Considerations of Sustainable High-rise Building Design in Different Climate Zones of China

Buildings, energy and the environment are key issues that the building professions and energy policy makers have to address, especially in the context of sustainable development. With more tall buildings constructed in China, the impact on energy consumption and carbon emission would be great from buildings (2% increase of carbon dioxide annually between 1971 and 2004). The imperative was to investigate the building energy performance of high-rise in different climate zones and identify the key design parameters that impose significantly influence on energy performance in sustainable building design. Design implications on glazing performance, sizing of the ventilation fans, renewable energy application on high-rise building design are addressed. Combination of effective sustainable building design strategies (e.g., building envelope improvement, daylight harvesting, advanced lighting design, displacement ventilation, chilled ceiling etc.) could contribute more than 25% of the total building energy consumption compared to the international building energy code.