Living and Comfort Conditions in Heritage Housing: The Inner Courtyard as a Uniting Element in the Cités of Santiago Poniente

Abstract

Heritage buildings represent an essential housing stock that has been available in Santiago de Chile for over a century. However, most of these buildings show sustained deterioration due to lack of maintenance, which creates degrading living conditions for its residents caused by habitability problems. One of these cases is the “cité” typology, which was massively built at the end of the 19th century. The Cité is a group of houses with a continuous facade, with built areas of 50 to 80 m2, connected through a common and private space that provides access to the residences. Currently, the reduced housing area in the city has forced users to occupy the existing courtyards to satisfy their needs. This situation affects interior lighting conditions, thermal control, and air quality. These interventions modify the architectural design into units with only one facade exposed to the exterior environment. Nevertheless, adaptation strategies have become more and more complex due to restrictions on heritage building regulations, which generally do not meet thermal performance or natural light availability. Among the environmental conditions, indoor air quality is a relevant factor and could be related to the progressive deterioration of the residence’s interior conditions, and the health of its residents.The methodology considers data compilation on existing units and energy performance simulations of both original and existing units. Software such as DesignBuilder and a wind tunnel were used to simulate different habitability variables. Results confirm that in the majority of cases studied, indoor air quality is not bad due to air infiltrations as a product of modifications, spontaneous extensions, and building deterioration through the years. However, they show an inadequate thermal performance that does not meet the minimal comfort conditions. Nevertheless, the simulations on original units demonstrate a positive impact of courtyards for reaching ventilation and natural lighting standards. Measurements on-site have shown a beneficial effect from using vegetation in ventilated covered courtyards.