Abstract
The design of bottom-overhead (or lift-up) buildings is advantageous in improving the thermal environment of high-density cities and enhancing the comfort level of occupants’ activity space on the ground floor. This study aims to investigate the impact of multiple architectural design variables on the ground floor overhead area of slab-like and tower high-rise residential buildings from the perspective of pedestrian-level thermal comfort with ENVI-met simulations and Standard Effective Temperature (SET*) evaluation. The design variables of the 25 tested models include the number of continuously arranged buildings, aspect ratio, overhead form, overhead space height, positions of overhead space enclosures, and openness degree, derived from existing overhead buildings in Chongqing. The results demonstrate that when the number of continuously arranged buildings and the aspect ratio increase, the overhead area has a more comfortable environmental state, while the overhead height is negatively correlated. In addition, when the enclosures are on opposite sides and their openness degree is 0.75–0.5, the area tends to be more comfortable. For slab-like buildings, the thermal comfort of the partial-overhead form is the worst while the semi-overhead form is relatively better. However, the overhead form has no significant impact on the thermal comfort of tower buildings. These findings can provide some suggestions and inspiration for the design of overhead buildings to create a more sustainable and livable microenvironment.
Highlights
High-density compact cities have well-connected transportation networks and facilitate social interactions, continuously looking to improve economic vibrancy and development vitality [1]
Buildings 2022, 12, 265 of high-rise residential buildings in Chongqing, this paper summarizes the crucial design variables of overhead buildings: building configuration, number of buildings continuously arranged, aspect ratio, overhead form, overhead space height, overhead space enclosure position, and openness degree
Based on the comparison with the benchmark building models, for cases of the SB models, the Ta difference between the complete-overhead form and the semi-overhead form is small with a close representative Ta value
Summary
High-density compact cities have well-connected transportation networks and facilitate social interactions, continuously looking to improve economic vibrancy and development vitality [1]. The dense, congested arrangement of high-rise buildings seriously affects the urban climate: the “wall resistance effect” abates the penetration of natural wind into the city [2,3,4], which directly causes the formation of weak wind circulation near the ground of urban high-rise residential areas with poor ventilation and the exacerbation of the pedestrian-level wind thermal comfort [5,6,7]. Many studies have indicated that the overhead ground floor of buildings can introduce fresh air [8,9,10,11,12,13,14], promote air circulation, and speed up the removal of moisture and heat, thereby ameliorating the thermal environment [15,16,17,18,19,20]. A more exemplary identification of the influence factors of the overhead floor environment is necessary for inspiring more appropriate designs
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