Page 118 - JCAU-6-3

Journal of Chinese
Architecture and Urbanism Sustainability of courtyard building

modern HVAC systems for heating and cooling. However, The next aspect is noise. Modern building materials
wood has hygroscopic properties that reduce humidity, such as concrete, steel, and glass increase sound
which may aid in indoor heat and humidity regulation propagation and reverberation time (Smardzewski et al.,
(Pelliccia et al., 2020). Moreover, wood has low thermal 2015), while porous materials such as wooden boards can
conductivity, between 0.1 and 0.2 W/m·K, effectively absorb noise (Amran et al., 2021). However, due to the
reducing heat conduction (Cho et al., 2019). Furthermore, material characteristics of wood, “creaking” sounds can
in consideration of psychological adaptive thermal occur (Bolmsvik, 2006). Therefore, during the construction
comfort, research suggests that occupants of timber-framed process of timber buildings, the connections of the wood
buildings feel more comfortable than those in houses with can be filled with sound insulation material to block the
exposed brick walls (Prianto & Setyowati, 2015). transmission of noise (Li, 2017).
The courtyard could enhance indoor thermal
comfort through stack ventilation. As shown in Figure 6, 5.3. Energy
the upper opening of the courtyard is exposed to high Energy consumption was analyzed using Sefaira. As shown
temperatures from direct sunlight, while the bottom of in Table 4, the total cooling load is 37,696 W, and the total
the courtyard receives less heat. Consequently, the air at
the top of the courtyard heats up, decreases in density,
and moves upward, forming a negative pressure zone
at the bottom. The air at the bottom rises due to this
pressure difference, allowing the low-temperature air
in the surrounding houses to flow into the courtyard
and replace the air at the bottom. This process enables
natural ventilation and reduces relative humidity. This
stack effect becomes more significant, with decreased
cloud cover and increased solar radiation (Li, 2014).
In summer, the temperature inside this particular
courtyard is nearly 10°C lower than in outdoor areas
exposed to direct sunlight (Yang et al., 2015).
Natural lighting was modeled using Sketch Up and
then simulated using Sefaira (Figures 7 and 8). The results
show that 51% of the area is over-lit, 31% is well-lit, and
18% is under-lit. Considering there is no artificial lighting
system, and all lighting relies on daylight, over-lighting Figure 7. The illuminance of the ground floor daylighting was 28
is acceptable. Moreover, the visible light transmittance is footcandles (approximately 300 lux). Source: Drawing by Chuan He
a fixed parameter, while the carved timber shutters can
be selectively opened or closed (Figure 9), so the actual
over-lit area is <51%. In addition, the courtyard geometry
ensures that the building still has about 20% shaded area in
August, the hottest month of the year, from 11:00 to 12:00,
when the sun’s incident angle is the highest (Figure 10).

Figure 8. The illuminance of the first floor daylighting 28 footcandles
Figure 6. Courtyard chimney effect. Source: Drawing by Chuan He (approximately 300 lux). Source: Drawing by Chuan He

Volume 6 Issue 3 (2024) 10 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.3187