Since taking hold in the mid 1960s, the modern atrium has become prevalent in many designs and buildings within contemporary architecture. The modern day atrium has endured to find its place amidst our current technologies and design aspirations by continuing to offer a capacity for assisting in urban strategies, providing strong economic returns on investment, conserving or recycling existing buildings, and for its potential to reduce energy consumption. Today, as concerns for energy and the environment rise to prominence within contemporary opinion, the reliance on more integrated conservational design strategies such as what the atrium offers in the matter of material and energy conservation is more relevant than ever. Yet simply including an atrium space within a building does not guarantee its effectiveness in realizing the potential for sustainable design. By selecting to survey a collection of recently completed academic buildings in Southern Ontario, the thesis aimed to examine what current reality exists in our use of the atrium with regards to its conservational characteristics. By examining the atrium’s ability to integrate sustainable design strategies in three areas: the adaptation into existing buildings and flexible program space; the use of effective daylighting; and the provisions to manage passive air handling; the thesis identified what conservational attributes are present and how often these functions are accomplished within the atrium designs of the selected study group of buildings. Overall it was found that the current trends of conservationism in atria of the studied academic buildings are constant, that is, they do not exhibit growth proportional to the increasing awareness of ‘green’ and sustainable thinking seen in today’s culture. Furthermore, the thesis closes with a concluding critique, providing a discussion surrounding the belief that though the atrium is a possible material and energy conservational tool, much of its success can be attributed to the meticulous planning and holistic approach involved in the execution of successfully resolved atria designs.

Since taking hold in the mid 1960s, the modern atrium has become prevalent in many designs and buildings within contemporary architecture. The modern day atrium has endured to find its place amidst our current technologies and design aspirations by continuing to offer a capacity for assisting in urban strategies, providing strong economic returns on investment, conserving or recycling existing buildings, and for its potential to reduce energy consumption. Today, as concerns for energy and the environment rise to prominence within contemporary opinion, the reliance on more integrated conservational design strategies such as what the atrium offers in the matter of material and energy conservation is more relevant than ever. Yet simply including an atrium space within a building does not guarantee its effectiveness in realizing the potential for sustainable design. By selecting to survey a collection of recently completed academic buildings in Southern Ontario, the thesis aimed to examine what current reality exists in our use of the atrium with regards to its conservational characteristics. By examining the atrium’s ability to integrate sustainable design strategies in three areas: the adaptation into existing buildings and flexible program space; the use of effective daylighting; and the provisions to manage passive air handling; the thesis identified what conservational attributes are present and how often these functions are accomplished within the atrium designs of the selected study group of buildings. Overall it was found that the current trends of conservationism in atria of the studied academic buildings are constant, that is, they do not exhibit growth proportional to the increasing awareness of ‘green’ and sustainable thinking seen in today’s culture. Furthermore, the thesis closes with a concluding critique, providing a discussion surrounding the belief that though the atrium is a possible material and energy conservational tool, much of its success can be attributed to the meticulous planning and holistic approach involved in the execution of successfully resolved atria designs.

The building sector is one of the sectors with the highest energy utilization and is one of the largest sources of CO2 emissions worldwide. At the same time, energy prices in Europe have significantly increased in recent years. For these two reasons, energy efficiency in buildings has become highly relevant for public and private organizations aiming to reduce energy consumption for the operation of buildings and therebyd ecrease their carbon footprint and operation costs for users and owners. This master’s thesis aims to identify areas of opportunity for energy utilization reduction and the implementation of energy efficiency strategies in four buildings of the KTH Campus, owned by Akademiska Hus. First, an energy data analysis of the last years of the operation of the buildings was conducted to identify trends and atypical energy uses. Next, energy audits were performed on the most important energy-consuming equipment and major building facilities to understand the operation conditions and characteristics of electrical, heating, and cooling systems, aiming to identify areas of opportunity for reducing energy use from current operation of the buildings. Subsequently, after understanding the energy use in the four buildings, models of the buildings were created in IDA ICE. The approach involved two steps: first, modeling the buildings’ geometry and adapting their energy consumption to match the patterns identified in the previous data analysis; and secondly, modeling the implementation of energy efficiency strategies on the buildings that aim to improve the findings of the data analysis and energy audits performed previously. These energy efficient models were subjected to energy performance analysis, economic analysis, investment feasibility analysis, among others. The results obtained from the models with energy efficiency strategies showed energy and economic savings that varied from building to building through the automation of lighting systems in the buildings, with an average return on investment of 2.5 years. Likewise, significant savings were achieved by reducing the heating setpoint during nights, causing the district heating usage to differ from the daytime demand, resulting in savings between 5 % and 8 % of the total annual energy use in the buildings, without any required investment. Additionally, the implementation of renewable energy solutions was studied by modeling the use of solar panels in the buildings, leading to a reduction in electrical grid demand between 20 % and 48 %, depending on the available area for the panels, with an average return on investment of 5.5 years. Other strategies were also studied and discussed in this report. In conclusion, this study provides evidence of the energy, economic, and environmental feasibility of different energy efficiency strategies that can be implemented in the buildings of the KTH campus. These strategies contribute to achieving the environmental objectives of Akademiska Hus and KTH. / Byggnadssektorn är en av de sektorer som har högst energianvändning och är en av de största källorna till utsläpp globalt. Samtidigt har energipriserna i Europa ökat avsevärt de senaste åren. Av dessa två skäl har energieffektivitet i byggnader blivit mycket relevant för offentliga och privata organisationer som strävar efter att minska energiförbrukningen för byggnaders drift och därigenom minska deras koldioxidavtryck och driftskostnader för användare och ägare. Denna master avhandlingsyftar till att identifiera möjlighetsområden för minskning av energianvändning samt implementering av energieffektivitetsstrategier i fyra byggnader på KTH Campus, ägda av Akademiska Hus. Först genomfördes en analys av energidata från de senaste åren av byggnadernas drift för att identifiera trender och otypisk energianvändning. Därefter utfördes energirevisioner av de mest betydande energiförbrukande utrustningarna och huvudsakliga byggnadsanläggningarna för att förstå driftsförhållandena och egenskaperna hos elektriska, uppvärmnings- och kylsystem. Syftet var att identifiera möjlighetsområden för att minska energianvändningen från nuvarande drift av byggnaderna. Efter att ha förstått energianvändningen i de fyra byggnaderna skapades modeller av byggnaderna i IDA ICE. Tillvägagångssättet innefattade två steg: först att modellera byggnadernas geometri och anpassa deras energiförbrukning för att matcha de mönster som identifierades i den tidigare dataanalysen. Sedan modellering av implementeringen av energieffektivitetsstrategier på byggnaderna, som syftar till att förbättra resultaten av den tidigare utförda dataanalysen och energirevisionerna. Dessa energieffektiva modeller underkastades analys av energiprestanda, ekonomisk analys, investeringsmöjlighetsanalys, bland andra. Resultaten som erhölls från modellerna med energieffektivitetsstrategier visade på energi- och ekonomiska besparingar som varierade från byggnad till byggnad genom automatisering av belysningssystemen i byggnaderna, med en genomsnittlig avkastning på investeringen på 2.5 år. På samma sätt uppnåddes betydande besparingar genom att sänka uppvärmningsinställningen under nätterna, vilket fick fjärrvärmeförbrukningen att skilja sig från dagtidens efterfrågan och resulterade i besparingar mellan 5 % och 8 % av den totala årliga energianvändningen i byggnaderna, utan någon nödvändig investering. Dessutom studerades implementeringen av förnybara energilösningar genom modellering av användningen av solpaneler i byggnaderna, vilket ledde till en minskning av elnätets efterfrågan med mellan 20 % och 48 %, beroende på tillgänglig yta för panelerna, med en genomsnittlig avkastning på investeringen på 5.5 år. Andra strategier studerades också och diskuterades i denna rapport. Sammanfattningsvis ger denna studie bevis på energi-, ekonomi- och miljömässig genomförbarhet av olika energieffektivitetsstrategier som kan implementeras i byggnaderna på KTH Campus. Dessa strategier bidrar till att uppnå miljömålen för Akademiska Hus och KTH.