Solar Envelope Assessment in Tropical Region Building Case Study: Vertical Settlement in Bandung, Indonesia

Abstract

Abstract There are many ways to develop building group performance that considering environment. Solar Envelope is just one way. This study tries to develop a building mass with solar envelope model to find the relationship of latitude, period of time in a year, size site, proportions, orientation and form of the condition of site banks in dense area of Bandung City, Indonesia. The maximum buildable volume of the building defined by Solar Envelope to ensure that there is not shading in adjacent site, thereby assuring the availability of solar energy to those sites. After the building mass was developed, the ENVI-Met simulation is used to calculate the microclimate between the building mass in the site, which affect thermal comfort that have to be considered in the outside of building. ENVI-met calculate microclimate from building mass, particularly shape, size and orientation to know the thermal comfort, wind speed and radiation between the buildings. The study concluded solar envelope is possible to be used as a guideline of building form and mass to get optimum solar energy in the site, but it has to be considered to developed building mass in tropical regions such as Bandung, Indonesia, which daylight almost available in a year, Thermal Comfort between building masses is still difficult to achieve. Solar Envelope can be used effectively to access the sun for open space among the buildings but it is difficult to be used to achieve thermal comfort.