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Urban courtyards are well known for their potential thermal performances in vernacular urban morphology. Furthermore, in a more general approach considering various cities and locations, new building uses, and climate changes, a correct courtyard design requires an accurate understanding of the complex interactions between buildings and their surroundings. This study aims to develop tools and processes to optimize the design of these urban courtyards. A microclimate model is developed and integrated in a building simulation software (TRNSYS) to evaluate the thermal microclimatic conditions of courtyard building, and their heating and cooling energy demand. A specific zonal model is developed for the local courtyard microclimate, which is coupled with a previously developed thermoradiative model. Indoor conditions are modeled by the multizone building model of TRNSYS. This methodology is used to investigate the microclimatic influence of different courtyard morphology on their thermal behavior in three different climates (hot, temperate and cold). An extended study on the impact of courtyard aspect ratios has been carried out. In order to optimize the courtyard heating and cooling energy needs, a multiple regression analysis was further used to develop the fast prediction model and then select the non-dominated solutions using pareto efficiency. The results suggest optimal morphology in order to enhance the energy performance of the courtyard, from which square shape is more advantageous in cold climates (reduced heating energy needs by approximately 48%), while the deep and less wide shape is more advantageous for hot and arid climates (reduced the cooling energy needs by about 10%). For temperate climate, the shape guaranteeing minimum energy needs and, in all seasons, is the one with less width and medium depth (allowing a reduction in energy needs of about 58%). • An outdoor zonal approach coupled with a BES was developed. • Courtyard air temperatures of the developed model were compared to CFD results. • A parametric study was performed for 100 courtyard designs with different climates. • A multiple regression analysis was used to optimize the courtyard energy needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Identified traditional and novel building cooling strategies. • Studied the resilience of cooling strategies under heatwaves and power outages. • Developed new definitions and descriptions of resilience characteristics. • Evaluated cooling strategies qualitatively, according to the newly developed resilient capacities. • Combinations of cooling strategies may be needed to obtain resilient cooling. The global effects of climate change will increase the frequency and intensity of extreme events such as heatwaves and power outages, which have consequences for buildings and their cooling systems. Buildings and their cooling systems should be designed and operated to be resilient under such events to protect occupants from potentially dangerous indoor thermal conditions. This study performed a critical review on the state-of-the-art of cooling strategies, with special attention to their performance under heatwaves and power outages. We proposed a definition of resilient cooling and described four criteria for resilience—absorptive capacity, adaptive capacity, restorative capacity, and recovery speed —and used them to qualitatively evaluate the resilience of each strategy. The literature review and qualitative analyses show that to attain resilient cooling, the four resilience criteria should be considered in the design phase of a building or during the planning of retrofits. The building and relevant cooling system characteristics should be considered simultaneously to withstand extreme events. A combination of strategies with different resilience capacities, such as a passive envelope strategy coupled with a low-energy space-cooling solution, may be needed to obtain resilient cooling. Finally, a further direction for a quantitative assessment approach has been pointed out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]