Bioclimatic Building Design Research Articles

Bioclimatic design of buildings considering heating requirements in Italian climatic conditions. A simplified approach

This paper presents a parametric approach to the definition of a proper building shape compared to the building heating requirement in the very first stage of the design process. A new simplified index is introduced, namely the south exposure coefficient C fs. In fact, as far as bioclimatic architecture is concerned, the relationship between buildings and natural environment is very important both for the control of indoor comfort conditions and energy requirements. The building shape is a fundamental aspect of this relationship. Usually, in thermal behavior analysis this parameter is considered only from the point of view of compactness. This is a reductive approach, because two buildings with the same coefficient could have different shapes and so a different thermal behavior. Some aspects such as orientation, openings, exposure to atmospheric agents and natural elements must also be strictly considered. Moreover, in scientific literature no indications are given to designers who operate in mild and warm climate conditions. This is why the results of a research activity focused on heating requirements of buildings with different shapes and laid in the Italian territory are presented. Monthly calculations have been performed following the quasi-steady-state method suggested in the European standard. Outputs show that better results in the building energy performance can be achieved considering a bioclimatic (though simplified) approach since the very beginning.

Temporal Evolution of the Potential of Passive Cooling Systems for Arid Areas

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of climatic variations on bioclimatic buildings within urban areas, especially in arid zones, and to investigate building bioclimatic variations in relation to their surroundings. This work presents the results of a three-year research project to determine variations in urban temperature and relative humidity in cities in arid areas and implications for bioclimatic design. A case study was conducted in San Juan, Argentina. Variations over 12 years (1993–2004) were recorded including daily maximum, minimum and medium temperature evolution in the core area, as well as variations of the amplitude during the warmest months (December, January and February). The findings show that the average temperature has increased, requiring an increase in building cooling requirements. Simultaneously the thermal amplitude has diminished, requiring a reduction in the potential of night cooling as a strategy to apply in the bioclimatic design of buildings. The average relative humidity has diminished, representing an advantage for passive evaporative cooling systems. These results may be considered for the bioclimatic design of buildings in other warm to hot urban areas in arid zones of increasing temperature and relative humidity. The results also show that climatic global change may be small, but the change in the urban climate is quite significant resulting in necessary modifications to the bioclimatic performance and therefore the bioclimatic design of buildings.

Bioclimatic Design of Tall Buildings

The concept of tall buildings is determined by the level of civilization and technological progress of the countries, where their heights in some regions can exceed 400 meters. With increasing the importance of the public environmental problems and the rapid increase of tall buildings in city centers, it became necessary to study and define how these buildings are compatible to the environment. This research aims at surveying the design considerations of tall buildings in order to study the bioclimatic design of these buildings to satisfy the comfort for the building's users over the year by using passive energy sources, which depend on natural ventilation and the utilization of Sun light. This reduces the energy consumption and the associated emission of carbon dioxide and other pollutants of the surrounding environmental. This research is focused on the study of the design features for tall buildings including service cores (which ensure natural lighting and ventilation for these cores) as well as orientation of the building and defining openings' places in facades (for energy conservation) and natural ventilation (in order to design the spaces in these buildings to move air from outside into inside taking into account the minimum limit of privacy, which is requested by the building's users). This research is concluded by studying the Commerzbank Headquarters Building in Germany being considered one of the examples of bioclimatically-designed tall buildings.

Bioclimatic Building Designs for Different Climates in China

This paper presents the work on developing simple bioclimatic building design charts for five major climatic zones in mainland China. These zones include severe cold, cold, hot summer & cold winter, mild, and hot summer & warm winter. Five cities, namely Changchun, Beijing, Shanghai, Kunming and Guangzhou were selected to represent the five major climates. Six basic design strategies such as conventional heating, passive solar heating, natural ventilation, thermal mass with/without overnight ventilation, evaporative cooling and air-conditioning were considered. Their respective regions were shown on the psychrometric chart. Twelve monthly climatic lines were determined and assessed in relation to the comfort zone and the six design strategy regions. The comfort zone was based on the acceptable range of operative temperatures and humidity for spaces specified in the latest ASHRAE standard 55-2004. Using the bioclimatic charts, discomfort indices were determined and the appropriate climatic control design strategies investigated. It is hope that these basic climate analyses could give architects and engineers a feel for the appropriate design strategies during the initial conceptual design stage when different building schemes are being considered.

Diffusion of bio-climatic building design techniques in Kenya: Impediments and opportunities

As net energy importers, many developing economies cannot sustain high mechanical cooling (or space heating) energy loads needed to achieve thermal human comfort in residential buildings. Unfortunately, bio-climatic building design approaches (such as passive cooling and heating using natural renewable energy sources) are not being widely adopted in these economies despite being proven appropriate and cost-effective methods of reducing commercial energy consumption without reducing significantly thermal comfort in buildings. This paper analyzes the results of a survey conducted in Nairobi on (1) impediments to diffusion, (2) agents and methods of promotion, (3) channels of communication, and (4) the role played by design education and design professions in the diffusion of these design techniques in the housing industry in Kenya. The analysis shows, first, that economic constraints, lack of systematic promotional campaigns, lack of trained manpower, institutional resistance to change, unreliability of the passive design systems, cultural resistance to change, and resistance by design professionals are perceived, in that order, as significant barriers. Second, a mix of interventions from the government, the non-government organizations and the private sector is found to have the highest likely promotional impact. Third, non-literate methods and channels of communication, such as the demonstration projects, are found to be potentially more effective than other methods. Fourth, it is found that the current design education and design practices are not only inadequate but also are discouraging innovation diffusion. Last, some possible strategies for facilitating future diffusion initiatives are discussed. It is hoped that the findings are useful to local diffusion agents, and are an equally invaluable addition to the meager literature on innovation diffusion theory in the housing industries in developing economies.

Strategies for bioclimatic design in an urban area of an arid zone: San Juan (Argentina)

Bioclimatic building design requires accurate site-specific climatic data. Owing to the substantial climatic variations in densely built urban environments with respect to the macroscale suburban terrain (Mazzeo N., 1984. Aplicaciones del diagnóstico climatológico a problemas relacionados con el urbanismo. Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires; Taesler R., 1984. Urban climatological methods and data. World Meteorological Organization, No. 652, Mexico) and taking into account that, in many cases, the available information is gathered by meteorological stations far from actual building sites, an exact study of urban climatic conditions becomes necessary. The objective of the present work is the determination of bioclimatic design strategies for the urban area of San Juan city, taking into account temperature and relative humidity data obtained for this area through mobile measurements.