Effects of High-Rise Residential Building Shape and Height on the Urban Microclimate in a Tropical Region

Abstract

Todays, undesirable urban microclimates are becoming a major global phenomenon. The microclimate that people concern most is Urban Heat Island (UHI). With that concern, architects, planners, and builders are now aggressively reshaping their part in the formation of urban microclimates. Previous studies have found that there are significant relationships between urban geomorphology and urban microclimate. Rapid urbanization and change in urban development trends have produced variation in urban morphology which can also lead to climate changes. This study explores the effects of high-rise residential building shape and height on urban microclimate in Ara Damansara, a newly developed high-rise residential township in Klang Valley. ENVI-met and ArcGIS software are used to perform the simulation and analysis respectively. Initial results have shown that existing triangle building shape is the best building shape towards improving microclimate within the study area. Findings have also shown that the building shape and height contributed to the urban microclimate. The wind direction loses stability with the increase of building height, but the wind speed tends to increase in between the building blocks. Results also show that potential air temperature reduces with wind speed and increase building height. Generally, this present study proves that increasing building height can simulate the wind speed for better microclimate in high-rise residential in a tropical region. Further research will focus on integrating other elements such as building massing strategy to promote wind direction and wind speed to decrease the air temperature in high-rise residential area.