'The benefits of trees and their potential as

shading devices in the office environment'

Case studies in UK and Greece

By Myrto Koliris

The Bartlett School of Graduate Studies

University College London

A Dissertation submitted in part fulfilment of the

degree of Master of Science Built Environment:
Environmental Design and Engineering

University of London

2003
Abstract

The construction and running of a building has a very important effect upon external
environment. Apart from the aesthetical impact on a local scale , it contributes on a
global scale, particularly effects such as global warming, air pollution and the wastage
of resources.
According to some sources: ‘Buildings account for about 45-50% of delivered energy
use and just under 50% of all CO2 emissions. The U.K itself is responsible for about
3% of global CO2 emissions’.1 After the ’Kyoto Protocol’ (Japan 1997) where eighty
two countries agreed to ‘cut down’ their greenhouse emissions, many countries like
the U.K focused on controlling the energy consumption on the building sector via fiscal
and legislative measures. Offices, are a sector where many of the environmental
measures were put into effect. This has a lot to do with the function of these buildings
being a large source of heat gain and thus consuming a lot of energy in sustaining and
controlling their internal conditions. One sector which contributes to a great extent to
energy consumption is: Mechanical cooling. It is often used even in months where
external temperature is moderate, due to the large production of heat gains from the
people and mechanical equipment. Therefore new ways need to be explored that can
lead to energy reduction.
Current studies performed by various researchers have reported that trees reduce the
air temperature and air conditioning costs of the buildings. ‘Numerical simulations
reported by Gao show that green areas decrease maximum and average temperature
by 2°C, while vegetation can decrease maximum air temperatures in streets by 2°C.
‘…’Another study by Parker reports that trees and shrubs planted next to a South
Florida residential building can reduce summer air-conditioning costs by 40%’ 2.
This potential of cooling reduction by natural means generated the beginning of this
study. The resulting dissertation aims to explore the effect of trees to the office

1
Randal Thomas, ‘Environmental Design’, p.29
2
PJ Littlefair, M Santamouris, S Alvarez, A Dupagne, D Hall, J Teller, J F Coronel,
N Papanikolaou, ‘Environmental site layout planning: solar access, microclimate and passive
cooling in urban areas’, p.22.
environment as well as examine, their potential for the reduction of cooling loads and
increase of comfort conditions.
The monitoring study took place in two countries of different geographical parameters
and climate: United Kingdom and Greece. This assisted the building of an
understanding of the effect of local conditions to the tree’s performance. The
monitoring was focused particularly on the behavior of trees during the summer as a
way of reducing the problem of overheating. This was achieved through three parts:
recording data, a questionnaire survey and 3d- building simulation modeling.
The recording data provided background information on the environment’s internal
and external conditions during a typical summer day. The analysis observed the
extent of the tree shading effect in a matter of temperature, humidity levels, and
distribution of daylight. In addition, a 3d model of each building case complemented
the recording data with information on the shading patterns of the tree at key hours
during the day. During monitoring, questionnaires supplemented the study with the
employee’s point of view on the office’s thermal comfort conditions. Questions on
personal perception studied the role of external vegetation towards the employee’s
productivity and psychology. Finally, having gained an idea on the specific study
cases, TAS 3d modeling was incorporated in order to study the potential of tree-
shading to the reduction of building’s cooling load as well as factors that affect it.