Investigation on Adaptive Building Shape Design Indicator Based on the Interaction of Building, Climate and Energy

The building shape coefficient is an important metric in building design and energy analysis for describing the geometric compactness of a building. However, the conventional shape coefficient neglects the beneficial contribution of transparent building envelopes in utilizing solar radiation. To address this limitation, this study proposes a novel indicator, the building shape energy-saving coefficient (E), which accounts for the thermal performance differences between transparent and non-transparent building envelopes. A key intermediate parameter in the development of this indicator is the transparent envelope equivalent coefficient (Ci). Numerical simulation results indicate that climate conditions and building orientation are the primary factors influencing Ci. Based on these results, reference Ci values for different orientations of linear buildings in typical cities are provided. Subsequently, the corresponding E values are calculated, and the correlations between E, the traditional shape coefficient, and building air conditioning energy consumption are systematically compared. The results show that the coefficient of determination between E and air conditioning energy consumption exceeds 0.80, significantly higher than that between the traditional shape coefficient and energy consumption, demonstrating the improved predictive capability of the proposed indicator.