A multidimensional performance analysis of office buildings with highly glazed facades has been made in order to analyse the energy and economic performance of those buildings in a Mediterranean climate. A total of 1260 different cases covering a broad range of transparent office facade typologies were simulated in the climate of Barcelona. 6 different commonly used glazed facade designs were compared to a more traditional opaque facade solution used as a reference. Other variables to define the case studies were the glazing solution, the orientation, the shading from surrounding environment as well as the shading from fixed and movable elements mounted on the building itself. A series of building management optimization strategies were also studied. The analyses were made by using both thermal and daylighting simulation tools. Results were then analyzed from both an energy use and economic point of view using a simple, custom-made graphical representation to help quickly identify the problems inherent to each study case. One of the major findings of our study is that, in the Mediterranean climate, transparent buildings will always have a worse overall economic performance than opaque buildings due to the increased investment cost required for transparent designs to reach, only in the best cases, the same energy performance levels as opaque designs.
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