Urging Green Retrofits of Building Façades in the Tropics: A Review and Research Agenda

Abstract

Green building development creates many opportunities for meeting the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, most green buildings are new builds rather than retrofitted existing buildings. This may become an impediment for green development progress, as the issues of deforestation and land preservation remain unresolved. Green retrofitting of building façades is one of the most effective passive design strategies and permits perennial benefits for building energy performance, cost savings, and positive environmental impacts. There are a wide range of façade retrofit technologies readily available on the market at relatively low cost that require little installation time and yet can achieve similar energy performance levels as new green buildings. Notwithstanding these advantages, the uptake rates for these are moderately low. The challenges to widely implementing façade retrofitting of Malaysian office buildings are foreseen as holistic and include not just engineering and construction activities, but also social, economic, environmental, and governmental support. This paper aims to review the focus and direction of green development in the Malaysian construction industry and subsequently propose a research agenda for the rapid adoption of green façade retrofitting for local office buildings. The research agenda will commence with a survey on key factors that impede the uptake of green façade retrofitting, and then conducts energy simulations for contemporary green facade technologies (GFTs) using Building Information Modelling (BIM) software. It finally develops a decision-making tool for GFT selection based on simulated energy performance data and the key factors associated with building owners' considerations and expectations of façade retrofitting. The final research output is expected to act as a catalyst to spur green development progress by identifying the real issues faced by the prevailing construction industry.

Passive building design for improving indoor thermal comfort in tropical climates: A bibliometric analysis using CiteSpace

“…The literature reviews accumulated around passive design in hot regions have significantly contributed to the advancement of activities related to this topic. The topics covered in these reviews include a review of intelligent building construction, 26 various designs and modifications of passive solar still, 27,28 passive cooling research, 29,30 energy efficiency characteristics, 31 radiative cooling system, 32,33 natural windcatcher ventilation, 34,35 research in passive structural vibration control, 36,37 green materials for passive cooling systems, 38,39 and research on the use of double-skin facades. [40][41][42] However, none of the literature reviews around passive design in hot regions used the technology of visual bibliometric analysis, which has recently been emerging strongly through knowledge maps to visualize systematic reviews in a specific field.…”

Climate Change and Hygrothermal Performance of Building Envelopes: A Review on Risk Assessment

“…The interactions between building envelopes and climate conditions depend on climate change and the characteristics of components that determine the degradation mechanism (Trechsel, 2001). Consequently, the characterization of climate, building components, and degradation mechanisms significantly determines performance of building envelopes (Hong, Ibrahim, and Loo, 2019). This research focuses on assessing risk of climate impact on hygrothermal performance of building envelopes.…”

Application of Green Retrofitting Ready Mix Concrete Plant in Indonesia to Increase Financial Benefits and Reduce Environmental Issues: A Case Study

“…Opportunities in achieving the United Nations' sustainable development goals are created by green building development (SDGs). However, instead of renovating the old structures, they create new constructions for green buildings (Hong, Ibrahim, & Loo, 2019). Green development is a crucial method to achieve sustainable development.…”