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In an effort to complement energy-efficiency oriented methods of environmental building study, this research seeks to understand building as a metabolic thermodynamic network, and investigates performance and sustainability with system-level principles and biological indicators. This approach introduces two system evaluation metrics: (i) solar emjoule (sej) of emergy (spelled with an “m”) and (ii) bits of information. In this way, emergy-information indicates the intensive organization of building energy flux in association with global environment development. Findings from a comparative analysis of a net-zero energy building (NZEB) and a non-NZEB show that buildings increase network complexity, resilience, and adaptability as they reduce nonrenewable inputs with energy feedback loops. The consistent tendency of maximizing information and complexity at the expense of efficiency demonstrates that building thermodynamic networking parallels the general ecosystems developmental phenomenon –maximum power at optimal efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research presents a new methodology of environmental building design with an integrated energy–e m ergy (spelled with an “ m ”) approach to study building form optimization in the schematic phases. In architecture, selection of sustainability assessment methods critically affects design goals, favoring or restricting choices designers can make. A building subsumes matter and energy to support human lives, but current building performance indicators are still hard to equate technical sides and human dominant sides of various scales in a synthetic metric. Moreover, in order to achieve global sustainability in a building, as a part of the whole built environment, it is necessary to integrate energy and environmental impacts at the highest scope of analysis. Emergy analysis coupled with building energy simulation can be suggested as a holistic indicator for architectural design process. To test the proposed method, a pilot study with a mid-size office building evaluates the consequences of early design decisions such as basic geometry, aspect ratio, window-wall ratio, construction types, etc. The integrated energy–emergy approach to building form optimization consists of three modules namely, Building Energy Simulation (BES) module, Building EMergy Analysis (BEMA) module, and (iii) MetaModel Development (MMD) module. The BES module uses the EnergyPlus tool for whole building energy analysis, while the BEMA module employs analytical methods to estimate emergy quantities, and the MMD module employs the Taguchi method to develop a metamodel for faster and easier whole building emergy simulation. The metamodel developed using Taguchi-ANOVA method for building form optimization was validated with analytical test results to accelerate environmental design decision-making. This study demonstrates possibility of wider applications of emergy synthesis to building energy research and facilitates practical use of emergy simulation in the environmental design process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The notion that raw materials for building construction are plentiful and can be extracted “at will” from Earth’s geobiosphere, and that these materials do not undergo any degradation or related deterioration in performance while in use is alarming and entirely inaccurate. For these reasons, a particular building, like an organism or an ecosystem, must seek self-sustenance for that design to prevail in competition with other building designs in a time with limited availability of energy and materials. To this extent, Net Zero Energy (NZE) buildings achieve a net annual energy balance in their operations. However, approaching an NZE building goal based on current definitions is flawed for two principal reasons (1) NZE only deals with the energy required for operations and related emissions (2) it does not establish a threshold which ensures that buildings are optimized for reduced consumption before renewable systems are integrated to obtain an energy balance. This paper develops a method to maximize renewable resource use through emergy (spelled with an “m”) analysis to close the gap between current approaches to environmental building design and the over-arching goal of creating buildings that contribute to a sustainable relationship between human activities and the geobiosphere. This paper proposes using a “Renewable Emergy Balance” (REB) in environmental building design as a tool to maximize renewable resource use through disinvestment of all non-renewable resources that may be substituted with renewable resources. REB buildings attain a high standing by optimizing building construction over their entire life-span from formation-extraction-manufacturing to maintenance and operation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper examines the urban form parameters in theories and ideas related to the urbanizing world. Adopting emergy (spelled with an "m") synthesis, we studied New York City and the Greater Philadelphia region to determine the appropriate urban form, including building height, development density, bulkiness, and transportation. The European and North American mid-rise urban block is an effective settlement type for reducing per capita emergy in construction and building operations. Buildings over 40 stories with a development density exceeding a floor area ratio of 5 tend to show higher emergy investments per person. Large and bulky buildings with low surface-area-to-volume ratios that reside on the periphery of cities consume a significant amount of energy due to conditioning building space and the increased transportation needs for commuters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]