Thermal effect of orientation differentiations in a university building in Izmir, Turkey

This paper evaluates current situation of the university building which is considered oriented in the wrong direction,in the campus area of Izmir Institute of Technologyin Izmir, Turkey. The building, which houses the Faculty offices, is used by the Faculty of Architecture. Experience has indicated that cooling loads of the buildingare quite high, as it is oriented with the main design decision of facing the sea panorama along the long axis, lying in north-southerly direction, 11 from north to east. The thermal effect of orientation differentiations should have been considered in the design phase. Yet the building is currently occupied, therefore this study only helps to emphasize the necessity to evaluate the thermal performance of buildings before the construction phase for future designs. It underlines that case-specific climaticfactors should be considered in design decisions.For the analysis of the building, the thermal performanceinterface of Ecotect v5.2 software has been used. First, the existing situation of the building is modeled with the weather data file of Ecotect on Izmir. Then, the model is re-evaluated by three different orientations proposed by the authors. The outcomes of four assessmentsincluding the existing situation are examined and compared with regard to internal air temperatures and energy loads for cooling in the hottest months of year, July and August. In the conclusion, the most potent orientationfor such building in the existing topography and location is proposed.