Retrofitting thermal performance of building envelope and extension of Secha Sadan, Bhubaneswar

The built environment is responsible for 40% of the global energy demand. Efforts are to be made in existing buildings, namely in office buildings, which are statistically more energy consuming than residential buildings. One of the main components of achieving a more sustainable built environment is to improve the performance of the existing building stock by retrofitting to increase the energy efficiency and improve quality of life (Low Carbon Innovation Coordination Group 2012). The retrofit of building envelope can help in saving 50–60% of the buildings’ energy consumption used for HVAC purposes. Secha Sadan is a 50 year old government office building in Bhubaneswar. Proposing a building envelope retrofitting for this structure will not only help in reducing the energy consumption of this structure but would also shed light on how this can be implemented in other such existing government office buildings in Bhubaneswar. The existing envelope has been documented and analyzed using U-Value calculations and simulation softwares like OPAQUE and Form it. A number of envelope retrofitting techniques have been studied and shortlisted through literature, desktop and case studies to propose the best strategies. It was found that 40% savings can be achieved by the retrofit strategy implemented. Also the live proposal of an extension of the existing block to accommodate a new division has been taken into consideration. An attempt has been made to design this block appropriately keeping in mind the required thermal performance standards.