards can enhance
Chinese courtyard buildings from ventilation, cooling, humidity control, light exposure, and connectivity to outdoor
a sustainability perspective and
implications for contemporary green areas while ensuring privacy. In developing countries, this approach may be a viable
building design. Journal of Chinese way to promote sustainable development and energy conservation.
Architecture and Urbanism, 6(3),
3187.
https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.3187 Keywords: Sustainability evaluation; Courtyard building; Building information modeling
Received: March 16, 2024
Accepted: June 17, 2024
Published Online: July 12, 2024 1. Introduction
Copyright: © 2024 Author(s). 1.1. Background
This is an open-access article
distributed under the terms of the Growing evidence of environmental crises, in particular global warming, has led
Creative Commons Attribution- to a gradual increase in the demand for environmentally sustainable development,
Non-Commercial 4.0 International
(CC BY-NC 4.0), which permits all specifically the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Limiting global temperature rise
non-commercial use, distribution, to below 1.5°C, and at least below 2°C, is necessary to avoid the more severe impacts of
and reproduction in any medium, climate change. Notably, the global average temperature has already warmed more than
provided the original work is
properly cited. 1°C since pre-industrial times and is estimated to reach 1.5°C between 2030 and 2052
(IPCC, 2018). This climate emergency calls for rapid changes and transformations across
Publisher’s Note: AccScience
Publishing remains neutral with the energy, water, and waste sectors.
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional Residential buildings worldwide account for 27% of global energy consumption
affiliations. (Nejat et al., 2015). In China, energy consumption in the residential building sector

Volume 6 Issue 3 (2024) 1 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.3187