Investigating spatial configurations of skycourts as buffer zones in high-rise office buildings

Skycourts are attracting widespread interest in the contemporary construction of high-rise commercial buildings. Due to their remarkable function as public realms and transitional nodes, those spaces could introduce alternatives to the vernacular courtyards/atriums in high-rise buildings. This paper outlines the methodology that was adopted to examine the performance of basic spatial configurations of skycourt in high-rise office buildings in a temperate climate. Significantly, these areas accomplished as buffer zones that are non-ventilated and unheated while accommodating combined ventilation strategy. The study is processed via coupled simulation between a building energy simulation (BES) and a computational fluid dynamic (CFD). The developed coupling approach aims to improve the prediction for skycourt performance that is essential for the assessment of thermal comfort conditions and energy consumption. Results to nominate the optimum spatial configuration of skycourt along the vertical section of the high-rise office buildings are discussed briefly. However, the focus is on the methodology