Improving Thermal Performance Of Commercial Buildings In Nairobi Cbd
Abstract
Retrofitting of existing buildings offers significant opportunities for reducing energy
consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. This is being considered as one of main
approaches to achieving sustainability in the built environment at relatively low cost
and high uptake rates. Although there are a wide range of retrofit technologies readily
available, methods to identify the most cost-effective retrofit measures for particular
projects is still a major technical challenge.
Opposite the University of Nairobi, there is a cluster of glass skyscrapers namely:
Anniversary Towers, Kemu Towers, Ambank House and View Park Towers which
were constructed in the late 80s – early 90s and are well-known to be Nairobi’s first
glass skyscrapers. The author used View Park Towers as the primary case study of this
thesis which was built in 1989 by Harbans Singh Associates. View Park Towers being
heavily criticized in Nairobi by various scholars and architects posed a challenge to
explore ways to improve thermal performance consequently making it energy efficient.
A dynamic simulation of the building is carried out to predict the post-retrofit energy
performance upgrading. By analyzing four parameters namely - window to wall ratio,
sun shading, glazing and wall thickness - and explore them scientifically by mainly
using Morris Method for global sensitivity analysis to determine which of the
parameters is the most important to be retrofitted to improve the thermal performance
of View Park Towers. Retrofitting for environmental suitability is the process of
intervening in a building’s envelope that is not constructive to its climate and
transforming it to a sustainable and environmentally friendly building appropriate for
its climate.
Retrofitting for Environmental Suitability: Improving Thermal Performance of Commercial Buildings in Nairobi CBD
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From the findings, out of the four parameters investigated, the glazing used for the
building’s façade was the most important factor needed to be retrofitted to improve the
thermal performance of View Park Towers. The least important factor was the sun
shading devices. It showed that, even if external shading devices were added to the
building's envelope, the thermal performance would not improve. Nevertheless, all the
strategies should be employed to attain the best improvement of thermal performance.
To conclude, this thesis presents a step by step process of how Architects, developers
and to some extent the clients/ users of buildings, can scientifically study any
commercial building within Nairobi’s Central Business District with similar design
challenges as View Park Towers that make them unsuitable for the climate of Nairobi.
Suggestions on future work is laid out and should be considered as sustainability and
efficiency of buildings represents a crucial issue since the building sector is currently
responsible for more than 40% of energy consumption and emissions.
Publisher
University of Nairobi
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesUsage Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/Collections
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