Paragraphs Environmental Design

Construction Period and Office Building Energy Use: A Comparative Analysis of Benchmarking Records

Review Article · Environmental Design · 2024, Volume 2, Issue 2: 26–41

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.24157888

Emirhadi Suganda*

Professor Emeritus, Department of Architecture, Universitas Indonesia

*Correspondence: emirhadisug42@gmail.com

Received: June 2024 | Accepted: August 2024 | Published: September 2024

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Abstract

Construction period is frequently treated as a practical indicator of office building energy performance because it records the historical conditions under which envelopes, services, and regulatory requirements were established. Yet measured benchmarking records do not consistently rank newer offices above older ones, and apparently conflicting findings often concern different fuels, populations, and analytical questions. This article develops a critical integrative comparison of research and public benchmarking documentation published before 1 May 2023. It examines office evidence from New York City, England and Wales, and Seoul, alongside United States national survey and ENERGY STAR documentation. The comparison distinguishes chronological age from construction cohort, operational demand from technical efficiency, and observed associations from intervention effects. Published studies reveal older-stock advantages in some settings, divergent electricity and thermal trends in others, and weak construction-year relationships elsewhere. These patterns cannot be combined into a universal age coefficient. The article proposes a framework that separates stock energy burden, conditional peer performance, and causal evaluation, with explicit attention to metering boundaries, floor-area definitions, survey weights, refurbishment, occupancy, and reporting selection. Construction period emerges as a useful historical descriptor and diagnostic starting point whose interpretation depends on the outcome and comparison population. Its strongest policy use is to organize investigation and identify heterogeneous retrofit opportunities; it is insufficient by itself to rank individual offices, evaluate building codes, or justify replacement of existing stock.

Keywords: office buildings; construction period; energy benchmarking; operational energy; construction cohort; building performance

Citation

Suganda E. (2024). Construction Period and Office Building Energy Use: A Comparative Analysis of Benchmarking Records. Paragraphs Environmental Design, 2(2), 26–41. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.24157888

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