Design criteria for solar access and wind shelter in the outdoor environment

Abstract

Sweden has a cold climate. Designing with climate means providing as much sunshine and wind shelter in the outdoor environment as possible. This paper deals with the efforts to verify suggested design criteria with regard to subjective experience of sunshine and windiness. Like design criteria in general they are based on simplifications. The experience of climate is very complex — can it all be correlated to a calculated amount of sunshine or an average wind speed the way we have proposed? A total of 350 residents on five housing estates in different parts of Sweden have been asked about their experience of the climate in the outdoor environment. The methods used are interviews and questionnaire surveys. Residents' assessments of sunshine have been compared with calculated possible hours of sunshine at equinox. A strong correlation was found. Residents' assessments of windiness have been compared with windiness estimated by a method developed at The National Swedish Institute for Building Research. The comparison gives adequate support for the assumptions, namely, that the wind conditions in a build-up environment in Sweden can be characterized by this method. The suggested wind-speed limits for acceptable conditions appear reasonable in the light of previous research findings and our own plausibility assessments.